The Guardian du lieu suivant : London, Greater London, England • 8

8 THE MANCHESTER GUARDIAN. SATURDAY. MARCH 5. 1938 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR PRIZE-WINNING PONIES THE RUSSIAN ARCTIC EXPEDITION Some of the Scientific Results Correspondent CHINA'S LACK OF ANAESTHETICS A Missionary's Appeal To the Editor of the Manchester Guardian Sir. I was once ooerated uoon in a FRENCH PLEDGES TO CZECHO-SLOVAKIA Great Britain's Policy To the Editor- of the -Manchester Guardian Sir, The best answers; I think, to the questions which Mr.

Ellis Davies asks in your issue of February 26 are the speeches delivered last 'Saturday in the French Chamber of Deputies by M. Chautemps, the and by M. Deltas, the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Both of them once again reaffirmed France's determination to carry out to the letter, if need be, her obligations to Czecho-Slovakia. These obligations consist of (a) the Treaty of Alliance and Friendship between France and Czechoslovakia, signed DR.

HANS LITTEN Lawyer Who Subpoenaed Herr Hitler To the Editor of the Manchester Guardian. Sir, Hans Litten, whose death took place about three weeks ago in Dachau concentration camp, was the son of a professor of theology of Jewish descent and a Swabian mother in him a selfless, comradely, Samaritan soul was united to a keen intelligence. After thirty-five years of fighting "for. the right" he has died a martyr in the struggle. The last five years of his life were the worst.

He had hploneprl tri the Christian Two prize-winning Shetland Society's Show in ponies at the National Pony, London yesterday, BUILDER'S STORY OF HIS BANKRUPTCY Fraud Charges Case Again Adjourned which are by -far the coldest places the world, the thermometer sometimes dropping to 90 below zero Besides their scientific interest these findings are of great practical value to Arctic aviation and navigation, in which the Soviet Union is particularly interested. In addition to their work on the surface the members of the Papanin expedition made constant soundings, measuring the depth of the ocean, taking the temperature of the water various depths, and collecting samples of the aquatic fauna. They found that the layer of comparatively warm Atlantic water discovered by Nansen during the voyage of the Fram extended to the Pole. This layer was found be sandwiched between two layers of much colder water. Deep-Sea Fauna The work of the biologist of the expedition, Shirshoff, which will only yield results, after he examines his samplings and specimens under the microscope, is expected to reveal the nature of the fauna inhabiting the three different layers.

This in turn will shed light on the history of the Polar Basin. He has already demonstrated the existence of-deep-sea life the most northern latitudes. The Soviet press hails the achieve ments of the expedition as a proof of the success of-Socialist methods in the sphere of scientific exploration. It quotes the remark of the "New York Times" that only a Socialist State commands the means with which to organise such undertakings. The only member of expedition who reached his majority before the Revolution was Papanin, who is 41 years old all the others have received their entire education since the Revolution.

Krenkel. the wireless operator, and Shirshoff, the biologist, are in their early thirties. Federotf, the expedition's meteorologist, is 28. LEVEL-CROSSING CRASH Motorist Fined A motor-car travelling from 35 to 40 miles an hour crashed into the gates of a level-crossing at Worsborough Bridge, near Barnsley. forcing one of the gates over the metals on which a train was approaching.

The train was only one hundred yards away and the car also nroleetine nvr railway line. This-Jwas' the situation described at Barnsley West Riding "Police Court ycsieraay, wnen ttaymona Coates, engineer. Broomhill Road. summoned. for drivins car in dangerous manner.

The signalman on auty, lvi riamson, told the Court that 11 p.m. on January 4 he accepted a goods train and closed the gates after seeing that no traffic was approaching. When he saw the defendant approaching the gates later at too fast a speed to pull up jcveiaeu me train signals ana snowed red liffht. with the nxnlt thot train pulled up in time. The signalman added that there were three red lamps on the Crossing ffatps.

urhlnh nn a mfat, could be seen for 350 to 400 yards. ieienaani, aescriDing tne crossing, which was near a left-hand bend, as the wnrff Via hart txrav aaon 4Vt-4 did not see its red Inmnc nr thm gates until he was within twelve yards oi the gates, when travelling at not more than 30 miles an hour, because the Hef Vita nf a Knar iho 4VinM the crossing were shining through. ucwuumii. wab iinea ius. ana costs, DUt he had been driving for ten years without a conviction, hla llonnxa mam not endorsed.

