The Baily KINGSTON, ONTARIO. YEAR 98; No. 30. Expect Customs En ANXIOUS FOR Hon, James A. Robb Speaks Tr the Government. PIRLINENTS CHOICE the "So Called Dart Ad ministration" J, J. Dens, Jott, Pols Ot ttawa, Feb. 5.--A statement in to the proposed committee 'will investigate the charges ularities, in the Customs De- ment will probably be made in 'House of Commons to-day by x George H. Boivin, Minister of Customs. Just before adjournment last night, Hon. James . A. Robb, Minister of Finance, said that he un- derstood had been made in the negotiations for the appointment of a committee. He renewed the assurance that the Governmeat was " anxious to the appointment of a es to make the fullest pos- investigations. . Robb's statement following a motion for the adjournment of the debate which had been made by Sir George Perley, Conservative, Argen- teuil, Sir George said that apparent- some difficulty had arisen in the which were proceeding Minister of Customs and 1 of the Opposition over the mittee. In view of this, the ves were not prepared to alteration in the Stevens nt before the House. He purnment in order to give arn an. opportunity to nen ta modal for or pore: mh of i ee H S---- Surprise. " + When motion for a 1 recess 1 the House of Commons cathe up again for debate in the afternoon, Donald Sutherland (Conservative, jouth Oxford) expressed surprise at the Progressives had been will- to extend their support to the bargaining between them- Government, and he accept their word, was mie Knee fetter to J. 8. Woods- (Labor, North Centre Winni- the acting Govern- leader 'in Tuesday's debate was an admission of the inability of 1 i ion to carry _ present conditions, Mr. sald. The vote of the iast fall should have con- Prime Minister that the not want his Govern ini, Debate Degenerates. Denis (Liberal, Jollette) ex- te $0000000000000000 CARDINAL MERCIER HAD NOU FORTUNE TO LEAVE Brussels, Feb, §--The will of Cardinal Mercier, executed in 1906, and made public to- day, says he was without per- sonal fortune, having conse- crated to good works*his in- come from publications and other sources. Getettetrttetie + * * * * *v * * * * * $ * 2999000000040 4 the best possible under the circum- stances. The Minister had pulled out of his pocket a resolution dealing with the whole question. He was to he congratulated on being so. fore- handed. The frankness cf the newest offer was questionable. 'Mr. Ryckman criticized the Minis- ter pt Customs for not having taken criminal action against offenders. The report of Inspector Duncan no doubt involved other law breakers, and if action was not taken, the country would hold the Minister per- sonally responsible for allowing the criminals to go untried. BRICKLAYERS GET $1.10. London, Unt., Union Obtains Ten Cents-an-Hour Increase. London, Ont., Feb. 5.--Bricklay- ers in London will be paid $1.10 an hour after May 1st, 1926, and for the 12 months ensuing. This is an in- crease of ten cents over the rate for 1925. An agreement to this effect has been signed by, the Bricklayers' Un- ion and the wage committee of the London Builders' Exchange. Plaster- ers and carpenters more or less take what they can get and do not make any written agrangement. For that matter the figure arranged in the bricklayers' agreement is only a minimum rate. a toms DECLARES THAT LINER| HAD ONLY SCRUB CREW|: we ic # He , Equipment inade~ President Roost. Paris; Feb." SS --Oharkes that the United States liner President Roose: velt was manned by a "serub crew" and its life-saving equipment per- formed inadequately were contained in a speech made at.the American Club luncheon in Paris yesterday by Rev. Joseph W. Cochrane, pastor of the American church here, who was aboard the liner on the trip when it rescued the crew of the Antinoe a week ago. "+1 feel I have been to Barrie's Land--ths Never Never Land---out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, where 1 have seen in all its naked splendor buman life appraised as more sacred than property," he said. "In the iast few years we came to consider human life as cheap. Yet now, we have the great spectacle of a vessel owned by the United States; which, for four days and nights, fent its aid to twenty-four blackened, miserable seamen who, through the binoculars, looked like negroes." Dr. Cochrane said it was the radio compass in the first instance which saved the Antinoe, however, and that the United States liners have been equipped with these instruments for eighteen months. He next