NEWS BY CABLE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3398, 30 April 1919, Page 36

NEWS BY CABLE.

DIVORCING LITTLE WILLY. The Grand Duchess Anastasia, of Meek-lenburg-Sehwerin, replying to a report that the German ex-Crown Prince intends applying for a divorce, sent a statement to the Swiss newspapers that her daughter had commenced divorce proceedings against the ex-Crown Prince, and was able to prove numerous infidelities, atrocious brutality, and grossest cruelty, including blows by which her face was disfigured. The Princess had long desired a divorce, but the Hohenzollerns dissuaded her owing to the scandal that would follow. On one occasion the Princess fled from home owing to her husband's cruelty, and was arrested at the Swiss frontier, taken back to Berlin like a common criminal. A GAY LOTHARIO. Landru, who has been arrested for the murder of ...women, is an educated man, possessing the . diplomas of-., science and literature, arid he . was well supplied with money. Besides his villa, he had two houses, near Paris, a flat in Paris, and two garages, which were used for fraudulent traffic. He has a wife and four children. He used a dozen aliases, and has served terms of imprisonment. The police discovered a dossier in one of his garages, wherein were 10 envelopes, each containing a name and a date, a photograph, and a lock of hair of the supposed victim's, including three who are known to be missing. The neighbours at various times noticed bonfires in the gardens of Landru's houses, where heaps of cinders, a blood-stained cord mattress, and other inculpatory evidences were discovered. SHIPPING FUSION. Rumours are current in the city of further shipping fusions, including the Cunard with the Peninsular and Oriental Company. RABIES IN ENGLAND. There are 140 reported cases of rabies in England and Wales, and it is spreading rapidly into the metropolitan district. A dog attacked a family in the London suburbs, and the cat drove the dog from the house, thereby,, it is believed, saving the mistress's life. THE TROUBLE IN KOREA. Despatches from Tokio state that 20 Christians were killed wdien the Koreans and the Japanese police clashed near Seoul. The Japanese Embassy, states . that the reports from Seoul are exaggerated. The total casualties in the whole of Korea are 351 killed and 135 wounded. MISCELLANEOUS. The American visible wheat supply is 73.416,000 bushels. The Bank of South Africa has presented £IO,OOO to the Capetown University. During Socialist disorders in Rome a soldier and four civilians were killed and several injured. It is reported that there is a Soviet revolution in Turkey. The Board of Trade has again gra,nted permission to import wine without license. The Prince of Wales has been elected a member of the Joekev Club.

It- is reported that the Prince of Wales will shortly become „a Freemason, and that the Duke of Connaught will conduct the initiation.

The United States Government as recognised the British Protectorate over Egypt. Nasrillah, the Amir of Afghanistan, has been sentenced to imprisonment for life for complicity in the Amir's murder. The actual assassin was executed.

The New York Herald's Washington correspondent states that Major-general Squier, of the linted States army, transmitted eight telegraph and 11 tolephono messages simultaneously over a single wire by the application of the radio. "A Los Angeles message announces that Dr Bari.uger Cox, Government radio expert, has discovered a method of artificially producing radio activity at a small cost in any quantity desired. General Hertzog and other members of the South African Nationalist Delegation have arrived. Hertzog declined to discuss the clans and prospects of the delegation, wishing to represent the case direct to the British Government. A chemical and metallurgical corporation, with a capital of £1,200,000, has been registered to acquire F. E. Elmore's new process plant for dealing with lead and

zinc ores. It is' believed that the process will be particularly.adapted to Broken Jhi.. ores. The purchase price was £I,OOO,CCO in shares and £55,00U in cash. AUSTRALIAN NEWS. A meat famine threatens New South Wales owing to the drought. Record winter prices are expected. Corporal Poulson is arrested and charged with murdering Private Emmett. Fifteen Shorthorn stud bulls, originally intended for the Royal Show, have been sold on behalf of Mr M'Lean, of Hawke's Bay. They averaged 136 gs. Corbett St. John King, a New Zealander, an inmate of the Callan Park Asylum, died from a fractured skull, the result of being attacked by another inmate with a shovel. Premier Lee, of Tasmania, in a policy speech, outlined a scheme for State-owned cargo steamers, State insurance, housing and industrial legislation, and broadening the scope of the Wages Board. A Japanese squadron has arrived at Fremantle. It will visit New Zealand later. COMMONWEALTH SHIPPING LINE. Shipping circles consider that the report of the Repatriation" Committee of the Peace Conference on the restoration of merchant shipping will sound the death knell of the Commonwealth •Government line, and that it is only a question of time when the Government will drop the ship-owning business. SHOT BY THE GUARD. While an armed guard was convoying eight military prisoners to the train for Sydney the jurisoners attacked the guards. A desperate struggle followed, and one man (Private Jemmett), on refusing to desist, was shot dead by the guard. A HOUSING SCHEME. The State Government is launching a comprehensive housing scheme. It is proposed to build houses to let; to build homes for those desiring to purchase on the instalment system; to assist people to erect, homes for themselves in chosen districts, and also finance the purchase of houses already occupied; to assume the financial responsibility of the Starr-Bow-kett societies in order to allow members to participate in the ballot, and to arrange for the conversion of life insurance assets in order to devote them to house-purchas-ing propositions. HANGED FOR MURDER. Percival Budd, believed to be a New Zealander, was executed at Adelaide on the 24th for the murder of Harold Jaques. The murdered man, a motor car owner, left a note for his wife on November 22 last year stating that he had been engaged to drive a man to Crystal Brook, about 150 miles north of Adelaide. Ho took with him a kit bag and some money. He did not return. Percival William Budd, an ironworker, about 23 years of age, living at Port Pirie with a Mr Jamea Brown, obtained permission to put up a motor garage in. the yard. He began by digging a deep trench, which he Mr Brown was intended to act as a pit, so that he could get under the motor. On November 25 Budd said he was going to Crystal Brook with a man whose motor car he intended to buy. He returned with a car which he said he had purchased. Suspicion falling upon him owing to possession of the car and the non-return of Jaques, the police visited the place where he lived, and on digging some 6ft discovered the body of Jaques, fully clothed, in a decomposed condition, with the head battered as if from blows from behind. A piece of iron 15in .long with a formidable head and a strap at the end, a. kit bag containing clothing, a man's hat, a woollen rug, and ■ a fibre mat were also unearthed. _ Jaques, who was 38 years of age, left a widow and three children, the youngest born after his death.