Sherbrooke daily record, 1 avril 1931, mercredi 1 avril 1931

[" I i>hrrbraokp iailg Iwnrib Established 1897.SHERBROOKE, QUE., WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 1931.Thirty-Fifth Year.MEMBERS IN SESSION UNTIL EARLY IN MORNING TO PASS MONEY BILLS Debate on Address in Reply to Speech from Throne Adjourned Until Parliament Reassembles on April 13\u2014 For Entire Afternoon and Most of Evening Opposition Members, Chiefly Three Laborites, Pressed Government to Renew Its Efforts to Deal With Unemployment and to Continue Relief Payments.OVER 2,000 PERSONS RENDERED HOMELESS.KOVNO, LITHUANIA, April 1.\u2014Over 2,000 inhabitants were rendered homeless today by fire ¦which destroyed four hundred houses in the town of Plunge, near here.The homeless were temporarily quartered in school houses.TTAWA, Ont., April 1.\u2014 * ( J After sitting until early this morning in an effort to dispose of the supplementary estimates.Parliament today will have only a short session before adjourning for the Easter recess.The finishing touches will be put on the money bills, and then they will go to the Senate for its consent.The debate on the address in reply to the Speech from the Throne has been adjourned until Parliament reassembles on April I 3th.Faced with a deadline of midnight, the House of Commons last night made a belated effort to apply all haste in dealing with the estimates.Because the Government fiscal year ended on March 3 1 st, it was necessary ' pass the money bills before !\t' hour.Only the final stages r be applied to the bills today, and because a new fiscal year began i at midnight, it will be necessary to amend the bills to make them apply to the expenditures incurred prior to that hour.Warmings of widespread distress among the laboring classes of Canada leading to riots and serious developments, were, heard in the Commons yesterday.For the entire afternoon and most of the evening, | Opposition members, chiefly the three Laborites, pressed the Government to renew its efforts to deal with unemployment and to continue relief payments.The votes for this purpose, they said, expired when the f-.scal year ended yesterday, and no time should be iost in voUrg addi-tk-\u2019.ai relief.Because one of the Labor members, Angus Madnnes, (Vancouver South), lost track of time and exhausted his forty minutes without moving a motion, the abortive debate petered out.Thj motion, which would have been interpreted as e vote of want of confidence in the Government contemplated urging Upon the administratin'! the necessity of taking immediate steps to combat unemployment, No member of the Government took part, or replied to the charges.When the motion was not put, the House automatically went into supply and proceeded with the supplementary estimates for the balance of the evening.Two Quebec Liberals, Dr.J.A.Denis and Martial Rheaume, said the Bennett Government had failed to implement its pre-election promises.Only a few days ago two thousand men walked to the Montreal City Hall in search of food.Did this look as if the Government had ended unemployment .asked Mr.Denis.It was nearly 9.30 o\u2019clock when the House turned to the estimates.Tho first real snag was encountered when an item of $900,000 for additional unemployment relief for returned soldiers came up for discussion.R.W.Gray, (Liberal, Lamb-ton West), asked the Premier why the relief payments for veterans had been cut uff by Hon.Murray Mac-Larsn, the Minister.This had not been done, the Premier declared.The whole incident had been misunderstood.The Minister\u2019s statement to the press on the incident had been misinterpreted .Did the returned soldiers in the Cabinet agree to the temporary suspension of the payments, Mr.Gray wanted to knew.When no answer was given, Mr.Gray asked if no Minister was permitted to speak.Major C.G.Powers, (Liberal, Quebec South), asked the same, question.Mr.King said the impression was abroad that individual Cabinet Ministers were not free to speak, that they were nonentities.Mr.Bennett declined to reply to the language used by the Liberal leader.The item finally passed after Major Power said the Government had been forced to rescind its suspension order by a wave of protest from all parts of the country.This was denied by the Prime Minister; the Opposition was attempting to make political capital from the incident.In a statement issued last night Senator G.D.Robertson, Minister of Labor, said that the expenditures for relief would not end with the dose of the fiscal year yesterday.Payment would be made up to the end of June in all provinces except Ontario, where they end June first, the Minister said.ATTACH NO SIGNIFICANCE TO VISIT OF AMBASSADOR Minister to Japan Using Customary Leave of Absence to Journey to Canada.OTTAWA, April 1.