After an association with the club as player, committee man, and director extending over forty years. Alderman James Walkden has resigned his position chairman of directors of Wigan Rugby League Club and also his position ine ooara on tne grounas oi neaith. Alderman Walkden was Mayor of Wigan in 1919. OR ntertaining Gossip ofzJXCeri, Women; and Things read The WAY of the WORLD By George Grafton-Green in to-nigKi's News Manch Mvehifig From our Moscow Although it is still early to estimate the full scientific importance of the Papanin expedition, it is safe to say that the work of these Soviet scientists has added greatly to our knowledge of the Polar Basin and has exploded many false notions concerning that least explored area of the earth's surface. Thus, many geographers had contended that a circular current existed in the Tegion of the.

polar cap. According to this hypothesis, the pack ice should have simply revolved round the Pole at a more or less fixed radius. Actually, the camp of the Papanin expedition drifted almost due south at a remarkable rate. During the nine months on the floe it was borne a distance of nearly fourteen hundred miles as the crow flies, bringing the expedition dangerously close to the point where the Greenland Sea joins the Atlantic, and so necessitating the rescue of the scientists. Careful observations "revealM that the speed with which the ice drifted varied with the velocitv of the wind.

that the movement of the ice-floes was not influenced by ocean currents, as had previously been supposed, but was entirely determined by the wind, and that the currents near the surface were themselves completely governed oy me movement ot the ice. Relatively Mild Climate The daily weather reports, made by the expedition helped to solve many problems of weather forecast, especially for Soviet services, since the southward movement of cold masses of air from the Polar Basin affects the climate nf almost the whole of the U.S.S.R. The Temperature recordings revealed the uniformity of the polar climate and i. i iu reianve mnaness compared with certain narts nf Riharin cnrVi no lu Verkhnoyansk and Yakutsk districts, SAFE MILK Farmers Annoyed with B.M.A. Accusing the British Medical Association of frightening people off milk, a meeting in Leeds yesterday of the Yorkshire County Executive of the National Farmers' Union took exception to the association's pronouncements regarding safe milk.

It was decided to press headquarters of the N.F.U. to make urgent representations to the Ministry of Agriculture and the Milk Marketing Board. It was pointed out that on the one hand the Milk Publicity Council urges people to drink more milk and on the other the B.M.A. tells' the' public that milk is dangerous. Mr.

R. Crawshaw (Sheffield) said it was a scandal that an association ot the standing of the B.M.A. should deliberately attack milk other than pasteurised milk by its "subversive propaganda. Aitnougn they must know the real reason why milk was pasteurised) members of the B.M.A. did not say so.

Milk was pasteurised not so much to kill the tuberculosis germ as to commercialise a product that would otherwise turn sour. Pasteurisation was not done primarily or even chiefly in the public Interests. It is a scandal," he added, that the P.M.A. should be permitted to talk about milk as they are doing when they know perfectly well that it is the only commodity that can give life and substance to little children or to anyone else who drinks it regularly." 3,000 DAMAGES Series of Actions Follow Midnight Crash Damages totalling nearly 3,000 were agreed in a series of actions arising out of a midnight motor collision, settlement of which was announced at Durham Assizes last night. The accident occurred on the Great North Road near Chester-le-Street in July last.

Francis Smith Boyd (29), schoolmaster, of Newcastle, and Miss Joyce Peart (18), of Gosforth, Newcastle, were the occupants of one car and Norman Ince, draper, of Jesmond, Newcastle, and Miss Nancy Watson (23), shop assistant, of Newcastle, were in the other. Damages amounting to 1.600 and costs were given to Miss Watson against Boyd and Ince jointly. In another case Miss Peart was given 568 with costs against the two men. A third action was between Boyd and Ince, and it was announced that the case would be withdrawn on condition that Ince. while denying negligence, should pay 750 and costs to Boyd.

Both girls suffered severe injuries. COMPLETING NEW BRIDGE AT CHAPEL The replacement of the LJtlS. railway bridge at Chapel-en-le-Frith, work on which was begun in December in a severe snowstorm, which caused several workmen to collapse through exposure, will reach its final stage to-night. Two 36-ton cranes will block- the "Manchester-London St Pancras main line from midnight until 9 ajn. After that time single-line workings will be necessary during the whole of Sunday.

