BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

Otago Witness, Issue 3123, 28 January 1914, Page 24

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

' LONDON, January 19. j Sievier has withdrawn all the imputa- j lions leading up to the recent blackmail prosecution, and both parties have agreed to abstain from mutual libellous attacks. ; The Judge concurred, and Sievier was discharged. j Mr Asquith has returned to London, j He was shadowed from France by Scot- j land Yard detectives, and several were on the platform to protect him on uis | arrival. j The Right Hon. Jesse Collings, M.P., , who is in his eighty-third year, will- not j contest his Birmingham seat at the next general election. j January 20. j Inspector Ghose, who was prominent in political cases at Calcutta, was shot dead in the street. A student has been arrested. The public have fully subscribed to the Victorian loan. The evidence resulting from the shooting affray in Paris indicates that there are numbers of Turkish political fanatics | there, constituting a danger to the an- j tagonists of the Young Turks. It is impossible to ascertain their actual relations with the Government. | ~The steamer Lusitania, when homeward j bound, encountered the brigantine Mayflower in a sinking condition. The firgt : officer (Mr Alexander), with a volunteer crew, launched a lifeboat, but it was im- 1 possible to reach the sinking vessel. They, j however, threw a line and lifebelts, and rescued the crew, in spite of a raging sea. The Royal Society of Arts has awarded the Swiney prize, of the value of £IOO, and a cup valued at the same sum, to Mr John Salmond, Solicitor-general, New Zealand, for his work on jurisprudence. Miss Ellen Terry will make a Shakespearean lecture tour of Australia and New Zealand, commencing in Melbourne in April. Earl Caledon* has sold the portrait of Thomas Cromwell to Messrs Agnew for £30,000. Immigrants sent to Australia in 1913 numbered 23,468 males, 20,142 females, and 13,289 children. It is understood that Mr Eunciman, replying to the Margarine Conference’s request for a further interview, said that he had already heard the views of Australia and New Zealand, and he was not disposed to reopen the question. January 21. The Anglican Central Board of Missions has collected £1,041,000 in support of its Various activities in 1913. It is estimated

that £1,251,000 will be required for 1914. Following the rubber importers’ example, the principal pearl shell importers have notified their buyers that the discount of 2g per cent, will not be allowed after the beginning of July. Thirty years’ comparison of English railway speeds shows an improvement ranging from 5 to 15 per cent. The fastest average is between London and Bath, where it is 59 miles an hour. It is officially reported that the total applications for the Victorian loan amounted to £4,546,700. January 22. Several butchers have been fined for selling chilled meat as prime English. The Grocers’ Review asks why the Agent-general did not call provincial witnesses to the butter inquiry. If the report was to be unbiassed, witnesses from Manchester, Liverpool, Hull, Bristol, and Belfast should have been called. The Liberal-Unionist and Conservative Executive for West Birmingham has selected Mr Austen Chamberlain to succeed his father as their representative. The Empire Press Union has submitted a statement to the Dominions Royal Commission declaring that a State-owned Atlantic cable is necessary in the highest interests of the Empire for the interchange of news. The Daily Express is giving prominence of the movement to export boy farm labourers for New South Wales and Victoria. Many applications and inquiries are being received. At a meeting of men in Queen’s Hall to promote purity of thought and deed, Prebendary Webster urged the necessity for an alteration in the present-day dress. He hardly knew what to do sometimes when he found himself in an omnibus opposite some lady who wore an open dress. It was most disturbing, and sowed the seeds of passion in men. It was not right that when walking through the public streets or riding on public conveyances men should be subjected to these unseemly exposures. Sir Oliver Lodge, at the Institution of Electrical Engineers, suggested that the control of the electrical conditions of the atmosphere might be the proper line of research to follow in any attempt to control the weather. Experiments ought to be made as to the effect, in countries where rain is required, of flying kites at a high elevation, and by that means discharging into the clouds sufficient electricity to start a rainfall. January 24. There are rumours of an impending Indian loan of £10,000,000. Mr Bennet Burleigh, the well-known Avar correspondent, is critically ill.

