St. John's Daily Star, 1919-07-09

              The St. John's Daily Star. Our Average Daily Circulation, June* 7,813 Newfoundland VOLUME V. ($3.00 per Annum) «^B^i WEDNESDAY, JCLP 9, 1919. (PRICE: One Cent.) No. 154 GOT MESSAGE INPARACHUTE R. 34 Dropped Message of Greeting to Newfoundland While Flying Over Grand Bank. WAS RECOVERED AFTER SOME DELAY I AST prime minister, Hon. Sir IV'> P. Cashin, received a message frfm. Grand Bank given below. It wis accompanied bj an explanation lo the effect that this and two other messages were dropped on the evening of last Friday by the big British dirigible R-34, while she was over Grand Bank. A parachute, or a small contrivance used by air craft, was employed for this purpose, and ihe parachute was picked up the fame evening, but the messages which it contained had blown away Fiid were not recovered till  being handed in to the postal telegraph office at Grand Bank at 4 p.m. The message reads as follows: "From dirigible R-34 via Grand Bank. From General Seely, Air Ministry. London, to Prime MinifUr, Newfoundland. Please accept my best wishes conveyed to you by R.-34. Pleace acknowledge receipt. —John Bernard Seely.* General Sir John Seely is the under secretary for the air ministry in London, under whose department the lecent voyage of the big dirigible was projected, and this message may be regarded as another manifestation of the courteous desire on the part of the Imperial authorities to include the oldest colony of the empire in the epoch-making aviation events now occurring. Sir Michael Cashin sent the following reply this morning: "General Seely, Air Ministry, London. Thanks for your message dropped by idirigible last Friday. It was blown away from parachute and only recovered yesterday. On behalf colleagues md country pleace accept warmest congratulations from Newfoundland on the success of the dirigible's flight, ■which forms yet another aviation triumph for Britain.—M. P. Cashin, Pnme Minister." Ready For Return Trip Unfavorable Weather/, However, Delays R-34 in America Mineola, July B—Major Pritchard, excutive officer of R-34, after inspecting the dirigible's engines at nine a.m. to-day, said all repairs would be completed by nine o'clock to-night and that fuel, water and other supplies would be taken aboard before midnight. With favorable weather he said the dirigible will be ready to start at daylight to-morrow. Major Pritchard said the airship would take the southern track, four or five hundred miles north of the Azores, in view of favorable forecast of the weather for the next 48 hours made by the weather bureau in Washington and received here this morning. . For one-third of the course on the way over, it was said, R. 34 wou£l probably strike the northerly cross winds which would not retard it very much For the remaining distance it was stated, favorable westerly winds would prevail. Still Stopped by Weather . Mineola, July B.—Again today unfavorable winds from the east prevented the giant dirigible from starting her return trip to England. British officers in charge of R-34 announced that there was no prospect that the big airship would get away before dawn tomorrow. It was made clear,, however, that the start would be made at daybreaktomorrow or on Friday, for at that hour the maximum amount of gas could be taken on in the gast bags. Adopts League Resolution Paris, July B.—The committee of chamber of deputies appointed to consider the peace treaty today adopted the report of Victor Augneur, former minister of marine on the league of nations. The report favors the amendment of the league covenant in line with the amendment proposed by Leon Bourgeois, French representative of the league of nations commission. This amendment provides for an inter-allied military and naval staff to insure the execution of the terms of the peace treaty and the aims of the league.  THEIR BARK IS WORSE THAN THEIR BITE CONVERSES IN MANY TONGUES Marvellous Accomplishment of Self- Educated Italian. Some years before the war the king of Italy offered a large prize for the best essay on the study of languages. Hundreds of people competed, many of them well-known scholars, but when the result was made public the nameof the winner was found to be Alfredo Trombetti, a man whom no one had ever before heard of. He was found to be a poor teacher at a school in the town of Cuneo, He was as astonished to hear that he had won the prize as the judges were at his learning, and when the $2000 cheque was handed him he nearly fainted. He had been keeping himself, a wife, and seven children on a salary of $200 a year. Presently it was discovered that he was entirely self-taught and yet was intimately acquainted with no fewer than fifty languages and dialects.He had been apprenticed as a boy to a barber and had begun learning French out of an old grammar which he had bought in a second-hand book-shop for twopence halfpenny. He went on from French to Spanish and English, then taught himself Russian and Hebrew. He spent less than an hour a day at the work, yet in the course of twenty years had mastered fifty tongues. Trombetti was given a post as lecturer at the famous university of Bologna, and during the war has given his services as interpreter. He still