Any expresses will be diverted over the t-nuuey ana uore line. Sunday momfner rambler frame rsn be slightly delayed. COAST DEFENCE The- War Office exBlaineii fact ntto that the transfer, of the responsibility for anti-aircraft and coast defence seareh-liSbt units from, the Rami Tnrlnoar, the Royal Artillery refers atnmmtmiti to me. negiiiar Army. The change was announced in the memorandum on the Estimates.

The situation with regard to "the Territorial Army Is under consideration. In no case, however, will units which be required to change unless they wish in at in at a he as as on Chinese hospital. As it was not a very serious affair I was given a local anaesthetic only, and the doctors began thpir work it. tinH fairer, full effect in order that what might have been the most painful part at the end should be finished before the anaesthetic lost its effect. I would not like to go 4k.n..i.

a i a uuuugu xi, again, j. iiau a pact 2x1 kul tU4U UUfc HI OlCCp 1UA MIC 10.1X1- She came a pretty Chinese girl, and wucu iuj.u uci ui. my pain sue urougnt woman aociur, who gave me an injection of morphia, which helped me to get to sleep. formed in China without anaesthetics, without even morphia to relieve the nnin rf iha a fn.A nU has been forced upon an unprepared uauuu, 1105 ueen on so wiae a scale mat medical supplies of all kinds have been, ailH Kfill atv HMnarafalv It is not only soldiers who are suffering nut msu muse civilians wno are injured when towns behind the lines are bomhpH Tf ImruKoi'Ma hv.j.w, cur pain and anguish involved. j-t.

tsaime, wno spent twenty-one years in medical work in China, has spoken of what it means. He says "It means crushed limbs and fractured uones wunout ine proper splints to immobilise them. It means ghastly wounds with no antiseptics to disinfect them, nn rireflRinrra tr. -o MAUI UU prophylactic serum to prevent the ucvauiairem ot locKjaw operations that must be performed, but no ansesthptifv" Apart from this suffering there is the mc fciugces irom ine war-stricken areas. It is said that ten thousand rtonnla Viauo ciriinjl tA in the streets of Shanghai alone this wwcr.

mete are eigmy reiugee camps around that city and others in every devastated arpa nartnn fn. 7-- UUllU.bUO V- thousands of homeless people. Food is niauiuucui, ana innocent men, women, and little children who do not under- Kfanri what ftio imp ta ahmi. V. WTtu Mm3 ttlC WIW out adequate food and proper clothing ukvea wabiica.

11c inmate t.x Central China is wet and cold at this season of the year. Their distress is pitiable. The Lord Mnvnr's ITS in I fv of Distress in China has already done something. Will your readers help it Chinese This is not a political appeal it is something more, it is humanitarian. Every heart must be moved by sympathy with those in such a pitiable plight.

Let us translate our feelings of sympathy into energetic service "and active generosity. Subscriptions and offers of Service KhnillH bo 4A Secretary, China Relief Committee, 63, ijcaiBsaiB fircaoe, mancnester 3, xrom whom further information can fce uuutineu. xours, Cic, Robert S. Harrison. 1.

Bosdin Road West, Flixton, near Manchester, February 26. MILK TOKENS FOR SPAIN To the Editor of the Manchester Guardian Sir, International Women's Day on March 8 this year will be marked by a growing alarm amnnir 1 spread of war throughout the world. We should like to suggest to your readers that one way they can celebrate ray, thIs year is to make a special point of buying milk tokens for Spain vyuimuowB irom au co-operative stores This millr ie rani a help to feed the refugee children there innocent victims of the Fascist war. a record sale of milk tokens on this dav will ht a mncf the women of this country to the mothers of Spain. Yours, -margery jli.

cohbett asrbt, Storm Jameson, Rose Simpson (general secretary Women's Co-operative Guild), Amabel Williams -Ellis. London, March 4. STOCKPORT PEACE COUNCIL RESOLUTION The StOCknort Peace rVinnni? Vine passed a resolution deploring the development of British foreign policy which has compelled the resignation of Mr. Anthony Eden, and demanding that ie government snail make no concessions to Italy such as thp cn-snh'no of imp a financial loan or the recognition of oeuigerent rights for Franco until every Italian and German technician, and aeroplane is withdrawn irom Spain, and until Italy has abandoned her criminal conauest of Ahvs. sinia.

