NEWS BY CABLE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3595, 6 February 1923, Page 40

NEWS BY CABLE.

POISONED CHOCOLATES. Walter Francis Tatam was charged at. Bow l Street in connection with the recent attempt to poison Sir William Horwood, head of the Metropolitan Police, by means of poisoned chocolates. Giving evidence of the arrest of the accused, a police officer stated that Tatam rushed down stairs, talking incoherently and brandishing a, swordstick. 110 was overpowered. Chocolates and chocolate box cards identical with these sent to the police headquarters were found in Tatarn’s possession. Witness admitted that he Knew Tatam was once detained as a certified lunatic. Tatam was remanded for medical examination. A VALUABLE INVENTION. A Lancashire miner, through the use of a larger and heavier lamp, giving an intenser and more diffused light than the standard lamp, increased his output, by lo per cent. GAS SUICIDES. Further gas poisonings have occurred in London. A girl of nine was found dead in bed at Wormwood Scrubs. The leakage is unaccountable, as the gas tap was turned off. A further epidemic of gas suicides seems to be setting in. It has possibly been fostered by the wide publicity given to fatal gas poisonings, suicidal and otherwise. Three women were found dead in London two with their heads in ovens, and the third with the end of a gas tube in her mouth. STREET WORKERS’ ESCAPE. Imprisoned in a 1211 deep hole in a London street by a fallen 'horse, three workmen passed 20 minutes in fear of being kicked to death by the struggling animal or gassed from a damaged gas main. I he horse slipped into a hole under the tram lines made to repair the main, and knocked one man to the bottom. The others dug under the main so as to reach comparative safte.y in the space behind it —18in wide. Here they crouched in the darkness on top of each other. Eventually a plank was passed down, and on it they scrambled. out above the horse, which had been given morphine to stop its struggles. REVISING THE PRAYER BOOK. The proposals to condense the Ten Commandments and to revise the Prayer Book induced a specially large atendance at the opening of the Church of England Assembly. The Primate announced that revision could not be discussed till it had been referred to separate sittings of the houses of bishops the clergy, and the laity. DOMESTIC TRAGEDY. A domestic tragedy is reported from Paris. Jean Estenave. a respectable man, who has been married for 18 years walked into the police station and said; “I have strangled my wife.” Inquiries show that all went well for 16 years, until the wife received an anonymous letter stating that her husband was false to her. She threatened to kill him, and many disputes followed. In December the wife received a second letter, by which the domestic trouble was intensified. The wife would not allow her husband to sleep, scratching his face to keep him awake, and make him answer questions. When a third anonymous letter was received last Wednesday the wife said she would avenge herself with, vitrol. In a sudden impulse of fear and anger the husband seized her by the throat and strangled her. He then dressed himself in his best clothes, and went to the police. KING’S PROCfTOR INTERVENES. Mr Justice Hill, in the Divorce Court to-day, rescinded the decree nisi granted Lady Maxwell-Willshire. formerly a London'comedy actress against her husband, Sir G. A. Maxwell-Willshire, whom she married in. Melbourne, where she was appearing in “Kismet.” No answer was filed to the allegation of the King’s Proctor that she had committed misconduct. Counsel, for the King’s Proctor alleged that the petitioner was living with a man named George Higgs in a London flat at the very time she filed the petition complaining of her husband’s misconduct. DESIGNS ON PROMINENT FRENCHMEN. At the inquiry into the death of M. Plateau (editor of Action Francaise, who was shot dead by a woman anarchist), it was stated that a plot was discovered, the object of which was not only the murder of M. Plateau, but also of M. Poincare and M. Lefevre, an ex-Minister of War, who has been writing anti-German newspaper articles. M. Lefevre says that a foreign organisation is responsible for the plot. ITALIAN BANK ROBBED. Bonds, payable to bearer, worth more than £40,000 were stolen from a bank at Scheggri, says the Rome correspondent of the Weekly Despatch. Thieves