HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1929-05-09, Page 3Freed After 1.1 .
Years in Exile
gnnocel'it Convict Ordeal Ends
of Retrial by Court
$200 COMPENSATION
Evidence in Murder Case Leri
to Fresh Investigation
Paris,—A dramatic scene occurred'
a} Havre recently when a firm er Mar-
seilles hairdresser who had been sent
in chains to Devil's Island (tire no-
torious French .penal settlement) in
1915 on a charge of having betrayed
his country, stepped from the ship a
free pian, completely rehabilitated by
the highest courts of France after
having been kept a prisoner for eleven.
years,
The man, Henri Bellon, now aged
3i, !vas the victim of an incredible
drama every bit as strange as that
of Captain. Dreyfus, cne of the most
notorious instances of a -miscarriage
of justice ever known.
NEW TRIAL,,
In the case o: Henri Bellon the es-
tablishment of his innocence is due
:to a murder trial in Paris that had
sae connection with the hairdresser's'
•alleged offence. Ij was evidence ob-
tained atthis murder trial that se.
cared for Belon a new trial which
'ended in his acquittal.
Belion's case is one of the most
extraordinary in the history of mili-
tary and civil jurisprudence. Ho had
been invalided out of the artily in 1914
, seriously wounded, and resumed his
profesadon of hairdresser and wig-
shaker. He wont to Geneva 'to buy
women's hair -nets. There he met a
naturalized American named Stanley
Mitchell, a Pole by birth, who was
working in Switzerland fpr the French
punter -espionage service.
Bellon helped Mitchell to• write his
reports in French. One day Mitchell
was suddenly arrested by the Swiss
police as a foreign spy and expelled.
Mitchell reported to his chief that
Bellon, had denounced hint.
TREASON CHARGE,
• When Belion...returr-ed to France he
was arrested on the charge of treason,
tried before a cone: -martial at Mar-
seilles•in the latter part of.1915, and
Dei Mitchell's testimony, which was
entirely=. hearsay, was -sentenced •+
Devil's Island for life.
:Bellonprotested his innocence, and
wrote hundreds of letters of appeals
,to the League for the Rights of Men
in Paris but the War Minister refused
to authorize a new trial. •
Years passed, and one night in the.
autumn of 1925 Bellon was reading a
three months' old copy of the Paris,
idMatin".by candle light in his hut in
the penal settlement,' As his eyes
glanced down the columns of the
newspaper a cry escaped him. He
was reading about the trial of a Paris
caretaker, Lazare Tissier, for the
murder of a bookmaker named Bellay
in his cellar in the heart of Paris.
The murderer afterwards took the
body to the Bois du Boulogne.:
PERFECT CASE.
The police case against the care-
taker was perfect except that they
had not the slightest evidence to show
bow the body had been taken to the
Bois. At a critical point in. the police
- investigation Stanley Mitchell, who
•had a long police record. in France,
suddenly appeared and declared that
he had seen the caretaker hauling the
body in a pushcart. Mitchell stated
that he had been released from prison
the previous day, had spent the night
in Montmartre, and then had gone to
the Bois, where, waking up early in
the morning, he saw the caretaker
passing with the body.
When Mitchell told his story at the
trial he was under a warrant of ex-
pulsion and made such an unfavor-
able impression that he was driven
from the court by the judge. He was
allowed to remain in France some
months after that, and then finally
expel!ed.
In consequence of Mitchell's role in
this case, Bellon was granted a new
trial by the French civil court in 1925.
The Public Prosecutor announced that
there had been a judicial error, and
asked for Bellon's complete rehabilita-
tion. This was granted, and he was
given damages amounting to £40. This
stun. however, was not sufficient to
pay the passage of both himself and
his wife to France, so he returned
home alone.