It also calls upon the British government to show that it is ready to make sacrifices for the cause of peace by either setting the colonies free or handing them over to ine league oi nations for administra tion. SafJi as the Archbishop of Canterbury 7 xui ranee 10 lace the iacts than fo on relvini For the moment France has the over- support oi the British Left. But this when put to the test Will Drove most nnvorno Labour party means what it says just ramus a general election on of the 'enforcement of treaties. Labour has temporarily forgotten the power of an election lie such as the Post Office savings canard! Yet even that will be surpassed in its sheer political destructiveness by the statement of which th Tnnu already given notice. Next time they are to proclaim that Labour is the war party, risking the lives of miigns a campaign to defend Prague and a bombardment of London, against which they have declared in Parliament no adequate defence has been or can be provided.

In such a situation is it reasonable for M. Kayser to expect that more man a nanaiui ox Labour candidates wOl be able to stand immnvahlv for the retention of the military commitments under the League I fear M. Kayser will not take it from me tnat there is a growing opinion in this country quite opposed to these commitments. It is hot isolation ist On the contrary, it would seetf the creation of economic arrangements under a world regime which impose many obligations upon indi vidual nations the interests ol the common wen heme. Unfortunately.

France is not interested in this, andpre- iers to live a. sad world' oi its own making, hugging to' its breast a law that can no longer be enforced and the fragments of a collective sword which broke the hands- of those that forged James iL Hunsox, Cbairman of the Organising Ccanmit-tee, Parliamentary Paeiflst; Group. London, March 2. at fans on January zo, iei, and lb) the more important Treaty of Mutual Assistance in the event of an unprovoked attack by Germany on either party, signed at Locarno: on October 16, 1925. Both the treaties were duly communicated at the time to the League of Nations, in conformity with article 18 of the Covenant.

As to whether France has the right to honour her commitments to Czecho-Slovakia independently of a decision by the League of Nations," the answer is that, according to the accepted interpretation, articles 15 and 16 of Covenant leave individual States members of the League free, in cases of urgency, to act on their own resppnsibility in the event of the Council failing to declare an aggressor and to issue a recommendation for military measures. The second paragraph of article 1 of the Franco-Czech o-Slovak Treaty of Mutual Assistance accordingly stipulates that in the event of the Council of the League of Nations being unable to succeed in making its report accepted by all its members, other than the representatives of the parties- to the dispute, and in the event or Czecho-Slovakia or- France being attacked without provocation, France, or, reciprocally, Czecho-Slovakia, acting in application of article .13, paragraph 7, of the Covenant of the League of Nations, will immediately lend aid and assistance. There is an identical provision in the Franco-Polish Treaty of Mutual Assistance. Both treaties were signed at the same time as the Treaty of Locarno, with the approval of Germany as well as of the other Locarno Powers. It is noteworthy that the Treaty of Locarno goes farther than either of these pacts in that it provides specifically, in paragraph 3 of article 4, for immediate military action in advance of any decision of the Council in case of a flagrant act of aggression.

The policy of the British Government I am not arguing whether it is right or wrong-in the event of a conflict in Eastern or Central Europe has been stated over and over again: we have no commitments outside those to France and Belgium. "What we might do or not do should a wanton attack be directed against Czecho-Slovakia is a matter for this country to decide, irrespective of what the officials of the French Foreign Office" may think. Incidentally, I note that Mr. Ellis Davies voices the short-sighted view that by reoccupying the demilitarised Rhineland zone the Germans were merely exercising "the right of reentering their own country." The matter is not as simple as that, as subsequent events have proved. Mr.

Davies forgets that by so doing Germany was tearing up a treaty voluntarily undertaken by her, and that the result of her action has been an enormous weakening of our defence in' a region of vital importance not only to France and Belgium but to ourselves also. It is well to remember likewise that the maintenance of the demilitarised Rhineland zone formed the basis of the Treatv of. Guarantee negotiated in 1919 between this country and the United States for the "security and protection of the. French Republic." which fell through on account of the defection of the United States. Many who thoucht otherwise at the time now see that it was in March, 1936.

that we ought to have made the stand which is becoming more and more inevitable. "The future historian." Sir Austen- Chamberlain wrote shortly before his death, may well have to record that it was not the failure of the League" in Ethiopia hut the remilitarisation of the Rhineland which was the turning-point in the history of Europe," Yours. L. E. Kastner.