\u2014 Although Hon.Herbert Marier, Canadian Minister to Japan, will probably discuss with the Government a number of matters, particularly bearing on Oriental trade, his visit to Canada during May is without special significance.At the Department of External Affairs it was stated yesterday that Mr.Marier merely proposes to take the customary leave and will use it to visit Canada.Information received at the department is that he will leave on May ', which is later than the date men-,ned in news despatches from Van-uver.REPORTS ROOM OF PRINCE ROBBED AT BUENOS AIRES Argentine Newspaper Claims Police Have Recovered Jewelry and Arrested Prominent Citi- zen.BUENOS AIRES, April 1.\u2014The newspaper Critica said yesterday that tho bedroom of Prince George at the embassy was ransacked on the night of March 14th and personal jewelry of considerable value stolen.Since Prince George and tbe Prince of Wales left for Brazil, the newspaper said, police have recovered the valuables and identified the thief.As yet unnamed, he was said to be a prominent young Argentine who had been so friendly with the royal visitors that his presence at the embassy was not considered suspicious.The Prince of Wales and his brother w re attending the British Empire Trade Exposition during the time of the purported robbery.HOPES HELD THAT QUEBEC HOUSE MAY CONCLUDE SESSION TONIGHT Little Business of Importance Now Remains Before Legislature\u2014Bridge Matters Settled at Sitting Yesterday\u2014 Numerous Private Motions Discussed\u2014Bill Amending Elections Act Awaits Third Reading.QUEBEC, April l.\u2014 With only# the question of Montreal Jew- ish Schools, the lowering of rates of succession duties and a few minor bills awaiting study, the Quebec Legislature has virtually completed its labors for 1931.As no discussion is expected regarding the j Succession duties bill, there appears ! to be no reason why parliament can- ¦ not prorogue tonight or early to- j morrow.The afternoon session yes-, terday was spent in discussing motions of private members.\t1 The bill regarding the preparation | of the election lists in provincial matters still awaits third reading of the bii! itself, though the fight was made on the resolutions, and the House divided accordingly, on party lines.Bridge matters again came to the forefront in the Assembly at the morning sitting, the issue arising ' over the Caughnawaga bridge.This bridge is one of the eight provided for in the bill of lion.J.N.Fran-coeur, Minister of Public Works and Labor, but it so happens that a commission has been named to construct the bridge, and it is now deemed necessary to amend the act creating the commission in case the federal Government should make a grant in j the matter, and Hon.Honore Mercier, Minister of Lands and Forests, who represents Chateauguay County, j brought in the measure.It is Mr.Mercier who brought on the original bill.The minister explained that because of the negotiations already entered into with the Federal Government, it was wise to continue the commission on the Caughnawaga bridge in effect.The members of the commission had worked hard, and had made certain progress, and in case Ottawa did wish to help, it was well to give the commission the necessary power to build the bridge.Tho provision in question permits the question to allow the Caughnawaga bridge to be built by the commission, which means the commission would give out a contract, and in that sense the bill is a law of exception as against the bill of linn.J.N.Francoeur.The whole | substance of Hon.Mr.Mercier\u2019s bill ! is to the effect that should the tolls on the Caughnawaga bridge be in OBJECTION WAS REGISTERED BY COL RALSTON Former Minister of National Defence Did Not Like Manner in Which Letters Had Been Sent Out to Postmasters.INVESHGAHON ISC0MPLEIÏD1N R-101 DISASTER CAUSE OF PLANE CRASH IS BEING INVESTIGATED OTTAWA, Ont., April 1.