Growing Minds
We are endowed with minds which
never, strictly speaking, grow up at
all. They retain a certain blessed
quality of youth, the more active they
are they retain it all the better. I
should be very sorry for any man or
woman who thinks that their educa-
tion Is achieved, Is a thing finished
and done with. At seventy and a
good deal more, I am learning things
which perhaps 1 ought to have learn-
ed at seventeen. But I am exceeding-
ly thankful that'I did not learn them
at seventeen, beause it has left me a
chance of learning them all through
life, and in the evening of life especi-
ally.—Sir Alfred Ewing ,Ii.G`.B,. PALS,
Knowledge
There is no difference. between
knowledge and temperance: for he
who knows what is good. and embraces.
It, who knows what Is bad and avoids
et, is learned and temperate; but they
who know very well what ogltt to be
clonal and yet do quite otherwise, are
igeortnt and ttupk L—Socrates,
Man'Ma4e Plant
May Prove Rich
Experiments Being Carried on
in West of England are
Promising
BIG MEN BACK IT
Would Upset Silk and the
Newsprint Markets—Mays
Be Patented
London, ---If the hopes of its hackers
come true "brotex"--a man -invented
plant like the seedless °range and the
loganberry—may give an entirely new
and paying crop to the British farmer,
and revolutionize the artificial silk
industry.
Brotex is the result of long work on
a 200 -acro farm in the west of Eng-
land which has been carefully fenced
off and which has for a long time ex-
cited the wonder and curiosity of
neighboring farmers, It is a plant
evolved by a very complicated series
of graftings and bleedings, possessing
the rapid growing qualities of tropical
vegetation and yet capable of being
grown even in a imperatively cold
country like England, It grows from
seed and matures rapidly, within 18
months, attaining a height of from 8
to 10 feet and a stem circumference
of from 8 to 10 inches.
Its. inventors claim that the seed
makes a rich oily cattle food. From
the bark is obtained a fibre 'fit for all
kinds of textile purposes similar to
those of flax ant: jute, From the core
of the plant is obtained a cellulose
for paper making.
It is claimed that an acre of these
plants will yield 3,735 pounds of fibre
ready for hackling in a textile min;
12,030. pounds of material ready to
be -made into paper pulp and 5,250'
pounds of seed for cattle feed.
BIG MEN BACK IT.
A. company has already been formed
for its promotion in England. On its
advisory council are such prominent
men as Sir Robert Horne, former
chancellor of the exchequer, and the
Earl of Selborne. .-The • corporation
now has two big questions before its
patent lawyers:
First, wit titer it is possible
to pa-
tent the plant itself, so that ali and
sundry may not grow it.
Second, the question- of patenting
chemical processes and ma
specially designed to utilize brot
ducts for textiles and papers
If the plant itself can be protected
by patent or, license it can ten be
grown only with the permission of the
company. If this cannot be done, the
company still expects to make big
revenue out of brotex by push the
patents of the special chemic
mechanical processes involved i
ing it useful in industry.. A. subsi
diary company may shortly be
in Canada.
If the pIant does all its owners
claim for it,
development. In many textile pro-
ducts now m
now form a
So far the experiments with brotex
Cellulose have shown it capable only
of being_ ma
paper. So far no work has been done
showing wh
economical in the making of newsprint
paper.
The pronto
be made int
tent themsel
hopeful that further'expeviments may
show possibili
Rum -Running
chinery
ex pro -
Laking.
Om
al nd
n mak-
formed
BIG FIELD.
there is a big field for
anufactured flax and jute
n important part.
de into a fine quality of
ether it is useful and
tees do not claim it -can
o newsprint. They eon
tent by
saying they are
ties in that direction,
ening a National
Disgrace
Toronto Star (Ind.) : The intimation
appearing in a Toronto morning paper
that Ottawa has reached an agree-
ment with Washington that will en-
able the United States to deal a death-
blow to rum -running would be grati-
fying, if true. Unfortunately, it 15 far
from the truth, and unless the Gov-
ernment of the country takes more
seriously its responsibility for coping
with the scandalous conditions exist-
ing along the border the -neighborly
relations between Canada and the
United States may become impaired..