The University. Manchester. March 1. THE COTTON PLAN Fears for Its Effect on the Export Trade To (he Editor ot tht Manchtster Guardian Sir, We read in the press that the Cotton Industry Enabling Bill, in a revised form, has been, sent forward to tne Government, and it has been stated that this measure has the unanimous approval of all sections of the trade. One wonders how such a statement can be substantiated since the majority of firms in the trade are quite ignorant of the revised proposals.

To anyone' who is acquainted with the intense foreign competition against which Lancashire has to compete it will be obvious that such measures as raising levies from all firms in the industry," "the establishment of minimum prices or margins," "the institution of pools and quotas" are not of the type- to assist our export trade. Such proposals if adopted could only result in higher prices and place us at a further disadvantage in relation'- to our" foreign competitors. Surely this is tackling the problem at the wrong end. If we want Government help, which we certainly do, should we not be better advised in asking, for action to help us to get back our export markets 1. By.

insisting, in the' negotiations at present proceeding with India, on a reduction in the abnormal duty on our goods. 2. By securing revision of the Congo Basin treaties, which have enabled Japan to obtain over SO per cent, of the textile trade in British East Africa and Central Afrlcal 3. By safeguarding Lancashire's interests future trade agreements. If we 'couIdbBtain action on, these lines we 'could get 'back a portion ot the 5,000,000,000 yards' of cotton exports which we-' have lost "since 1813 and should have, -'no need to concoct Yours, Hotxkt.

-18. Byrcm Street, Manchester. March' Youth movement, but felt that he found more scope outside it for combating the poverty and social injustice that he saw around him. He found in a legal career the field for his gifts of advocacy and his strong human sympathies; in this field he worked brilliantly, for all too short a time. The cases in which he figured and won public recognition and recognition in another spirit from the National Socialists belonged to the period- of sanguinary violence in which the National Socialist movement came to the fore.

(In the four years from January 1, 1929, to February 28, 1933, 286 victims belonging politically to the Left lost their lives and a bare two dozen belonging to the Right.) Litten hated terrorism with all his soul and passionately attacked the Rollkommandos out of which the Nazi S.A. (Brownshirts) developed. It was on the point that the Brown-shirts were organised for of violence that Dr. Hans Litten subpoenaed Adolf Hitler, the present German Chancellor, in the so-called Eden Palace case at the beginning of May, 1931. Captain Stennes, who had seceded from the Nazi movement, had declared in this case that the "Rollkommandos" were founded in order to manhandle' opponents.

On this point Litten cross-examined Hitler, who insisted that the "Rollkommandos had nothing to do with violence. On the night of February 28, 1933, Litten was arrested by a "Roll-kommando" and taken to Spandau Prison and thence to Sonnenburg concentration camp. He remained only a few days in the camp, being sent back to Spandau on instructions from the Public Prosecutor's office on account of the treatment he had undergone in the camp his skull had been fractured. One who was with him in Spandau Prison writes I was with Litten at Spandau from July 17 to August 18. 1933.

I was told by several men. and I know for myself, that he was seriously maltreated at Sonnenburg He was only three days in Sonnenburg and was in bed the whole time, having been maltreated on the way from the station. He made bis first attempt at suicide in Sonnenburg. Litten tried again to commit suicide on August 18, 1933, in Spandau by severing an artery with a razor blade. After treatment in the hospital of the Moabit remand prison he was sent to Brandenburg concentration camp, where he suffered further severe ill-treatment from there he was sent to Lichten-burg camp, from there for a short time to Buchenwald.

and finally, nearly a year ago, to Dachau. On December 18, 1935, in reply to Lord Allen, Herr Ribbentrop refused to set Litten free on the ground, among others, that in a similar case the Government had a very bad experience the Dimitroff case." Litten was not a Communist he belonged to no party. He was simply a fanatic for justice, as a believing Christian. Yours, February 27. A German.

BRITAIN'S RELATIONS WITH FRANCE A Pacifist's Prediction To tfi Editor ot the Manchester Guardian Sir. The letter of M. Jacques Kayser in its forth-right defence of the London-Paris axis is a challenging document. The duty of a "British patriot," the writer assures us, is to maintain this "axis" inviolate. Without it, he says, European peace and liberal civilisation will be destroyed.