\u2014Letters issued under the signature of the Deputy Postmaster-General, which required postmasters to make affidavits that they had not been guilty of political pavtizanship, were severely scored by Hon.J.L.Ralston, former Minister of National Defence, in the House of Commons last wight.In committee of the whole, the House was reviewing an appropriation of $376,623.18 owing by the post office to the Printing Bureau, an accumulation of overdrafts since 1927.The department.Colonel Ralston said, had issued those communications.adding the threat that failure to reply or to make the affidavit would be taken as indication of guilt, with consequent dismissal ol the individual concerned.Such procedure violated the practice of trying such cases in the ordinary way, and was contrary to British justice which presumed a man to be innocent until found guilty.The postmasters were not informed of the nature of the charge or of the person making it.In no case bad a postmaster been dismissed until ho admitted guilt, the Prime Minister replied.He assured Colonel Ralston that the paragraph which interpreted failure to to respond an admission of guilt would not be acted on.Some amusement was caused by A.W.IC.Neil (Independent, Comox LABOR MEMBERS DEMAND RELIEF FOR UNEMPLOYED OTTAWA, Ont., April 1.\u2014Visions of unemployment riots from one end of Canada to the other when the emergency Federal Government giants, passed at the emergency session of Parliament last fall, (Continued on Page Nine) c CITY HALL IS DESTROYED IN OTTAWA BLAZE sufiicient, the Government may make ¦ Alberni), who put in a \u201cplea for up the difference.\t| forgiveness on behalf of a postmas- Members of the Opposition claim- ' ter in his constituency who had been ed that it would have been possible ! campaign manager for his oppo-for Lhe Government to make an j nent.\u201d The item was passed, arrangement with the Canadian Pa- : cific Railway Company whereby the' company\u2019s bridge would be widened I to accommodate motor traffic, and | the cost would have been only $60,- ! 000.Hon.Mr.Mercier said the matter was much exaggerated.Stories of negotiations with the Canadian Pacific Railway Company had been common since 1910, and there had j never been a question of anything j like $60,000.The only figure men-\t_______ tioned had been $2,000,000, higher j n i r d \u2022U'\t\u2022 d \u2022 than the cost of a new bridge.Mr.! Larg« 1 a' t °t Building in Ruins Mercier said lie did not talk from | evidence of a third party, for ho bad personally discussed the matter with the C.P.R.The resolutions ami bill were finally disposed of.The House also disposed of the bill to allow the Government to increase from $5,000 to $10,000 a mile, the grant for the building of a railway line which will complete the Lake St.John belt line.At tbe afternoon sitting J.E.Charbonneau, Liberal member for Laprairie NapierviHe, brought on his bill regarding the conversion of joint stock companies into co-opor-ative agricultural associations.He (Continued on Page 7) Board of Inquiry Decides that Tragedy Was Caused by Bad Weather and Leakage in Gas LONDON, April 1.\u2014The crash of the giant British dirigible R-101 last October 5th, which took forty-eight men to their deaths, was due to a combination of bad vvea-ther and leakage in the gas bags the official board of inquiry ruled in a voluminous report made public yesterday.The human element did not enter into the crash, the board reported, except to the extent that the watch had just been changed before the ship dived in a downward current.The helmsman, the report said, was yet unaccustomed to the feel of the ship.The board found no basis for questions that the ship was sent on its intended journey to India before it was ready as a pol.tical stunt in connection with the Imperial Conference.In its report the inquiry board says that the flight unquestionably would not have been made so soon and further tests would have been undertaken if it had not reen for the Imperial Conference, but nevertheless, all concerned had full confidence in the ship and believed her able to meet any emergency.The official report contains no recommendation looking toward an avoidance of similar disasters recurring.Leakage, culminating in a substantial loss of gas from one or more of the bags in the forepart of the ship, is held by the board to have been \u201cthe immediate cause\u2019\u2019 of the crash.The ship fell near Beauvais, France, in the early hours of the morning.The report was formulated by Sir John Simon, president of the board of inquiry, and by Colonel W.T.C.Moore-Brabazon and Prof.C.E.Inglis, the otner member.The vote of the Ooard was unanimous.In its conclusions, the report agrees closely with the opinion expressed by Dr.Hugo Eckenei-, commander of the Graf ZepepLn, who testified at the inquiry.After exhaustive discussions of the airship\u2019s construction, of the result of preliminary trials and the conditions under which the ship set out on its fatal flight to India, the investigators set themselves to examine every possible cause for the