Civil Service Salaries
Saskatoon Star -Phoenix (Lib.): The
question of salaries in the service la
an important one for the whole coun-
try.
ountry. Governments come and go, but
the greater part of the actual work
of running the public services is done
by the Permanent staffs. The effici-
ency of this army of workers is a
)natter of moment to every citizen
and probably counts for just as ntuoh
in the life of the country as the party
stripe of the • Government • in office.
To underpay employees is. certainly
not the way to secure diligent and
faithful work form them.
Provincial Surpluses
Halifax Herald (Cons.): • We hear
a great .deal about surpluses in the
other provinces of the Dominion, but
it is seen that without the proceedp
of the sale of liquor, all the previncee
have deficits, some of them very
heavy. This is a fact to be remem-
bered when provincialfinances are
under dlecussion.
Stout woman (to little boy) ."Can
you tela me if I can get through this
gate to the park?" Littla Boy—"I
geese so; a load of hay has .Met gone
tl rdtigh,"
h Spor
e This That Will Take Our falfffbreds
lT TOOK PLENTY OF PUSH TO WIN T1118 RACE
Pinehurst, 12.0., society got kits of amusement frau this novel wheelbarrow race when couples raced on horse.
back to one end of the field, the man pushing his partner back in a wheelbarrow, The 'United States
market for our saddle horses. UnS at s offers a great
Find Bones of
110 -Ton 1'�'Eguns
der
Largest Animal Known Dis-
covered in Gobi Desert
London.—Life in the Gobi desert,
in Mongolia, millions of years ago,
and 'the discovery there of the bones
of the largest animal known to science
—a monster weighing ten tons—were
described to a reporter recently by
Rey 'Chapman Andrews, the explorer.
Mr. Andrews,. who ,has just return-
ed from his fourth. expedition in the
desert, said:
„Our, greatest.,discoveries this .year
utero fossils, .,,The .bones rof. this new
mammal. which lived 'eight or nine
million years ago, show that it was
25 ft. long. and 14 £t. high to the
shoulders. :It was as big as a freight
ear.
• TOO BIG TO PACK.
We have the bones of about eight
or tenof these monsters and one'
skeleton is so huge that it was found
impossible to pack it, but we hope to
recover it next year, This animal will
not be named until it reaches the Am-
erican Museum of Natural History.
We also found a giant mastodon -a
prehistoric elephant -with a jaw eight
feetdong shaped like a coal scoop. The
front of its face is unlike anything we
have seen before. It lived about 6,-
000,000 years ago.
Among other finds were four Tita-
nothere skeletons—animals that are
something like the rhinoceros. These
have only been found before in Am-
erica, and this proves the migration
that must have taken place in early
times from Asia to America.
Another strange find was the skele-
ton of an animal—a new type—with a
skull shaped like a stock saddle, the
pummel, or its nose, pointing straight
up in the air and its mouth under-
neath. What it had int front of its
face no one knows.
We have always thought that traces
cf human Iife would be found in Cen-
tral Asia, but so far we have not
found anything very definite on the
human side.
We came across remarkable speci-
mens of stone age culture, and there
were traces that people lived there at
least 20 or 25 thousands 'years ago.
We found that they lived there in mil-
lions,- and on the plateau there was
evidence that they must have lived
largely on birds and frogs. '
Mr. Andrews said they could only
judge by the implements they found
that human life existed there because
no sign of caves was found.
The New Factor
London Daily Mail (Ind. Cons,):
We doubt whether it is generally real-
ized that when the Flappers come on
the register nearly half the electors
in this country will be between the
ages of 21 and 85, or just of that age
which is luost likely to be attracted
by the new prolitical evangel. "Youth
has always been .with Labour... .
Labour may -welLaook to doubling Its
last general election vote," the Com-
mittee of Industrial -Women's Organs.
nations has reported. Tais is the new
factor that is about to °Dine into play,
and ,it will have .a vast and decisive
influence on the -future if the Social-
ists are right.