collects languages, and by latest accounts has reached his fiftyeighth, all the last eight being eastern languages, mostly Indian dialects. By so doing he has' achieved his great ambition, which was to equal the record of that fellow-countrymen of his, Cardinal Mezzofanti, who spoke in all fifty-eight different tongues. ST. BON'S CELEBRATION In order that every old St. Bon's boy who volunteered, may take part in uniform in the solemn mass of thanksgiving and other celebrations, next Monday morning, Major Carty has secured permission from headquarters for every soldier to resume his khaki for that occasion. It is the intention to get the autograph and photograph of all who attend, civil and military, for historical purposes, so that when the story of the war is written, St. Bon's will have all the data available, in a compact form to supply her quota to the section devot ed to what the colleges have done. Loyalty to the old school is the keynote of the Old Bys' Association, and the best proof is the large attendance each year at the usual reunion- Mc!) Meets With Cbeck. Florence ( July B.—AH attempts of the mobs in Florence to invade shops today were frustrated by cari bineers and troops who occupied the J principal points in the cil). [ FAITHLESS HONORED Member of Commons Wants to Know Why Yon Reuter Got Treatment of Respected Guest QUITE ALL RIGHT SAYS CHURCHILL lONDON, July B.—(Reuter's Ottawa Agency)— Mr. P. A. Hurd, coalition-unionist member for " the Frome district of Somerset, asked in the commons: "Are there any reasons why special consideration should be shown Rear-Admiral yon Reuter who broke his nation's vow with respect to the armistice?" He affirmed that yon Reuter, on June 24, was specially honored by being met with instead of being marced under an armed escort to camp, as is the usual practice with enemy officers, and that on July 3 the lieutenant-colonel commanding the officer prisoners at Camp Oswestry himself conducted yon Reuter from Oswestry to Donnington in a closed motor car in place of this being done by a- subaltern with an armed escort. He asked what were the conditions under which yon Reuter was now confined and why, in view of the grave offences which he admitted, he was not placed in solitary confinement in a military detention barracks, pending trial. Winston Churchill replied that be had not received any report of this case, but if the facts were correctly described they did not appear to call for any special inquiry. FIREMEN WANT INCREASE The firemen's union held a special meeting Monday to consider the making of a request for an increase of wages, of board money when in port and for overtime. President F. J. Woods was in the chair. The meeting was unanimous in voting for an increased wage sheet. The schedule was fixed at $75.00 a month, $1.00 a day board money while in port if meals are not cooked on the ship, and 50 cents an hour for any work between watches. Thief meeting decided to ask the N 1.W.A., of which the firemen's union is a local, to present their claims to the owners of steamboats. ■ » Sails for Home. London, July B.—(Via Reuters Ottawa Agency)— Hon. William E. Hughes, premier of Australia, has sailed for home. * m> * Bill Is Rejected. Paris, July B.—The chamber of deputies yesterday rejected the bill providing for the immediate raising of the state of siege and suppression of the censorship. The government represented by Stephen Pichon opposed the measure. TAKE MASCOTS ON AIR FLIGHTS Quaint Charms Carried Aloft By Some of Our Flying Heroes "I don't believe in mascots," says Mr. Hawker, but Mr. Raynham has a wooden parrot known as "Emma," built into the cock-pit of his machine, and mascots of all sorts arrived by every post at the Newfoundland aerodromes during the last few weeks he spent, there. All through the ages seamen have believed in charms and luck bringers, and if the sailor carries a caul in his pocket, who can blame the airman ;for a similar (superstition? As a matter of solid fact, nearly every great flying man, from Santos Dumont onwards, has carried a mascot of one kind or another. Santos Dumont's was a gold chain which he wore wound three times round his left wrist, and from which depended a small medallion of the Virgin. This was given to him by the daughter of the late emperor of Brazil. When Grahame White started on his first great flight from London to Manchester in the spring of 1910, onlookers noticed a little red velvet shoe fixed just above his head, while, attached to the front stays, were a bunch of white heather, a knot of violet ribbon, and a small golliwog —evidently a case of safety in numbers.Delagrange, killed at Bordeaux nine years ago, always declared that he did not believe in charms, yet never would leave the ground unless he was wearing a certain grey cap. And, talking of caps, the famous Lieutenant Conneau attached'particular importance to a cap which he had worn from the very first day he flew. During the circuit of England in July, 1911, he lost his cap at Brooklands, but it was picked up by a sapper of the air battalion, who posted it after him, and he was wearing it when he came in, the winner of the great prize. Wientziers who, at the beginning of the war, made a> considerable