CABLEGRAMS.

Western Star, 4 March 1938, Page 3

CABLEGRAMS.

GERMAN AIR THREAT. GOERING’S BEST WAR WEAPON. HITLER’S REFERENCE TO MINORITIES. LONDON, March 2. “The German Mr force is not merely instrument of peace, hut the sharpest instrument of war,” declared the Nazi Minister of Aviation (Field-Mar-shall Hermann Goering) at the National Air Day gathering at Berlin. “The new German air force will be the terror of our enemies if it is ever called on to fight,” said Field-Marshal Goering. When Herr Hitler declared that Germany would not tolerate unjust treatment of Germans living outside its frontiers the air - force knew it had to do its diky to the last, he added. Field-Marshal Goering revealed that Herr Hitler considered the creation of an air force more important thaii afl domestic affairs. The diplomatic correspondent of The Daijy-Herald say s that inquiries will prqbably be made in Berlin about FieldMarshal Goering’s. threat of action by the air force in pursuance of Herr Hitler’s declaration that 10,000,000 Germans outside Germany's frontiers could not be allowed to be outraged. The Daily Herald ad.d s that no decision has yet been made, pending some reassuring explanation of Field-Marshal Goering’s meaning. Czechoslovakia and France will possibly take .similar action. SEAMEN’S BRAWL AT SHANGHAI. FRENCH AND ITALIAN RATINGS CLASH. SHOOTING OF CHINESE IN BRITISH SECTOR. SHANGHAI, March 2. French and Italian naval’ ratings participated in a free fight in a street in the French Concession. The French, who were in the major ity, after 20 minutes’ fighting with fists, clubs, and bottles, in which . a man lost an ear and four others, were taken to hospital, drove the into a dance hall, the iron gates of which wei’e hastily closed. The French police arrived and escorted the Italian s to the wharf, where their pinnaces were waiting. • Tension has arisen over a Japanese soldier shooting a Chinese civilian when he was climbing the' barbed wire in the British defence sector to escape from the Japanese occupation. Tile Japanese assert that the Chinese stole wire and ignored the’ sentry’s challenge. The commander of the British troops in the area, Brigadier-General A. P. D. Telfer-Smollett, is investigating the incident. A Japanese, spokesman reveals that on February 22 Japan asked Britain to discontinue the air service to Hong Kong, which is a potential cause of friction. Some aircraft haye already been pursued over the Japanese ancsorage near Hong Kong. S. . ‘ Gj&EAT SEAMANSHIP IN DINGHY. ELDERLY NEW ZEALAND YACHTSMAN. ’ ,

- SYDNEY, March 2. When the yacht Spindrift ’arrived at Toncuny, oil the north coast, from Sydney the low tide would, not permit it to cross the bar and the yacht was forced to stand off from early morning until afternoon. Mr G. H. Jackson, of Wellington, who was in charge o{ the Spindrift, then, decided to inspect fthe bar - and caused great excitement on the shore as, he came through the breakers in the yacht’s Bft dinghy, displaying magnificent seamanship. ill’ Jackson, who is 75 years- of age, landed high and dry on the beach and cheered by several hundred people. The Spindrift crossed the bar soon afteryards. Mr Jackson and the owner of the Spindrift, Mr Lionel Walsh, have had many exciting experiences in ocean sailing. Ten years ago they sailed Jhe Psyche from Wellington to Sydney, the trip taking 21 days in cyclonic weather. SOLDIERS HOLD UP PATROL CAR. LANCERS ARRESTED AT TID WORTH LONDON, March 2. After a. search for two men who, dressed in military uniforms, had held up a patrol car at revolver point and forced two constables to alight, after which they decamped in the car, the police arrested two soldiers, Andrew Vanderburg and Reginald Kaye, of the Twelfth Lancers, stationed at Tidworth. Two policemen were injured in the struggle. ALL BLACK TOUR OF AUSTRALIA. START IN MIDDLE OF JULY PROBABLE. SYDNEY, March 2. According to \fhe secretary o f the Nev, South Wales Rugby Union (Mr .J. Ni. seda) the AH Blacks will probably start torn- in the second wee« of .<i>. They will play ten matches—oil' - 1 Melbourne, tlnee at Sydney, twe at and four at country centres of Nc.v South Wales ami Queensland. An iiiler-stafe Rugby carnival has been «iranged for the King’s Birthday weekend raid the following Saturday. DEBATE ON DEFENCE NEXT WEEK. WHITE PAPER ISSUED LAST NIGHT BUG BY. March 1. A White Paper on defence will In issued to-morrow night, and there wil] be a debate in the House of Conn,m in on the subject of defence as a whole hexf Monday. The del.alc will lip opened by a statement nil hrha!f of the Government l>\ tlie l*i hue Minis:, r (Mr Neville ('ham Jit-rlain). The Kinu wi|• visit Ihe "shr.. low" ai inau'--;i« s I'.-c! ■ i <•. on the outskirts o Birm■h.:in and Coventry--on Thursday Jicxt. Woods' Crjat Peppermint Cure for Coughs .‘and Colds, never fails.