forced the doors, and avoiding the automatic alarms, opened a safe, using a circular saw. A girl of 14. the dughter of the porter, is suspected of complicity in the robbery. WOMAN MARINE ENGINEER. Th,ere will not be any more women ship engineers, according to Mr Boots, the secretary of the Marine Workers’ Union, commenting on the return from Australia of Miss Drummond as an engineer aboard the Anchises. The owners wished to enable her to qualify for an engineer’s ticket, said Mr Boots, but there is no chance of the experiment being repeated. “Women are not substitutes for men in the engine-room at sea,” added Mr Boots. “Miss Drummond wore trousers like the men, but she was only a sort of cadet, and she is not- likely to go to sea again.” REDUCED BEER CONSUMPTION. The Ministry of Agriculture advises hopgrowers to limit the production for the current year, as the consumption of beer h«3 been reduced to approximately half tho pre-war amount. There were now 27,000 acres under hops, compared with 36,000 before tho war; consequently if average croi>s are produced there will lie a considerable surplus over brewers’ re-

quirements. It is also estimated that IOO.OCOcwt of the 1922 crop, was left on frowers’ hands after the brewers’ needs were filled. AX HISTORIC FARM. The farm of Ellisland (near Dumfries), where Robert Burns resided from 1788 to 1791, has been given to the Scottish people under the will of the late George Williamson. an Edinburgh merchant. Ihe farm will be handed over to the Burgh of Dumfries to be maintained as a centre of interest in the poet. MR LLOYD GEORGE. Mr Lloyd George and party and leading Gibraltar and Algeeiras officials witnessed a bull fight at Los Jiarrios. No bulls were killed .yid no horses injured. The Governor of Algeeiras toasted Mr Lloyd George and the great British nation. Mr Lloyd George toasted King Alphcnso. KU KLUX KLAN'S THREAT. Following the destruction by fire of the .convent of Notre Dame Bon Cornel at Lake St. John, which was spuposedly caused by anti-Oatholie incendiaries- the Mother Superior at St. Joseph’s Catholic Orphanage in Fort William. Ontario received a threat to burn the institution, signed “Ku Khix Klan.’’ HOME FOR ARMENIANS. J- Husted (member of the United States House of Representatives) introduced a resolution asking for a 25,000,000 dollars’ appropriation for the transport of Armenians vvtio are fleeing to their new homes in ooutn-wfcst Russia which .Soviet Russia has offered. IIARSH treatment by moors. A message from Meliliu. says that General Navarro and other high officers, who were captured by the Moors on the occasion of tne Spanish disaster last year, have been lansomed and have arrived at Melilla. They were treated in the hardest manner during •leir captivity. General Navarro was emp oyed in carrying stones and other material tor the construction of roads and houses, rte was chained to a wall at night with an iron ring round his neck. A number of tile prisoners died from neglected wounds and others succumbed to the bastinado. A RESEARCH INSTITUTE. lhe Cambridge University Senate Council recommends the acceptance of the offer of the Ministry of Agriculture and other Government departments of -£55,000 for the establishment of a research institute for the study of pathology in regard to animal diseases. AN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE. The Council of the League of Nations is convoking for October 15 an international conference to consider the simplification of the method of collecting Customs dues and the general application of Customs legislation. the United States, German, and Mexican chambers of commerce will be invited, in addition to the members. CANADA AND CHINA. Dr Chi Lien-Sun, Chinese Consul-general for Canada, is en route from Peking to Ottawa to complete negotiations for a trade and immigration treaty. China demands freedom of entry for merchants, students, and bankers, and will give preferential trade facilities. It is understood that Canada is willing to accept an undertaking that China will prohibit the emigration of coolies on condition that Canada abolishes the 500dol entry tax. NEGLIGENCE KILLS PATIENT. George Nichols, a former soldier, underwent an operation in July on his abdomen at a Ministry of Pensions hospital near Liverpool. He complained afterwards of pain in the abdomen, and died on December 27. A post-mortem examination showed that a piece of