Some of us think that European peace runs more risk from the continuance of the axis than from its cessation. Even the appeal based upon the claims of liberal civilisation loses some of its support We cannot very well forget that in France a liberal civilisation meant, on occasion, black troops on the Rhine, the invasion of the Ruhr, and the persistent and merciless strangulation of Germany under the provisions of what the French pleasantly call the public law of Europe. We seem to have acquired the habit of docility in face of the many and various French requirements. So M. Kayser is to be excused if he puts his demands a little peremptorily.

If Britain pursues any more negotiations, he says, it is not enough merely to inform France of them He wants a different sort of concerted action," and he wants it on all occasions." France must be consulted, France must be asked. -All this is claimed in the name of Anglo-French solidarity. Anglo-French solidarity is a very good and necessary thing It is as necessary a Anglo-German solidarity. These solidarities are long in acquiring. Some of us believe that the delay is due mainly to the failure within all three nations to realise that one is not to be got without the other.

M. Kayser waves his red lamp frantically against what he calls the Fuhrer's triumph in Austria. Precisely how much triumph is there? M. Kayser had apparently made up his mind that there was bound to be a triumph from the moment Hitler invited Schuschnigg to Berchtesgaden. That was the time, he says, that "steps should have been taken at once for resistance." What steps? What sort of resistance? Surely not that which might end in the bombing of Berlin and of London Is there anything in this alleged triumph in Austria which would justify even a' momentary consideration of such a cataclysm We do our friends in France a great disservice by letting them continue to I MU.

IJ "If Uip lomatic relationships between the two continue. Fortunately for them, -they now know where the -Government of Britain stands, and they will know soon, if not already, that practically the whole ot the of- the -National Government are in favour of a careful in rr-iig w. vuugauiNu. iinwr ultr League Covenant. We must take in at no time suggested to me that I should go bankrunt." Mr.

Macbeth Is it true that you con- spirea wun Liynn to enter contracts lor work which were not feasible at the price No. it is not true. Until your bankruptcy did you have difficulty in obtaining money which was due to you No. Was there ever any false pretence by jruu or inieni to aeiraua wo. It was untrue, added the witness, as the prosecution suggested, that deliveries oi materials to the sites were speeded up just before his bankruptcy.

In answer to Mr. E. G. Hemmerde, K.C. (for Lynn), Waddington said that in the last six or seven weeks of his building for Lynn.

Lynn bad paid him X.1D.OUU. Mr. Macbeth What was the estimated total cost of necessary extra work on the site? About 4.500. The bulk of that amount was accounted for by the unfortunate nature oi ine site, said waddington. "We struck boggy land durine the iob.

It was a contingency which could not reasonaoiy have been foreseen by a builder." Mr. Hemmerde Do you' know that a man named Kelly and his employees visited two of the sites and stripped it like a swarm of locusts, of materials worth several thousands of pounds? I have heard that was the case. The proceedings were adjourned until Monday, March 14. HAULAGE CONTRACTOR FINED 36 Drivers' Long Hours Thirty-two summonses were brought at Salford City Police Court vesterdav under the Road Traffic Act against Harry Ashford, a haulage contractor, of Eccles New Road, Weaste, Salford. They alleged that drivers employed by him bad been permitted to work without a break for longer than the permitted hours, had not had their prescribed periods of rest in certain cases, and had fallpri tn lroen the necessary records.

Ashford was fined a total of 36 on nine of the summonses. Twenty-three were withdrawn on payment of 4 12s. costs, and he was also ordered to pay 6 10s. snecial prists Achfmrl nlooAsil guilty to the nine summonses on each ui wmca me one oi xa was imposed. that the men had disregarded the lusituaioas given to.

tnem, ana as Asniora wue was seriously ill during this norinrl no naA nnt Vuum keep a personal check on -the records. SERGT. MAJOR ACQUITTED BY COURT MARTIAL Without being called upon for his defence, Battery Sergeant Major Albert William Arthur Mills, of the 24th Field Brigade Royal Artillery, was found not guilty by an Aldershot court-martial yesterday of fraudulently misapplying money belonging to the sergeants' mess of the Royal Artillery at Waterloo Barracks, Aldershot. It been alleged that Mills organised a sergeants' mess Christmas draw as president of uie mess, ana xauea to pay an account for 5 4s. 8d.