TEST BALLOT IN BRITAIN. PUBLIC OPINION OF MR EDEN. FOUR ELECTORATES INVITED TO VOTE. LONDON, March 3. To tost public opinion rapidly on the crisis caused by the resignation, of Mr R. A. Eden a s Foreign Secretary tho Council of Action, is conducting a test ballot of four constituencies —the Exchange division, of Liverpool, the Clapham division of Wandeworth, Bradford North and Cambridge Borough. These constituencies have been selected for two reasons ; they are representative of a wide cros s section of tho nation and all possess strong Government majorities of between 5000 and 7000. A reply-paid ballot card j s being sent to every elector on March 11. It asks simply: “Do you approve of Mr Eden’ s stand for good faith in international relations ?’ and .“Will you support his demand for the re-establishment of peace and security through the League of Nations?” . . The ballot will disc on March 31 and it is hoped to announce the result on the following day. The Council of the Liberal Party, under the chairmanship of Lord Meson, paid a tribute to Mr Eden and deprecated an agreement with Italy until the previous agreement wa s honoured. The council called on Liberals throughout the country to organize meetings of indignation against the Government’s action.

FLOOD DISASTER IN CALIFORNIA. ESTIMATED LOSS OF 25 LIVES. LOS ANGELES SWEPT BY RAINSTORM. LOS ANGELES, March 3. if i s believed that 25 lives have been lost in floods which followed heavy rain in California. The damage to property is estimated at more than 5,000,000 dollars and 5000 persons are homeless or marooned by flood waters. Five inches of rain fell yesterday, making 10 inches in four days. ’ , A severe rainstorm swept Los Angeles, killing four persons, flooding the streets and washing out highways or burying them under landslides. It is feared that an aeroplane on the way to Lo s Angele s from San Francisco crashed during the height of the storm and that’ nine lives were lost. More than 100 landslides have occurred, one of which engulfed a bus loaded with passengers 50 mile s from Los Angeles. It is feared that 15 persons were drowned when a wooden foot-bridge 250 ft long collapsed while a number ot spectators were watching the Los Angeles river racing to the ocean.

Northern California also' reported to be experiencing flood conditions. Melting snows and heavy rains Have swollen, many rivers until now they are raging torrents, threatening comniunica tions. All traffic to Lbs Angeles is blocked by landslides.

' SUCCESSOR TO FAMOUS NEW ZEALANDER. PROFESSIONAL POST HELD BY 4 LORD RUTHERFORD. RUGBY, February 28. Professor William Bragg, director of the National Physical Laboratory and a s o:i of the eminent scientist Sir William ■Bragg, has been elected to succeed Lord Rutherford, of Nel s on, as Cavendish Professor of Experimental Physics at Cambridge University. IF RAIDERS COME. SAFEGUARDING BRITAIN’S CHILDREN. Small camps, to which cliildren in “danger areas” could be evacuated in time of air attack, are suggested in a circular on air raid in schools, issued by the British Board of Education. It is also proposed that'where schools are kept open all children should carry gas. masks. The circular sny s that the problem of the protection of school cliildren in time of air attack has been considered by the board and by the Home Office Air Raid. Precautions Department. It states: —

“Whil© the importance of carrying on. the work of the schools as far as possible during a national crisis, both on educational and social grounds, and in order to' minimise the unsettling effect on the public mind, will not be disputed, the primary consideration must be for the safety of the children. “Each authority will, therefore, wish to consider Whether it will be reasonable to expect parents to allow their children to continue to attend school.” First consideration would have to be given to those place,s where the risk was so'great that it would not be ustifiahle to collect children in large numbers in schools, and it would accordingly be decided to close the.school durng the whole period for which raids might be expected. ' The short period of warning—seven to 10 minutes being all that was anticipated —would not enable children to he sent home, and the primary importance of their safety would demand that they honk! he k -pt at home to share in the protective priaiig.inents designed for the public.

“In these areas which arc especially tixposed to <lam.; r. llh* solution could he to eval uate the children —not ill i f whom will lie of school age—to safer dhstriets. preferably in the country* ■hi ;c 11 1 •y- - •m 1 i 1,.. (|; -’ici'scd in private ■ousis or j.iil I'r luil|d ngs, nr possibly in small camps." In places where it was decided to keep schools open—apart from those used for first-aid posts the decontamination centres —all children would he uruvided wHh respirators to carry to and from school. “They will have opportunities to beoino familiar with them under arrangements mailt; for other members ot the 'airily, and it i s undesirable that any '■reparalory instruction of school chilYeii in jioai e time should lie under- ' -11 width might have adverse psycholey i"a I or other effects op them or Hie public. “Kor (his lea on, anylhing in the nai lire of i esnirat or drill or air raid hill should not lie undertaken in school ’.xr at- after very eareful consideration. Children should b e to]d in advance to return home if a warning is given while on the way to school, the last j’laoo to be was i» the