gauze a foot long and eight inches wide, used as a swab, had been left in the body after the operation. At the inquest a verdict was recorded of death from misadventure by cistitis, accelerated by negligent omission to withdraw the gauze. A doctor said that a leading Liverpool surgeon operated. A crisis arose in the middle of the operation owing to terrific bleeding and shock to the man s system. If was the sister’s duty to count the swabs before and after use. The witness added that he regarded the oversight as a “recognised” accident of surgery. “A PAINFUL DUTY.” In sentencing an Australian ex-soldier. •John. Sea brook, to one year in the Second Division, for attempting to steal £195 from the Norwood Post Office, the Recorder Sir Ernest Wild, said: “It is a painful duty to sentence a man who has served the Kinoand the Empire so well, but there has been a recrudescence of such offences.” A detective gave Seabrook the highest character. Accused had served in France, where he had been wounded in the head! He had a good army record. Seabrook carried a harmless toy pistol when he was He said that he was “down and out or he would not have done it. His Counsel said the accused had been gassed in France, and, being unable to withstand the heat in Australia, had come to England. He had been unable to find employment, however. OBITUARY. The death is announced of Lord Arthur Fitzgerald Kinnaird, K.T. 1914, F.R.G.S., D.L. who was Lord High Commissioner to the Church of Scotland from 1907 to 1909 inclusive, was born on February 16. 1847. He was treasurer and helper of many philantrophies, and was president of the Y.M.C. A. His eldest and his third son were killed in action in the war. The death is announced of Mr Frederic Harrison, the distinguished author and publicist, at the age of 91 years. Mr Frederic Harrison was one of the founders of English Positivism, and for 25 years was president of the English Positivist Committee. A man of strong physique, Mr Harrison was a noted climber, and in 1908 ho published “My Alpine Jubilee.” GENERAL ITEMS. Mr James Darbyshire Tyldesley, the cricketer, died under an anaesthetic in a Bolton nursing home. The London police have banned Margii#ri(e’s hook “La Garoonne,” declaring it indecent.

Mr Bonar Law has declined to accede to Mr Ramsay MacDonald's request to summon Parliament before the date previously fixed. As a result Gf protests from the public, the managers of the music-halls in Paris have decided to engage no more German artists. __J he birth-rate for 1922 in England and Wales was 20.6 the lowest ever recorded except in the period from 1915 to 1919. Tim Weekly Dispatch states that loudsounding voice transmitters have been ordered for Buckingham Palace to enable the King’s voice to be broadcasted to his subjects on special occasions. The Rome correspondent of the Daily Mail reports that a gigantic marble statue of Pope Pius X. weighing more than 18 tons was placed in position on St. Peter’s Basilica, The directors of the British World Trade Expeditions have purchased the O-rontes for a tour of the world as a floating exhibition. A New Zealander named Walter Anderson, aged 35 tears, was fatally blown up in London while experimenting in connection with kinema mutors. At a meeting of Liberal peers, Lord Buxton presiding, a motion by Lord Buckmaster and Viscount Wimborne was carried in favour of uniting the Liberal members of the Opposition in the House of Lords. The meeting invited Viscount Grey to assume the leadership. Captain Wyciiffe Booth,- the second son of General Bramwell Booth, will marry Captain Renee, daughter of Commissioner Beyron, who is the leader of the Salvation Army in France, on February 12. The United States Department of Commerce has learnt irom Chinese sources tha the British Government has decided to remit the balance of the Boxer indemnity of approximately 60,0G0,000d0l for mutually beneficial purposes. 'The London Daily Mail announces that it has absorbed the bulletin published in the Canard liners. It will transform it into an Atlantic edition, published daily, with news by wireless and directed by competent journalists. Preliminary steps are being taken to call an international conference by telephone. The president, of the Institute of Eie Irmal Engineers says that the work could be handed to one firm, or done through an international commission. He does not foresee any language difficulties.