He—"Why did you faint?"
She—"I thought you were going to
kiss me."
He—"But, darling, I didn't"
She—"That's why I fainted."
Few, if any, of the rights of the
people guarded by fundamental law
are of greater importance to their hap-
piness and safety than the right to be
exempt from all unauthorized, arbi-
trary or unreasonable inquiries iu re•
speer of their personal and private
affairs,—Mr, Justice Butler,
Nurse: "Bobby, what would your
father say if he saw you'd broken that
branch off?" Bobby; "He'd say trees
are not so well made now as they
were before the war."
Toronto's Food
Well Guarded
Care Taken by Health Depart-
relent Should Interest
Outside Places
OF VALUE TO HEALTH
First—Toronto's milk supply, from
the standpoint of quality and safety,
is second to no other on the continent.
Every quart of milk that has been
sold in Toronto for the past ten years
at least has contained the necessary
proportions of butter fat and of. total
solids to constitute a whole milk as
obtained from the cow. In addition
to this, ;Mt per cent. of the milk sup•
Ply is scientifically pasteurized and
then put into sterilized bottles which
are capped, all by machinery, so that
the human hand cannot come in bon -
tact with the ,milk from its pasteurize.
Non until it reaches the consumer.
4 of 1 per cent, that is not scion.
tiflcally pasteurized is certified.
Second—A11 waiters and waitresses
in restaurants. in Toronto, and those
engaged in the kitchen nireparing
food, are required to furnish to the
Department of Public Health'a certifi-
cate from a legally qualified medical
practitioner, that they are .not suffer-
ing from any communicable disease,
and also to certify that they have not
been suffering from any communicable
disease in their homes or in the homes
in which they oard or lodge.
Third -Toronto's perishable foods
are carefully safeguarded at every
Point by a rigid system of inspection,
from the producer to the consumer.
Fourth—All foods that are not pro-
tected by a peel, or that are not going
to be submitted to a temperature suf-
ficient to destroy all disease -producing
germs before .being eaten, are re-
quired to be efficiently protected from
dust, dirt, human and animal contami-
nation.
The current Mexican war seems to
be creating about as much impression
on the hard-boiled world as the re-
current comic opera affrays in China.
A junior clerk was "on the carpet,"
and at the conclusion of his wigging,
he was told to get rid' of the supercilI.
ons air. Next morning, he appeared
at the office with his hair cut.
Sport Again Becoming Popular in Motherland
WINNERS IN LADIES' CYCLE RAGE IN ENGLAND
, Mise E. Armstrong, winner, and Miss Beltnott, runner-up, in the ladies' race which was a .feature of
Marlborough A,ff. s Piaster Monday race meet at Heave Hilt
t
Interesting Angle
On Public Health.
In discussing the question of the
need for full-time holt hsorvlce in
lural as well as urban areas there are
came phases of the problem which one
is likely to forget, One realizes, of
course, that theoretically certain dig -
eases, for example, typhoid fever and
diphtheria, aro definitely preventable
and that with proper attention t
children many of the ailments of late
life may be prevented. One often fo
gets, however, the part that the phy
sioian must play in this and the train
ing he must have if he is to be conn
pietely effective,
Past generations of physicians hav
been trained in the school of curativ
medicine; and in spite of the knowl
edge which makes theist effective i
the curative sphere, too frequently, i
not generally, their attitude has been
in accord with that of the genera
public. The public wait to consult a
physician until incipient disease has
Weenie serious. And the doctor waits
for the serious disease to come to his
office, making little or no effort to
revent it
The physician of the future will pay
greater attention to prevention, and
in prevention the health officer must
be a specialist, trained by special de-
partments to do special work; and,
when the physician trained to do this
special work graduates from his medi-
cal school, there must be adequately
paid and responsible positions ready
for him, Otherwise he will ad desire
to take the special training which is
essential if he is to carry' on in a ear-
eer which will mean much to the cone -
infinity in which he does his life work.
