Chilling words from Moscow

People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs of the Soviet Union Leon Trotsky gives a May Day address as troops march in Red Square, Moscow. The inscription on the left reads "Proletariat of all countries still under the rule of the old world, join us on this 1 May. Our Greetings." — Otago Witness, 1.7.1924

Riga, Latvia: Soviet leaders who assure foreign pressmen of their peaceful motives, and explain that the Soviet military preparations are solely of a defensive nature, adopt an entirely different tone when addressing select gatherings of their own followers.

Trotsky, at present, is trying his hardest to instil a martial spirit into the Red Army by almost daily speeches, in which he unfolds vistas of great and glorious revolutionary wars. One of the most striking of his recent speeches was delivered at the Moscow Military Academy. He unfolded a plan for organising all Russia's peacetime industries on a war footing. He said: "We must regard the whole of our economic life from a military standpoint. This applies particularly to the chemical industry, which we must systematically organise for chemical warfare."

— The Times (London)

Elusive Fiordland moose

Mr L. Murrell, a Government ranger who watches the interests of native bird life in the dominion's National Park, Westland, is at present on a short visit to Dunedin. Interviewed by a Daily Times reporter, Mr Murrell said that he had been engaged in opening up new country on the West Coast for the past three years. In referring to the wapiti and moose country, Mr Murrell said that it was only a 15-mile run in a launch from the head of Doubtful Sound. The moose, which were natives of Alaska, had been liberated in Supper Cove, Dusky Sound, about 14 years ago, and were the gift of the late President Roosevelt to the New Zealand Government. The herd still occupied a limited stretch of country, roughly about three miles by six in extent. Recently Mr Murrell spent four days in that country without getting within range of the moose, and he soon realised that the whole season could be spent in the moose country without firing a shot. It was very difficult to estimate the number of the herd, and a conservative estimate would be between 80 to 100.

Parents to pay for damage

In the Juvenile Court, before Mr J.R. Bartholomew SM, four boys, ranging in age from 14 to 15 years, were charged with throwing stones at St Kilda to the damage of property. Each had pleaded guilty. Senior-sergeant Mathieson said that on May 19 Constable Smith noticed that some gas lamps were broken, and upon investigation he found that they had been broken by the boys. The damage was estimated at 7 shillings. Mr Lock (Juvenile Probation Officer) said the boys were sons of respectable parents and had good homes. He could offer no explanation for their lapse. The Magistrate, addressing the boys, said they were too big to get into such mischief, and they ought to have more sense. He would leave it to their parents to chastise them, and would admonish and discharge them.

— ODT, 19.5.1924 (Compiled by Peter Dowden)