described the search which ended in finding the Antinoe at nightfall on Sunday, but the freighter 'drifted 100 miles away during the night. :| trucks and other automobiles an | snow-choked streets retard the arr. STORM TAKES AVY TOLL Tweaty Deaths Are Reported From New Eagland States. Died in NEW YORK SNOWBOND Three Men Were Rescued From Coal but Two of Them jed Later. New York, Feb. 5. -- More than 20,000 men Wake usy digging traf- fic channels thrdigh the streets of New York yesterday after seven and eight-tenths inches of snow had fal- len in a twenty-four hour storm during which five persons died of ex- posure and accident, in and near New York. At least five were drown- ed outside the harbor, and scores hurt in falls and traffic accidents due to the storm. Nearly a score of deaths, property damage and. partial disruption of transportation were recorded throughout the storm area. Shipping, harried by more than a week of se- vere storms, suffered new disasters. Thousands of passengers on coast- wise liners were snow bound in Long Island Sound where the steamers an- chored to await a clearing of the at- mosphere. Heaviest Snowfall. The heaviést snowfall of the year ded at 3 o'clock yesterday after- noon, just twenty-four hours after it had 'started. Clear weather 'without much change pf temperature, was predicted for today. ar toe thousand men, the great. fighting army :ever assem-| the history of the city, fought the snow all day, but thefr efforts were partly nullified up to 3 o'clock, as the. storm continuously furnished new snow to fight. More than 1,800 pieces of snow fighting mechanism--ploughs, scoops and brushes -- were turned loose against the snow by the street clean- ing department and: the surface rail- way companies. But the strategy in the war on the snow was that of opening Janes through the streets. The snow was taken from one place and piled up in another. Great walls and mounds of snow. remained by the curbing, narrowing the traffic channels and making - antomobile "travel difficult. Hardly ten per cent of the ordinary vehicular traffic was on the streets, however, so that no traffic jams resulted. > Fire Department Busy. Because of the number of stalled trucks, however, and the number of snow bound streets penetrated mere- ly by Alpine trails, the fire depart- ment issued last night the four-sixes signal. This means that all officers and men were required for duty throughout the might. The fire- fighters hate heavy snows worse than high winds and last night they had both. The wind achieved 50 miles an hour in temporary gusts late in the afternoon and the weather bureau warned agafiwt night and early mor- ning gales. Snows are dreaded by the firefighters chiefly because stall of the fire companies until the' Bhave made dangerous head- a aoet dramatic fucident of 2 storm was the rescue hy lifeboats ALONG COAST A FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1926. uiry Committee To Be Named In C WHATS DOING AT OTTAWA By R. J. Deachman. * Ottawa, Feb, 5.--The work of Parliament during the past week can be described in a sentence--it voted down the amendment of Ar- thur Meighen to the Speech from the Throne. The talk of Parliament dur-; ing the same week was endless, to describe it would require the Book of the Ages. Take for example one day, the day that started at 3 p.m. on Tuesday and ended up at 4.02 am. on Wednesday morning. That was a day confined almost exclusively to Tory oratory with very brief inter- ludes (rare as oysters in restaurant soup) of Liberal and Progressive talk. Hansard during that period covers - eighty-four pages = taking the regular standard of two columns to a page, eight inches to a column, "eight lines to an inch, each line two and a half inches long, and we have well over two thousand feet, not far from half a mile of talk set in type. Alas ! if it could only have been set to music how humanity might have been stirred. The whole row was over the ques- tion of granting the request of the Government for an adjournment un- til March 15th. Meanwhile bye- elections would .bé fought and an Opposition, if Parliament is sitting, can pour out an awful tale to the country in the way of reckless charges and cHeap campaign litera- ture. So to this debate the Opposi- tion hauled up its heavy artillery, Drayton, Bennett, Guthrie, Cahan, White, Hocken, Bristol, the redoubt- able Dr. Edwards and other support- ing batteries. That @ the game along well until 1 p.m., when Harry Stevens, frol Vancouver