The Truth Aljout the "Dead-
Paboar, 85000, "yee eaboar ock:"
Russia's Offers and fenjeved the apparently impesibe Claims London, May 6. generally considered a very serious body, but in Victoria it has recentiziven the public something laugh about. Dame Nellie Melba, the. great singer, has brought to Australia a Royal Opera Company, which has been performing crowded houses in Melbourne. Most of the principals and the whole of the male chorus are Italians or foreigners, and this. fact may account for the contretemps which has greatly disturbed the church, Te seems that the Earl and Countess lof Stradbroke bethought—themselves to entertain the vocalists in Government House grounds, and as the proposed guests were mostly engaged on week days the Vice-Royalties chose a Sunday. Everything went off satisfactorily, and hosts and guests, not the least important of whom was Dame Nellie, had avery pleasant time on the beautiful lawns and in quite decent weather. Then terrible to relate it was discovered that four of the young women had found tennis and balls and) amused Ives for a few minutes knocking the balls about. This desecration of the Sabbath was Drought up at x Presbyterian Assembly and very solemnly. de-Dated. At first it was proposed to censure the Governor of the State for permitting tennis to be played on Sunday, but it was felt that this would be disloyal, and eventual-a very mild resolution was passed in which the god-fearing qi ties "of Lord Stradbroke were emphasized, the tendency to nonobservance of the Sabbath deplored, and his excellency's own pecadillo [just hinted Te must' not he The thought for a ment that all the clergy present belonged to the old school of divines who condemned to everlasting torment the small. boy who whustled of went tuthing on the Sawbath" "There was ut least tone who bad studied his history: to such good effect that he was able to tell the assembly that John Knox, the great reformer, played bowls on the Sabbath, while others -apeared to think that in the original motion they had caught a tartar and would fain let him go on tha easiest terms possible, The statement made. by the Literal "member for Lancaster, Mr. O'Neill, that "the Anglo-Soviet conference has reached a deadlock on the question of debts,"
largely justified in substance, writes our Rosen. ocean, not, perhaps, in form. ly it is scarcely warranted, as the Committees and. Sub-Committees sitting on the subject of claims fand "counterclaims have not got beyond the stage of mere filing of such claims and. counter-claims. Bue sould he, "Soviet delegates persist in. their uncompromising resistance to claims tabulated by British sufferers from the Russian revolution, while urging in full the Soviet "bill" "for " counterclaims in respect of "foreign interventions," and thus making' the Russian counter-claims exceed the claims of British subjects by many millions sterling, mo agree ment can, of course, be possible.
According to the latest information available, the Rossians, while refusing to. bind themselves principle to the recognition of pre-far and war-time debts" of "the Toariat and Kerensky Russian Governments, have intimated their willingness to recognize the claims of certain groups of British ex editors.
Sich British creditors those who have suffered Government application of its cognition, howe the claims of British subjects who have suffered as the result of the Revolution. At the same time, the Soviet Government demands' the unconditional recognition of all Russia's counter-claims, which. amount to river four "thousand The Soviet Delegation, we are given to understand, has been advised to drop this matter for the time being and to seek some form of agreement with the various separate groups of British private creditors of Russia them-Selves. Certain informal conversa-ions, as previously announced in these columns, with such groups have already been proceeding for some time.
Seaplane Flight Round Dominion The seaplane flight around Australia, to which T referred about.
th' azo was completed and ning Wing-Commander 8. J. Gable and Flight-It. Ivor Me-Intyre landed in the Bay off St. Hilda, a Melbourne suburban watering place, to be warmly greeted by thousanidé "and officially welcomed. They left to ly round Australia tin-obtrusively on April 6, and covered 500 land miles in approximately 90 flying hours. The same journey undertaken by one of our ordinary coastal steamers would have occupied 22 days and nights. The ground organization, which was in the hands of the Vacuum Oil Company was excellent, no fewer than 82 depots being established along the coast. The men were to test the qualities of the Departmental seaplanes, of which there training college for Communist are only half a dozen in Australia, They are of the Fairey type and are fitted with powerful Rolls-Royce engines. They are designed to carry three men, but in this case additional petrol took the place of fight of The seaplane stood well. It experienced very bad weather in, the South, the intense heat of the tropics, and only failed when its The Russian Guarantees, The Russian Delegates are still clamouring for substantial credi from the British Government, or, ut least, for an extension of credits under the Trade Facilities Act to the amount of £30,000,000 return for a Government loan with credit facilities, it is stated that Moscow may be inclined to give the following economic and political guarantees (1) The sale or transfer to this country of the Fastern Chinese Railway; (2) The withdrawal from Afghinstan of all Soviet diplomatic, economic, and propaganda representatives, delegations,—missio agencies and of all organia tions or branches of the Third (3) The closing of the special propagandists and anti-British revolutionary agitators established in Tashkeut and composed as to personnel of anti-British subversive organizations in Eastern countries, (4) The complete cessation i-British propaganda in Pers the withdrawal "from that country of all organizations and agents acting on behalf or in connexion with the Third International, These terms, it is believed, will be discussed at the secret sessions new engine, and in the final fly to of the pending congresses. of the 'a heavy gale. compelled the Communist Party and of the Third International which will be held aviators to turn back to the nearest petrol depot. Al, however, has in Moscow in May and June, and ended well. The two officers are until then no final decision can be being lionized, and in their speeches expected to be taken by the Soviet frequently mention the immense jovernment, areas of country they saw from the Under the circumstances little air which apparently had never advance from the stage which the been even trodden by a white man. work of the Conference has now Their work will of course have an reached is likely for some weeks, important bearing on the defence and to this extent the official issue, which is steadily taking the assurances denying a breakdown form of underwater craft and fly-lean "be accepted as being no ing machines, Sielation of the truth
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.