Dr. J. G. Fitzgerald, Professor of
Hygiene and Preventive Medicine in
the University of Toronto, pointed out
in a recent interview the significance
of this phase of the question. At
present in spite of the work of great
philanthropies, such as the Rockefeller
Foundation, in founding special
schools for the teaching of hygiene
and preventive medicine, the pros-
pective health officer has little ahead
of him to encourage him to embark 'a
a public health career,. Training he
can get. if at the.end of his medical
course there•is nothing.but.a .position
in Ceylon or China available for him,
it is little wonder if he hesitates to
depart from the conventional ways
pursued by previous • generations. It
is not too much to say that if the
county health unit scheme is success-
ful the stimulus given to the teaching,
of preventive medicine will be imme-
diate,. and the •number of medical
graduates. prepared to pursue a public'
health career will be increased, Within
a reasonable time the effect on the
average health of our citizens will be
far more striking than most of us
imagine. • •
Half -Bred Horses
to Get Big Prizes
Royal Winter Fair New Classi,.
flcations Should Be Impetus
to Raising Hunters and
Saddle Horses
GET READY NOW
e Farmers and.. lighthorse breeders
✓ will welcome an encouragement to
r. produce half -bred hinters and saddle
- horses. The Ereoutive of tGg Royal
Winter Fair is recommending M the
Committee on Breeding horses ad-
ditions to the prize list for neat No,
O vember'a Pair to include the Brier
O Challenge Cup, competition open to
- mares owned in Canada which have
a ,been bred to register3d therein laved
f stallions in the season of 1129; and a
new section for 'half -bred foals sired
1 by a thoroughbred horse best suited
for a hunter, saddle horse or army.
remount. in the Briar Challenge Cup.
competition tate gtialillcation of the
mare must be vouched forby the
Secretary of the Canadian Hunter.
Saddle and Light Horse Improvement)
Society as being registered in their
records and by a service certificate
from the owner of the etre as being
bred In the current year to a Memel-
bred
horoughbred stallion registered in the Can -
Milan Live Stock Records and on the
approved list. The cup must be wont
twice, not necessarily conseouttvetye
by the same mare, to become the
property of the holder. Tis addition.
to the cup, the Brie: Arte, Oak
Ridges, Ontario, offer cash prizes
amounting to $465 to the first six
winners in the Claes.
The new amnion for halt -bred foals;
Is interesting in itself. It is Intended,
according to the recommendation of
the Executive, "to encourage tanners
and breeders to Probes a type of
horse best suited for a hunter or sad-
dle horse or any remount service by
the use of a thoroughbred stallion as
a sire with -mares having bone and sub-
stance," The sire must be recorded
in the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse
Society's Stud Book and the apples.
tion must be accompanied by the name
and number of the sire as well as by
a certificate of service front the owner
of the sire. Four classes are, design,
ated: Four prizes are offered tor a
1929 foal, and, five prizes eack . Ser a
yearling gelding or- ally, a two-year=
old gelding or mare, and a three-year-
old
hree-yearold mare or gelding. proposal roposal to add these classes
now le particular! timely. ..The Do-
minion Department of Agriculture re-
cently stated.that the prospects Por
light horse breeding are unusually
good. Interest • in the light horse
seems to be reviving and intheUni-
ted
n[ted States, Canadian horse reputation.
appears to be renewed. In .the newest
"Blue Book" of American Horse
Shows, Marguerite Fariee Bayllse,
writer on'llgat horses, states: "Ever
sine the colonial era Canadian horses
have been famous for soundness and
ability... It has always been asserted
that the dam of Justin Morgan was a
Canadian mare nd she could easily
have been both thoroughbred and
Canadian... The great sire of trotters,
Peter the Great, traced directly to a
Canadian stallion from south Ontario
and the famous families in New York
State were full of Canadian blood.'