, Mr Lloyd George postponed his speech at Glasgow on Wednesday until the Cabinet meeting decides the question of the Navy Estimates. Seventeen degrees of frost have been registered in England. It is probable that many County Council schools will be closed if the frost continues. / January 25. The Edinburgh Court of Session declared the late Miss Kippen’s will valid. She bequeathed the half of her £IO,OOO estate to the brothers Redmond, and the other half to Mr Keir Hardie for the Labqur party. The court refused to decide whether the money w 7 as given to the Nationalists. The judge said that it seemed to be left to the Redmonds personally. January 26. The committee appointed by the Home Office to deal w r ith' the question of fires in coal mines recommends that whenever the temperature in any accessible part attains 110 degrees Fahrenheit the fact should be reported to the inspector of mines. The gun control on the cruiser Invincible is being converted from electrical to hydraulic at a cost of £114,000. PARIS, January 19. Abbe Le Maire, the Radical Republican who was elected to the Vicepresidency of the Chamber of Deputies, has now 7 resigned. January 21. A dancing master, considering his interests attacked by Cardinal Amette’s condemnation of the tango dance, is suing that prelate for £4OOO damages. January 22. The municipality has borrowed £BOO,OOO to erect hygienic cheap dwellings that will ultimately be available for 60,000 people. The municipality is empowered to incur an expenditure of £6,000,000 in improving the housing accommodation. The Atlantic shipping companies have re-formed their association, and are excluding the Hamburg-Amerika Line, whose claims were rejected. The agreement terminates on the 31st inst. January 23. The committee which was entrusted with the study of the question of revictualling the fortified camps of Paris reports that if mobilisation were ordered the railways , would be entirely monopolised, military j communication with the provinces cut off, 1 and the city starved after four days. January 25. President Poincaire attended an impressive State funeral of General Picquart at the Perelechise Cemetery. Major Dreyfus was present.

January 26. The steeplechaser Lutteur 111, the winner of the Grand National Steeplechase in 1909, who has latterly been a cripple, has been treated with radium, and is now fit. As the outcome of a gambling incident at the Paris Jockey Club six aristocratic members have been summoned before tjie magistrate. BERLIN, January 19. Two Englishmen who were reputed *o possess jewels worth £20,000 were staying at a Munich hotel. Some Russian and Norwegian thieves took the adjoining room, and attempted to introduce a halfstarved python into the Englishmen’s rooms, hoping to secure the jewels during the ensuing panic. The truck did not work; both the thieves and the python were captured. January 21. A man struck a woman accomplice on the face in a cafe. Two American diamond merchants intervened and a free fight ensued, during which the woman stole the bags containing £IO,OOO worth of gems. January 22. The police raided the premises of many tobacco firms at Dresden, and claim to have discovered evidence of extensive ramifications by the American tobacco trust. Messi's Siemens, Shuckert, and Co., in reply to Richter’s allegations, point out that all their naval business in Japan is done through native agents on commission. They deny paying any commission, direct or indirect, tn Japanese officials. Richter’s attempt at blackmail was immediately reported to the prosecutor and the Japanese Government. M. Delbruck, speaking in the Reichstag, said the existing protective duties must be maintained. German agriculture, in particular, must continue to enjoy its present protection. There was no occasion for Germany to denounce any of the 1906 commerical treaties. As the result of an appeal, the sentences of the minor offenders in connection with the Krupp scandal have been considerably reduced. Six torpedoes for Greece have been completed at Stettin. Six children who were returning home at Weinhert were overtaken by a heavy snowstorm. They took refuge in a cave in the side of a cliff, where they were afterwards found frozen to death. January 25. A master slater, a widower, at Breslau, turned on the gas at night time, killing himself, two sons, a daughter, a sister, and a niece. Philip Hohenlohe Schilling Furst, a kinsman of the Kaiser, secretly married Henrietta Gindra, a Vienna tradesman’s daughter.

