BRITISH & FOREIGN

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XXIV, 30 December 1926, Page 2

BRITISH & FOREIGN

OVERNIGHT NEWS SUMMARY. (Per Press Association—Copyright.) ROME, Dec. 28. Thousands are homeless, owing an earthquake, which partly destroyed Durazzo. LONDON, Dec. 28. The Constantinople correspondent of the “Times” states that it is reported that Turkey and Jugo-Slavia contemplate a security pact. LONDON, Dec. 28. The “Evening News” states that the seven-year-old son of Sir Rupert Clarke becomes Baronet, and inherits one million pounds. CONSTANINOPLE, Dec. 28. Zaro Agha, the aged Turk, has a competitor in the race for the world's longevity record in Teku Agha, who, when lie appeared to give evidence in a court case, gave his age as 14". The age has since been verified. He is healthy, and has the full use of his mental faculties, and easily recalls events of 135 years ago. LONDON, December 28. The Berlin correspondent of the “Times” says the moderate press greet the pardoning in the Landau trials as a sign that the LocarnoTlioiry policy still lives, but the Nationalist papers refuse to be satisfied, and demand disciplinaiy measures against Boozier. The Entente press insists that the case proves the necessity for the immediate cessation of the occupation of the Rhineland. MANAGUA, December 28. Of four hundred soldiers of the Conservative Government forces covering the retreat in three days’ fighting with the Liberals at Las Perlas, many were killed. Others were surrounded and captured. Advices also tell of a fierce battle in progress between one thousand Conservatives and fifteen hundred Liberals. PARIS, Dec. 28. The whole Palace of Versailles is threatened with destruction, through the ravages of a microscopic fungus, which is turning the whole woodwork into powdery duet. Twelve million francs have already been spent renovating the roof. The northern pan of the palace roof of the famous Hall of Mirrors, in which the Treaty was signed in 1919, has also been treated, but much more must be' spent to save tlie historic building. PARIS, December 2s. Vivian Stranders, alleged to be a former British officer, was arrested on leaving Paris for Germany, and accused of espionage. Though it occurred on December 21, the' arrest was only announced after inquiries by the French counter espionage service, who state that Dr. Weber (head of the German Secret Service in France) paid Stranders 1500 gold marks for answers to a detailed questionnaire regarding army, aviation, tanks, and machine gun improvements. LONDON, Dec. 28.

The Paris correspondent of the “Times” states that accommodation will be fully taxed when the delegates to the American Legion Convention, embracing 20,000 ex-service men and 10,000 female relatives, arrive in September. The Convention is expected profoundly to affect public opinion in the United States and France.

Twenty-eight liners, including the Leviathan, will convey the visitors to French ports, whence fifty special trains will bring them almost simultaneously to Paris. Twenty-one thousand rooms have already been booked, and the Government may requisition the remainder. BERLIN, December 28. Dr. Thyssen, who drafted the steel trade pact with France, Belgium, and Luxemberg, is resigning from the committee for promoting Franco-Prussian understandings as a protest against the Landau courtmartial. Dr. Thyssen states: “France seems to believe that everything is permissible towards Germany. She cheated her out of the provisions upon which the Armistice was based: then, with the aid of twenty-four nations, she disarmed Germany, while she armed to the teeth. In the interests of European peace, I hope this French belief will soon be destroyed.” ROME; Dec. 28. “The family is the foundation of the State; whoever prevents the development of the family by either neomalthusism or celibacy, is a traitor. Bachelors are dried up branches, and if I had the faculty, I would cut them off.” This formed part of Signor Mussolini’s vehement declaration in presenting a Bill to the Chamber of Deputies, imposing an extra tax cn bachelors between the ages of 25 and 52 years. The proceeds of the tax will form a special fund for the maintenance of orphaned or needy children. Bachelors will also be excluded from the benefits of old-age pensions.

Signor Mussolini concluded: “Col. bacy is one of the most virulent evils menacing the development of any nation. If we cannot force Italy’s million bachelors to marry, wo can administer medicine, in the form of a tax, until they realise it is more economical to choose a mate than remain single.”