in respect of prizes supplied xor we draw. When the case for the nrosecution had been completed it was submitted tnat tnere was no case to answer on the ground that it had not been Droved that the money was the property of the sergeants- mess. This submission was considered in closed court for more than an hour. Then the president announced that Mills was found not guilty of the charge, ana ms release was ordered. A BIRMINGHAM PETITION The Birmingham Council for Peace and Liberty is collecting signatures to a petition viewing with alarm the Premier's recent references to the League and calling- on the Government to come to an understanding with other democratic Powers and to join with them in upholding the principles of the Covenant of the League of Nations.

The petition be. tignwi at the cnina Campaign Committee shop, 66. Broad street, Bixmmgnam. Mr. Joseph William Adamson, who was chairman of the old Colwyn Bay Urban Council in 1930-1, died at hii home in Queen's Old Colwyn, yesterday, aged 75.

He had been is business as a chemist in Colwyn Bay William Waddington, a builder and contractor, of Avenue Parade, Accring-ton, underwent a long examination by his solicitor at the Manchester City Police Court, yesterday, when he described his business transactions before his Waddington is charged along with Abraham Lynn (40), financier, of Singleton Road, KersaL, and Eric Mazurk (29), architect, of Blackpool Road, Carleton, with building fraud alleged to have resulted in heavy losses to builders' merchants. In answer to Mr. D. J. Macbeth, his solicitor.

Waddington said his bank ruptcy was due to extra worlc on the building site, rises in the nrice of building materials, and delay caused by siow deliveries ot materials, rle denied there was any truth in the conversation referred to in his alleged statement, which had quoted him as saying he told Lynn he would have to go bankrupt if Lynn did not pay him. "Lynn never forced 50 or 25 on me. The only money I drew from him was for payment of wages. Neither was it true that we obtained the maximum of credit by making small payments." For all the jobs he had done torXynn in Manchester he had received 55,870 from Lynn. Towards the end of his work for Lynn on three sites he was receiving 10 a week in wages.

Lynn UNDER THAMES BRIDGES Colliers and Barrage Scheme The collier Flashlight, belonging to the London Gas Light and Coke Company, is in the Wear for testa which it is hoped will enable shipowners to overcome a problem which would be presented by the erection of the projected Thames barrage. One company alone is running twenty-five colliers from north-east ports to London gas and electricity undertakings. These vessels clear London bridges by only a few inches when returning light. If the barrage were erected the permanent height of the water would be six or seven feet above the present low- water mark. Ships would therefore need mucn larger ballast tanics than at present, and the provision of these tanks would greatly reduce the coal-carrying capacity of ships.

It would probably lead to a considerable increase in the size of fleets. CUTTING ESTIMATES Liverpool's Increasing Expenditure Estimates which came before the Liverpool Finance Committee yesterday amounted to 5,120.500. an increase of 743,747, and if they are adopted it will mean that the rates will increase by half a crown, from 15s. 6d. to 18s.

In addition there is a water rent of 7d. in the pound. As in previous years, it is probable that the city council at a special meeting to be held on March 16 will order the corporation committees to carry on -with lower sums than their original estimates. COMPENSATION MONEY STOLEN Sarah Ellen Richardson (46). married, of Caroline Street, Higher Ince, was sentenced -at Wigan yesterday to a month's imprisonment for stealing 119 in bank-notes, the property of Robert Ratcliffe, an collier, of Petticoat Lane, Higher Ince.

Ratcliffe was on partial compensation at a colliery and when it closed down in February, 1938, he received 225 in final settlement, and It wa alleged that the stolen money was from this amount It was stated that 82 19s. 6d. was recovered from Richardson's tfme. She admitted the theft, and said she had spent money on rent, chip shop, carpets, and clogs. The Rev.

Donald Herman, vicar of Christ Church, Kensington, Liverpool, has been appointed Vicar of Dal ton, near Wigan. in succession to the late Kev. D. Williams. Mr.

Herman, who is a -farmer curate of St. Catharine's, Wigan, war curate at St. Philemon. Toxteth Park. LiverpooL-and vicar, of et Marys, wises xne vicar, of Ince.

near Wigan. has accepted th living of Holy Trinity Church, Bristol. ioi nearly miy yean to OD DO,.