f The North German Lloyd steamer Wilhelm der Grosse is to be converted entirely into a third class or steerage steamer. BERNE, January 26. j While a farmer’s family at St. Gall were dining an avalanche fell, and the violent displacement of air tore the doors from their hinges and swept the inmates j 40ft into the garden. They were not in- : jured. The avalanche then fell on the farmhouse, wrecking it. LISBON, January 19. ' Three trains were derailed owing to strikers unbolting the rails. Some passengers and soldiers were injured. VIENNA, January 25. ■ ! A Roman Catholic dignitary, in the course of a pastoral letter to his coreligionists in the army and navy, says ; that luxury, extravagance, and the search | for pleasure are every day attaining greater dimensions, and constitute a. serious menace to the well-being of the individual and the family. Modern dances and other forms of amusement do not aim at beneficial relaxation, but tend to the excitement of the senses, while the majo- ! rity of .he theatres disseminate immorality. Field-marshal Fekete, commander of the Budapest garrison, has announced that women had overstepped the furthest limits of propriety in appearing in slit skirts. Military men must therefore inform the women of their own families that those wearing these will not be permitted to attend military functions, j ATHENS, January 23. An earthquake wrecked a portion of the fortress and three houses at Lepanto. 1 Every house in the town was damaged. TANGIER, January 24. 1 M. Valdsome, who is the French Viceconsul, was giving a party, but, finding no dinner for his guests, dismissed the cook for drunkenness. The cook fired three shots from a revolver at M. Valdsome, who fell dead in a guest’s arms. CAIRO, January 22. ! The Khedive opened the new Assembly in great state. In his speech he testified to the electors’ eagerness to exercise their 1 rights and their appreciation of the new institution. NEW YORK, January 20. I At Macalister, Oklahoma, armed with 1 revolvers, three prisoners attempted to ' escape from the State penitentiary. The guards fired, and a battle ensued. The i prisoners were killed and also three guards and ex-Judge Thomas, .who was visiting | the gaol when the escape was attempted. The Wisconsin State law providing for the issue of marriage certificates only to those showing a clean bill of health has been declared unconstitutional by the judge sitting in the Circuit Court. The

case, which involves a decision as to the legality of the so-called eugenics law, will now go to appeal in the United States Supreme Court. January 24. Women’s courts have been inaugurated at St. Louis to try cases where women and girls are involved and for minor offences. Two women judges have already been appointed. Colonel Goethals has promised to become the head of the New York police after the Panama Canal is finished, if the President allows him to retire and he is given absolute control. The President is surprised at the announcement, stating that he intended Colonel Goethals to become the first Governor of the canal zone. January 25. Sir Forbes Robertson bade farewell to the American stage at the Manhattan Opera House. There was a storm of enthusiasm. Professor Taylor, of Pennsylvania, maintains that we want to eat more than we did 20 years ago in order to keep the body shapely and fill the place of the clothing previously worn, while we also require more heat because our clothes are thinner. PHILADELPHIA, January 20. An extraordinary murder case resulted in a life sentence being imposed on William Eberwein, who was accused of the murder of his wife. He declared that his wdfe was a permanent invalid. One day she fell over the stairs, and was lying in agony at the bottom. She begged him to kill her and put her out of her suffering. Eberwein refused at fust, but knowing that doctors were .useless, he took up a board and struck her on the head until she was dead. The judge imposed the minimum penalty of life imprisonment, OTTAWA, January 19. A dynamite explosion occurred prematurely on the Canadian Northern Railway construction works at Ross Point (Quebec), killing eight workers. Two labourers narrowly escaped a similar fate. The accident occurred when blowing up some rock. January 21. An explosion wrecked the heating apparatus in a huge cement pavilion used in connection with the Ottawa Winter Exhi-

bition. Four persons were killed instantly. The wreckage is being removed. It is expected that other bodies will be found. January 23. The Government of Newfoundland has granted a company a concession to use one million horse-power from the water power at the Grand Falls, Labrador, for the generation of electricity and the extraction of nitrogen from the atmosphere for use as a fertiliser. VANCOUVER, January 20. The Premier of Saskatchewan, the Hon. Walter Scott, is en route to New Zealand for a lengthy holiday.