reputation as the boldest of Hun airmen, never flew without his monkey. This was a very ordinary-looking toy made of brown velvet, shabby and weather stained. It was still attached -to his broken plane when he was at last brought down in 1915. Sydney Pickles, the Australian airjman, captured a little rabbit alive while waiting one day at Llanelly to make a flight, and this was his mascot for some time. The Lincoln Imp, the "Gobbo," the horseshoe, two lunar crescents, the Swastika—all these are to be seen attached to the stays of framework of aeroplanes, while many a flying man carries in his pocket-book or purse a morsel of wood from the propeller of a which has crashed without damaging its occupants. This is secretly believed to be "very big medicine," and is perhaps the commonest of all aerial mascots. H.M.S. Cornwall vs. Star, St. George's Field, this evening at 7 o'clock. Admission 10 cents, boys 2 I cents, ladies free. HELPLESS IN EXTREMITY Rev. Hy. Gordon Tells of Sad State of Labrador Folk During Terrible Flu Epidemic. "LET 'EM DIE" SLU R ! MUCH RESENTED < ( £ARTWRIGHT, Labrador, June 28. 1 —After an unusually dreary £ spring, our first mail-steamer has just arrived, bringing' welcome news from our friends in the outside world, ' doubly welcome in this year of sor- ( low and loss. Among this new* < there has come to my notice one of 1 the most outrageous and extraordin- ' ary statements that any reasonable < person could possibly be capable of ' It is to the effect that a certain pro- '• minent member of the government, when appealed to on behalf of the desperate needs of the people of this coast last fall, replied "Let them 1 die, the government will be saved the trouble of feeding them!" If this is true (and one hopes still that ' 'it may not be so), we down here are anxious to know who is the minister of the government who made use of such words. Anyone who knows the nature of a Labrador winter under ordinary circumstances must realize something of what conditions were like last fall when the deadly influenza found its way down here. Utterly cut off from all medical aid, with one of the greatest famines in fresh meat ever known, our poor folk died the hardest of deaths. Perhaps little could have been done at such a late hour to stay the tide of mortality, but confidence to those who were left to bear the brunt of it all, and it would have meant the possession of medicines and nourishment, the value of which have been abundantly proved in other parts of the colony. Moreover, far above and beyond all our physical sufferings there was the deeper feeling that the doors of the outside world were shut upon us, and no one cared whether we lived or died. Strongly Protests In the name of all those whose hearts are still bleeding with the loss of more than they can spare, I protest against the use of words of such an inhuman nature as those to which I have always alluded. Whether the words were actually used or not, they are o tsypical of the attitude that all recent governments of Newfoundland have adopted towards Labrador, that it is only right and fair that the general public should know the truth. Some years ago, one of the leaders of the government was known to remark that he would sooner pay a sum of several thousands of dollars a year and hear no more of Labrador! Only last fall, when trying to stimulate some interest in the educational welfare of the children of this coast, another apparently responsible person publicly stated in my hearing that the best thing for Labrador was to take all the people away from the coast. These and many more such statements find their way down here, and are fast making the people of Labrador extremely bitter^ Unknown Country Apart from the fact that there are not more than one or two leading people in St. John's who know the least bit about Labrador as it really is (a summer knowledge is practical!ly valueless, only in winter does '. Labrador reveal itself), what sense , of political responsibility can govern, .ments have, who pocket a people's . taxes and condemn them as paupers, when in an hour of need an appeal , for help is made? \ I would like to take this opportun\ ity of publicly stigmatising as a deliberate falsehood all this talk about \ the governments having to keep our I people down here. Such state. ments are not only false, they are 5 also grossly insulting to a splencTM striving race. True, there are also a . certain amount of people who apply » for government relief, as I imagine >, there are also in Newfoundland it self. These are a bare handful, and I for one would like to see severe . measures taken to deal with laziness. B popr relief issued in the district with i But, even so, the total amount of c which I am connected, is a bare fragl ment of the amount of revenue which r the government takes out of Labra dor. \ - Contribute To Revenue s Mr. Thevenet, manager of Revilg lcn Freres, authorises mc to say that - last summer alone, his company paid out several thousands of dollars in duties; Add to this the amounts paid . by the Hudson Bay Company and 7 Chas. Porter, and the mere pittance I given back in return by way of government relief seems pretty smail^ Besides this, I know not what other sums of revenue the government may pet from this country. A balance sheet showing the give and take between the government and Labrador would probably surprise a good many people. The crying shame that marks this relationship between the two is not the cost of feeding the people of Labrador, but the scandalous expenditure of public funds on a host of officials who are not needed for tlie several months which they put in here every summer.