WORLD’S HAPPENINGS.

Waikato Times, Volume 98, Issue 15313, 14 August 1923, Page 2

WORLD’S HAPPENINGS.

VACCINATION OR PRISON

It is stated in a trustworthy quarter that the authorities in Athens are taking extraordinary precautions against an outbreak of typhus, smallpox or cholera. All schools, factories, and offices are visited, and men, women, and children are vaccinated against smallpox and inoculated against typhus. A little later the second inoculation against typhus takes place. The af-ter-effects are sometimes serious, and cases have occurred of men being laid up for five days after the vaccination and the first inoculation. House-to-house visits by ' doctors accompanied by police are also frequent. Much persuasion is used to get the citizens to allow themselves to be vaccinated. It usually takes the form of a threat of 15 days in prison or a line of 10,000 drachmae if they refuse.

Refugees from Asia Minor are not even given this alternative but ’ are treated willy-nilly. It is also impossible to travel from one part of Greece to another by set unless one produces at departure a certificate showing that lie has been inoculated.

ARREST AT WIFE’S FUNERAL.

The funeral of Mme. Fusilier, wife of a retired excise officer, was stopped dramatically by the police of Le Bourget, near Paris, and her husband was arrested on a charge of having killed her. M. Fusilier, well known at Blancmesnil, a village near Le Bourget, informed the municipal authorities four days ago that his wife had died of a heart attack. A doctor was sent to examine the dead woman, and gave a certificate for burial.

Just before the funeral a nephew of the dead woman rang up the police at Le Bourget to say that he learned that his aunt had been stabbed. An inspector arrived at Blancmesnil as the funeral procession was starting for the cemetery. lie stopped the funeral and asked for M. Fusilier. The coffin was opened and the woman was found to have been slabbed to the heart.

THEATRE FAILURES.

What is wrong with the London theatre ?

As pointed out by a theatrical correspondent in the Daily Mail, the first half of 1923 will go down in theatrical history as having been a period of many quick failures. Play after play lias been withdrawn after a run of only a few weeks. Mr. Andre Chariot, the theatrical manager, attributes the trouble to the financial situation.

Shortage of money is, above all, the cause of the short runs, he said. I do not think the theatres are mucii to blame. When there is plenty of money about I think that the public goes to see plays whether they are good or had. I do not think that the failures are due to a shortage of good dramatists. There have been just as good plays produced in London this year as last. It must he remembered that owing to the rates of exchange there are fewer foreign visitors to London. Foreign visitors generally see several productions while in London. The transient public is always the theatre’s best customer. Bad financial conditions in the provinces have deprived tiro London theatre of another customer —the provincial visitor.

Who can say what causes a play to bo an outstanding success? If it was known, all theatrical organisers would be millionaires.