.
Ital's Parliament
Opened by the King
A Blunder?
Slowness of . Britain's Latest
Warships Causes. Con-
sternation.
London.—Attention has been called
in naval circles here to the relatively
slow speed of some of the new ships
which, it is alleged, will be far out-
distanced by comparable foreign ships.
It is understood that the naw flotilla_
leader Codrington and eight new de-
stroyers' of the "A" class are designed
for 85 knots. The Codrington will 13
a ship of 1,520 tons, standard dis-
placement, carrying five 4.7 -inch guns,
She will thus be practically identical
with the Scott class of ten years ago,
except for the fact that the designed
speed will be 1.5 knots less.
The destroyers will be two knots
slower than similar boats constructed
some years ago.
Naval experts are alarmed at this
retrogressive program, pointing out
that the new French flotilla leader
Geepard has made 38.45 knots in full
power trials. Italy's new scouts of the
Condottieri class will steam at 37
knots. The new British ships will go
to the Mediterranean when they are
commissioned, and will face Italian
cruisers which could outdistance them
and blow them from the water.
The naval corresondent of the Wes-
tern Independent, a Plymouth paper,
says that attitude of the British naval
designers in regard to the speed fee -
tor is causing something like coil-
sternation,
American Capital in Britain
Glasgow Herald (Cons): While
America is blamed for attempting to
obtain control of Britith concerns it
would perhaps be well to examine the
cause of the present situation before
imputing or apportioning blame. If
Chis be done it will probably be found
that the root of the trouble lies in the
gambling mania which has spread
over the ccntiueuts of Europe and
America during the past year or so,
and ltas done much to hold up trade at
development in this country. , . . Ar. d
bitrage.dealing is an essential part of M
stock market business,' but it will be n
very unfortunate if its unrestrained d
use should be instrumental inautag- u
onizing the relationship of American t1
capital and British trade. 'i
a
When bridge work is mentioned 0
now you have to welt and see if it's es
teeth, bards, or viatlucts,--Dalian tl
Journal, le
The Jones .brothers—'Wesley and
Davy—are malting life for the rum- U
the runners'just one' thing after another. M
• • a -Washington Post. en
Declares Country Must Arras
to Make Herself Self -
respected
Rome.—Opening Italy's new parlia.
merit admist scenes of well-nigh un-
precedented popular ovations and
Roman pomp, Victor Emmen:el lg.declared that, inasmuch as successive
disarmament conferences have hither-
to proved abortive, it is henceforth the
duty of the state to "take measures
for defence, to render the. mother
country powerful and therefore res-
pected."
Power and respect, the king hasten-
ed to add, however, do not exclude a
sincere foreign policy of peace, but
rather favor it.
"My government," he went on ex-
plaining, "during the seven years has
given all states ample and decisive
testimony of this will to peace in pol-
itical and commercial relations:"
The opening of Italy's twenty-
eighth parliament was stamped with
all the ritual the Fascist regime has
cleverly revived for striking the imag-
ination of the pageant -loving citizens.
The Romans took full advantage of
the day's opportunity, lustily cheering
the royal family and turning out in
full force under the boon of cloudless
skies and warmer breezes than hail
been usual during this chilly spring,
The Two Leaders
London Daily Nems and SKrestuda
er (Lib) : Everyone recognizes the
ebt which. the Liberal Party owes to
r. Lloyd George. But it would bei
ngratefnl not to recognize also its
cep obligation to Sir Herbert Sant -
el. Mr. Lloyd George had kindled
o flame, but it Sir Herbert amniatad not laboured with so nnwearying
determination and so indomitable el
enrage through the last two years to
t the wood in order, it le not certain
int there would have hem anything
ft to catch lire.
Another difference between t
Ito
tilted. States and. Mexico .is thai
exican ex -Presidents don't write
agazine articles.—Sect ,+.?lege tented,