—HENRY GORDON.Gate Fees Of $452,000 At Willard-Dempsey Fight —Carpentier Challenges Dempsey Toledo, Ohio, July B—The gate receipts of the. heavyweight championship contest between Jack Dempsey and Jess Willard here Friday, July 4, were officially announced tonight at approximately 452,--000. The attendance, promoter Tex Rickard said, was between 20,000 and 21,000. Carpenter Challenges. New York, N.Y., July B.—Jack Dempsey, world's heavyweight boxihg champion, has received an attractive offer to meet Georges Carpentier, of France, European title holder, but will only box him on American soil, according to a message received here tonight from Jack D. Kearns, Dempsey's manager. SHORTER WORKING DAY. Miners Have Working Time Cut Down by Hour Daily. London, July B.—(Via Reuters Ottawa Agency)—ln the house of commons today the home secretary introduced a bill providing for an amendment to the coal mines act by which seven hours is substituted for eight and eight for nine and one half. If, after the end of 1920, parliament adopts a resolution that the economic position of the coal industry will permit of further reduction in the working hours, then from July 13, 1920, the miner's day will be six hours. WILL QUIT PETROGRAD Reds Definitely Decide to Abandon Russ Capital Washington, July B.—Definite information that the bolshevik authorities are planning to evacuate Petrograd has been received in official circles here. The decision to quit the capital was said to have been violently opposed by some elements of the government.THE FLAT ISLANDS CASE At the request of the prosecuting counsel the Flat Islands case has been postponed for another week, while the Ingraham goes north to search for eight other men against whom charges are made. A full review of this case to date will appear in The Star tomorrow. » > ■■ ■ To Suppress Sinn Fein. London, July B.—(Via Reuters Ottawa Agency)— Owing to the great increase in serious crimes and incitements to crime by sinn fein adherents, especially in the County of Tipperary, a proclamation has been issued at Dublin suppressing the sinn fein organization and is kindred associations in Tipperary. SESSIONS ARE TO BE OPEN Public To Be Admitted to Congress to Hear Addresses Made By Pres. Wilson. REPUBLICANS GET AFTER PRESIDENT New York, July B.—Escorted by a fleet of warships, the George Washington, bringing President Wilson from France, arrived in New York harbor this afternoon. WASHINGTON, July B.—The senate made ready today to receive the peace treaty from President Wilson, and to take up without delay and open the bitterly contested question of its ratifications. In disregard to precedent it was voted unanimously to open the doors to the public when the president makes his address Thursday submitting the treaty and assuming for its acceptance. To the same purpose plans were made by the leaders to rush document to the printer and to circulate many thousands of cop\*s for the information of the country. The decision to hear the president in open session was reached without suggestion from him a> hough it was understood to square with his address. Open sessions dirmg the entire ratification debate nre ; .p?cled by the leaders of other tvks, and the foreign- relations committee may also open its doors during some of Us hearings. After arrangeir.enh- wera completed today for the appearance of President Wilson before the senate Thursday to present in open session the treaty with Germany. Senator Sherman, republican, of Illinois, introduced a resolution asking the president lor the authority he had undertaken to impose upon the people of his country and to make its government subject to the league of nations.A preamble said the president with four other citizens have assumed at the Paris conference to represent the United States government and asked that the constitutional authorities for this and the other acts mentioned be cited under the rules. The measure went over without action. The Trial of the Ex-Kaiser Paris, July 7.—The agreement reached by the allied council that the [trial of the former Emperor William would be held in London, as announced by Premier Lloyd George in the house of commons last week, was a tacit one, but from American sources it was learned late today that the agreement was regarded as binding.— • '** m Approval of Attack on Petrograd Paris, July B.—Approval of ths plan for a concerted attack upon Petrograd by Finnish troops and forces of the Kolchak government at Omsk was given today by the council of five. » » Separate Turk Government. Paris, July B.—Formation of a separate Turkish government in Asia ' Minor by Mustapha Kamel Pasha and JEssad Pasha is indicated as a pos- I sibility in a despatch received MB peace concerence circles today front I Greek circles. 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