Around the World

Signs Publishing Co. · Melbourne, Victoria · Jul 5, 1920

FromAustraliasian Signs of the Times, Vol. 35, No. 27.

THE running of excursion trains in Great Britain has been abandoned for this year.

A VOLUNTARY plebiscite is to be held in Tyrol on the question of union with Germany.

A CENSUS of Mesopotamia, which has just been taken, gives the total population of the three vilayets as 2,849,282.

THE second Simplon tunnel is now almost completed, 19,070 yards having been tunnelled. About 3,000 yards remain to be pierced.

THERE is a great demand in England for fertile Italian queen bees. The supply of these is now good, but they cost 8s. 6d. each.

THE Commander-in-Chief of the Allies in the Black Sea has sent Serbian guards to Gallipoli, to protect the British cemeteries there.

A SWEDISH clergyman stated at a meeting, held to organise relief for prisoners of war in Siberia, that more than 50,000 had died during the winter.

AT the end of March the Moslems in India took part in a Hartal (a suspension of business to mourn), for the plight of Turkey and the Caliphate.

FOR the first time since the Allied occupation, the German national flag was publicly flown in Cologne on March 25, by permission of the British authorities.

THE Soviet Government has recently had a sale of several thousands of pieces of sculpture and paintings, which formerly adorned the Winter Palace at Petrograd.

DURING the fiscal year, ending March, no fewer than 100,000 immigrants entered Canada, about four times as many as went into the country during the previous twelve months.

GERMAN newspapers chronicle the fact that the chemical industries of the country, which for many months have been hampered by lack of coal, are now working at their full pre-war activity.

THE British Government is offering surplus war vessels, including battleships, to coastal towns for use, when filled with concrete, as break-waters, but in many cases the offers have been refused.

THE Belgian Government has set aside the sum of 2,450,000 francs [about £100,000] for the various festivals and exhibitions which will be held in connection with the forthcoming Olympic Games at Antwerp.

THAT Germany is resuming relations with the rest of the world is shown by the fact that in January last 147,000 parcels were sent abroad through the German post, and 470,000 were received from foreign countries.

KENTISH fishermen are strongly protesting against French and Belgian vessels being allowed to trawl in the areas forbidden to British vessels by the Admiralty. This is an old pre-war grievance, which is now accentuated.

POLAND is confronted with “the worst typhus fever epidemic in the history of the world,” according to a cable message received by the American Relief Administration from Colonel Gilchrist, United States Army Medical Corps, head of the American antityphus expedition.

“Unless blotted out at once,” he stated, “the present epidemic will threaten all Europe. The Polish Government is doing its best to meet the emergency, but it is crippled by lack of money and sanitary supplies.”

Upon receipt of this information the joint distribution committee for all American Jewish relief funds instructed its representatives in Warsaw to expend $100,000 for coal to be used in starting disinfecting plants in the typhus zone.

THE once-powerful Ottoman Empire has been greatly reduced by the Allied Supreme Council through its decision so to restrict Turkey’s future frontiers that they will contain a population of only 6,000,000—less than the population of Greater London—as compared with Turkey’s pre-war population of 30,000,000. Territorially, the Turkish sway, formerly extending from the Danube to the Red Sea, is now limited to a small corner of Anatolia. At the same time the Sultan, titular successor to Mohammed the prophet, will exercise his caliphate from a circumscribed area in and around Constantinople, under the perpetual menace of British, French, and Italian naval guns. The warships that are left to the Ottomans will either be scrapped or apportioned among the Allies. Only a few revenue cutters will be allowed to fly the crescent. Turkey’s monetary indemnity has not yet been fixed. A commission will investigate the Ottoman finances, and its report will be made the basis of financial reparation.