OVERNIGHT CABLES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18959, 4 January 1930, Page 7

OVERNIGHT CABLES.

(United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) French Army Staff. PARIS, January 3. General Weygand has been appointed to succeed General Debeney as Chief of the French Military Staff. Cathedral Damaged. LQNDON, January 3. During a gale which reached a velocity of 91 miles ail hour at Liverpool, SO miles an hour at Glasgow and 71 miles an hour at Southport, a pinnacle was blown off the west front of York Minster, 15cwt of masonry crashing 2SO feet to the ground. Duke Engaged. LONDON, January 3. Sir Frederick Ponsonby’s daughter, Loelia Mary, is engaged to marry the Duke'of Westminster. The couple are at present } r achting in the Mediterranean. THe Duke, who owns great estates, including six hundred acres in London, is renowned as a big game hunter and yachtsman. Miss Ponsonby is tall and dark, and is a witty conversationalist. Amnesty Granted. LONDON, January 4. The correspondent of “The Times” at Milan says that in commemoration of Prince Umberto’s wedding, the King of Italy has granted amnesty under which a year is being remitted from sentences of civil prisoners, and two years from the sentences of military prisoners. Relief will also be given in the case of pecuniary penalties. It is estimated that 400,000 persons will benefit. Six thousand convicts will be liberated. D&ngerous criminals, and convicts likely to constitute a social danger will be excluded from the amnesty.—Times Cable. Welfare of the Blind. RUGBY, January 2. Blind persons registered in England number 50,771, and 36,485 of these are classed as unemployable. llow further to improve their lot is discussed in a report signed by Lord Blanesburgh, which was presented by the Advisory Committee on the Welfare of the Blind to the Ministry of Health. Returns from local authorities show that of the unemployable blind 5111 are in institutions and 31,374 live at home or in lodgings. Only two-thirds of the latter possess means, including grants exceeding 15s a week. A scheme for the provision of an assured minimum income for all unemployable blind persons living at home or in lodgings is recommended by the Advisory Committee. Local authorities are urged to adopt a comprehensive scheme which will provide that the means of those living in urban areas shall be brought up to 25s a week. Standard incomes of 18s a week in rural areas, and of 20s to 25s a week in the more urban county areas are suggested. The committee expresses the opinion that the age at which oldage pensions are payable to the blind should be reduced from 50 to 40 years British Industries Fair. RUGBY, January 2. More than 1800 British manufacturers will be represented at the British In dustries Fair which will open simul taneouslv in the middle of February in London and Birmingham. Buyers from fifty nations are expected to reach

England in the next few weeks, and 10,000 catalogues, bulky volumes of over 600 pages each, were despatched to business houses in all parts of the world in the week ending December 21 Conservative Policy. LONDON, January 3. The . political correspondent of the “Morning Post” understands that the Conservative Research Committee is giving attention to Empire development in fulfilment of Mr Baldwin’s speech in November, • when he declared that the leader's of the Party, in connection with the Conservative programme for the next election, were framing an Em pire policy that was certain of placing the Empire in a leading position. The correspondent adds: “No party, certainly none of business- interests, wants a dissolution yet, if it can be avoided. There may be a different story early in the autumn.” Chilean Ship Wrecked. LIMA (Peru), January 2. The Chilean steamer Mapocho was pounded into a total wreck, 200 miles north of Callao. All the passengers were landed safely in the ship’s boats. Reduction of Navies. LONDON, January 3. The naval contributor of the “Daily Telegraph” points out that, while other countries are realising that information should be imparted concerning the coming conference, the British Admiralty preserves its traditional silence. Nevertheless, in fairness to the Board of Admiralty, the truth of the position should be known. In 1923 and 1924 the Admiralty surveyed the situation most carefully and came to the conclusion that eighty cruisers was the minimum naval force required. Mr Baldwin’s Cabinet struck out eight of these, leaving seventy-two, which Admiral Beatty and others considered inadequate. Since then it has been discovered that Britain requires only fifty cruisers. It is difficult to believe that the present Board of Admiralty consented to this further reduction without pressure from the Cabinet, and the editorial expresses the fear the Government is about to enter the conference in a mood of reckless sacrifice, and that Parliament will be faced with an agreement that ought never to be made Leon Daudet Welcomed. PARIS, January 3. M. Leon Daudet has returned. He held a reception at the offices of his newspaper, “ Action Francaise,” which was crowded. New Year Twins. LONDON, January 3. A Nottinghamshire woman has given birth to twins whose birthdays are in different years. One was born just before midnight. December 31, and the other at dawn in 1930. General Smuts Speaks. OTTAWA, January 3. Speaking here on Thursday night. General Jan Smuts said that liberty of nationhood had been achieved by the Dominions of the British Empire, but another task remained which must be undertaken. That task was to give the form of substance to the unity of that great group, the British Commonwealth of Nations. “ This great structure should become the most enduring of all time,” General Smuts, said “Whatever storms may blow as thev blown in the past, whatever vicissitudes are before us,

this ship should weather the atorm. This great commonwealth of ours should remain for all time the example of the embodiment of human liberty and political genius, as ap instrument of happiness not only to us but to the other nations of the world." General Smuts told his audience that dominion status had proved to be the solution, of Empire problems which seemed to be insoluble. Battlefields* Visit. RUGBY, January 2. Visits to the war cemeteries and the battlefields of Mesopotamia have been organised by the St Barnabas Pilgrimage Fund. A party will go overland to Marseilles on March 20, and the desert crossing from Beirut to Baghdad will be made by a car specially equipped. A river steamer has been chartered for the 500-mile journey to Basra. Babylon and Ur of the Chaldees are included in the itinerary. Prince’s Tour. LONDON, January 3. The Prince of Wales spent a quiet day making farewells. He leaves Waterloo at 1,30 this afternoon for Southampton on his trip to Africa. Spanish Constitution. MADRID, January 3. King Alfonso has approved of the new political programme inaugurated by the Dictator. General Primo de Rivera. The programme makes no change in the regime, but merely affects, for the present. local machinery. Reports that the Cabinet have resigned are denied. Picture Transmission. RUGBY January 2. , The Postmaster-General, Mr H. B. Lees-Smith, has announced that a service enabling pictures and facsimiles to be telegraphed direct between London and Berlin will be opened next Tuesday.