Centre, made his 'Wow somewhat famous charges sesinst the admin- istration of the Cu Départment. Take a squint at moment. He has "in Parlia- ment since 1911, if I mistake not. He was Minister of Trade and Com- is a bhairspliter, wherever the splitting of Bairs is a work of national importance. Ben- nett, with a won 1 power for ejaculating words, ublimbers 13-inch guns to smash chicken houses and uplifts the club of Hercules to brain a gnat. If anybody sat down on his hat he would pompously announce that the issues herein raised should be carried to the foot of the Throne. Manion at times is unduly hectic. His speeches always appear to me as high school productions. He is at the adolescent stage. There is guite a possibility that he may im- prove with tile. Stevens on the other hand, unless carried away by the partisan spirit, is fair. His argu- ments usually hang together. He avoids oversemphasis, listening to him does not develop Dgrve strain. Still man oe a Pe nature. You recall the strange case of Dr. Jac- kyl and Mr. Hyde. Once bitten by the virus of partisanship Stevens loses his head. He fairly eats fire, he becomes violent, he insinuates deftly, he muckrakes. That is what happened when he brought in these against the Department of c He made these charges for consumption in Prince Albert, not for. any real value the effort might have been in Parliament. The charges themselves can be summed up in a sentence. Mr. Stevens as- from the age of dime 'movels. Mr. Stevens rowed over this for two hours. It was in high tempo, it was real warm. If the clock in the tower had been running it would have stopped. v 3 * * - Then around two o'clock in the morning the House witnessed a re- markable scene., The Hon. George H. Bolvin rose to reply. It may be doubted if ever Parliament has seen a more crushing reply. In spirit and temper it was a splendid done. There was no excess of righteous indignation. No sparring for effect. He admitted there was smuggling. The Government was trying to stop it. There had been a man named Bisaillon in the employ 'of the Customs Department at Mont- real--in that department for years, even under Tory regime. He had been fired. Stevens had charged that certain files had been taken out of the Department and burned. Yes, when the former Minister left office he took his own personal corre- spondence with him. It had been packed for him by a secretary ap- evens for a pointed by the previous Government. The gentleman had it yet, only now it was in his office. Would the Op- position like a committee to inves- tigate these mafgters. He had only one thing to suggest. Let them draw up the resolution and providing it was sufiiciently thorough in scope, providing that provisions were made to go deep enough and far enough and wide enough, he would agree to it. What was more, he insisted on it. He was determined he would have it. The effort of this on the Progres- sives was magical. Stunped at first by the savagery of the Stevens at- tack, they had recoiled for a mo- iment. But when Boivin extracted the fuse, removed the high explosive and left tha 'whole things floating round in the air, they looked at one in amazement and said: "18 that" Commission used to tell a good story of old days in the west. One ranch- er was explaining to another how "Bill" had taken to drink. "We had a bottle together the other night," he sald, "and Bill took more and more until he got smaller and smaller and then went clear out of sight." That is how Stevens ap- peared during the clearing up pro- cess. He sort of drifted into ob- scurity. Everybody wonders, of course, how Stevens arrived at an estimate of $30,000,000 loss by smuggl¥ Our total 4mports of dutiable goods from the U.S. amount to $300,000,000; the rate of duty fs around 20 per cemt. So, accord- ing to this dream, story we must have smuggled $150,000,000 worth. That is too huge a joke even for a campaign story, let alone Parlia- ment ! . * ® » Still the debate goes on. Parlia- ment has some amazing features. Take that whole day's outburst of oratory from the Conservative side and what did it amount to anyway, No one could claim that Stevens' speech was evidence. It was not, it was partly politics. Supposing he had stood up and said: "We on this side feel that the Department of Cus- toms could be administered more effectively. Let's have a committee to look into things." Boivin would have answered "su Then the evidence would have been brought out and Stevens, after the .| investigation, with the evidence in hand, could have presented the case. That, however, would have been common sense, the other way is par- exhibition of how things should be| dy PPPS FPPEPOTROINIROS * # UNABLE TO SOLVE + - LETTER MYSTERY ¢ * -- & Ottawa, Feb. 5.-- Officials # of the R.C.M.P., who have been # attempting to solve the identity ¢ & of the "poison pen" letter & # writer, who has sent letters at- 2 # parliament, told the Journal 3 # last night that they were as & # far away from a solution of the & 4 mystery as ever, + + CPLR PPPL2RTRRGYY Forty Chrisitns Massaced Ina Vilage of Syria London, Feb. correspondent at Damnascus, Syria, says the massacre of forty Christians in the village of Marunch, news of which was received last night, indicates thet an anti-Christian move- ment is developing, and this is confirmed by happenings in Damascus. : 5.--Reuters Suzanne Lenglien to Meet .- -- Helen Wills of the U.S. Nice, France, Feb, 5-- The long awaited match between Helen Wills and Susanne Leuglen now appears to be definitely assured in the Carl- ton tournament next week. The French lawn tennis star announced today that she would play in singles, in which the United States champion is also entered. They are expected to meet in the finals on February 14 or 15. ------ erases) PORTSMOUTH BREWING COMPANY ON TRIAL F it Is Charged at Almonte With Unlawfully Selling Liquor. 'The 6 cap of Rex v&. The Lake Falls on rm charge against the brewing company is that of unlawfully selling liquor contrary to section 40 of the O.T.A. The brewing company is being repre- sented by Mr. Haverson, K.C., Toron- to, and the Crown by H/ K Me Kimm. Up to the time of going to press evidence was being presented by the Crown, , A Real Patriarch. Rostov, Russia, Feb. 5--Ivan Tre- tya, reputed to be the oldest peas- ant in Russia, died here yesterday at the age of 138. Ivan was married three times, tak- ing his third .wife in his 100th year. He had twenty-four children, the eldest of whom, a daughter, is sow 101. He never left {he soil was never All, and retained his hair and teeth to the end. He claimed to have fought in every war in which Russia engaged for the last 118 years, Senk Trenton Films. Toronto; Feb. b.~Nymerous states in the Union and mdny and far-flung sections of the British Empire have made requests for {80 motion picture films produced at the Ontario Government studios at Trenton. The films deal with in- numerable provincial activities, de- velopment and resources. Pitish Whig ommons To-day ARRESTS MAN ON A CHARGE OF BURGLARY t10, R. Wagar, of Entei, Taken Into Custody. THE RAILWAY STATION 4 At Harvowsnith and Post Office at Verona Were Robbed---A Horse and Catter Takes. During Thursday redsy. nights the post office at Verona was robbed of all {the cash, money orders and stamps on hand, while at Harrowsmith, the railway station was entered and robbed of a book of money orders. At Harrowsmith, a horse and cuts ter, the property of Mr. David Murs ton, was also stolen. Early on Friday afternoon, Chief of Police Barrett of Napanee, accoms= panied by County Constable Greer, placed under arrest a man giving the name of D. R. Wagar, and his home' as Enterprise, on a charge of com« mitting the robberies, snd handed over his prisoner to Provincial Cons stable Maclachlan of Kingston, and he will come up for trial in Kings ston. ad Chief Barrett not only made arrest, but secured the horse : cutter stolen from Mr. Murton Harrowsmith, and also secured tically all of the loot the man taken. Good work on the part Chief Barrett resulted in the arrest. ------ Arrest at Napanee. Chief Barrett was notified the Harrowémith and Verona beries, and was on the watch On lsuy developments in his of |Around ; ternoon. ThetP to drive out of Napanee. pis The is about twent; years of age, and, according to report of the police, he has a re both in Canada and the .U States. Provincial Constable lac! was notified of the robberies on F day morning. Robbery at Verons. "Mr. Joseph Wilkins is the master at Verona and keeps a b shop in connection with the office. Entrance was secured the post office by breaking open is | door in the shop, leading to the office. Nothing was known of the 30h at Verona until Mr. Wilkins ¢ up the office on Friday mo No noise or disturbance of any was heard during the night, and! robbery caused a big sessation inspector, of Kingston, was n and he went out to Verona to an investigation and to learn the tent of the loss. _Harrowsmith Rubbory. At the C.P.R. station, in