News at Random

News at random

Objekttyp: Group

Zeitschrift: The Swiss observer : the journal of the Federation of Swiss Societies in the UK

Band (Jahr): - (1947)

Heft 1061

PDF erstellt am: 25.09.2021

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Founded by P. F. Boehringer. The Official Organ of the Swiss Colony in Great Britain. EDITED WITH THE CO-OPERATION OF MEMBERS OF THE LONDON COLONY. Telephone: Clerkenwell 2321/2. Published Twice Monthly at 23, Leonard Street, E.C.2. Telegrams: Freprinco, London. Vol. 30. No. 1061. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11th, 1917. Price 6d.

An which occurred at the PREPAID SUBSCRIPTION RATES. Canfona/ explosion (Fortnightly issue.) Luminat works in Zurich-Affoltern caused the death of one workman, 6 issues, free 3/6 an- UNITED KINGDOM post other was badly burned and had to be taken to hospital. AND COLONIES j 12 issues, post free 6/6 V 24 issues, post tree 12/- * * * SWITZERLAND i J* issues, post free Frs. 5.- Miss Margaret Bondfield, head of the Ministry of 24 issues, post free rrs. 1U.— Labour in the 1929-1931 Labour Administration, has /Swiss subscriptions may be £aid into Postscheck-Konto given a series of lectures on " British women in public Pasie P 571S,). life " at the Kongress Haus in Zurich. * * * An additional credit of ten million francs has been voted by the town Council of Zurich, to combat the scarcity of housing accommodation, this brings the total of credits earmarked for this purpose since 1942 The Federal Budget for 1917, in spite to 33 million francs. Pet/era/ of stringent economies and putting the * * * axe on expenditure, shows a deficit of Accidents caused through reckless driving have 100 million francs. (The deficit was at one time esti reached alarming dimensions. In Zurich, a three year mated to be in the neighbourhood of 100 million old girl was killed and a twelve year old girl seriously francs.)' injured by a motorist, who, as stated, drove with The major part of this, debit balance consists of undue care. expenses for military purposes and various subven- tions. The military budget alone takes 3.2 per cent of the country's revenue. Since the termination of the war Switzerland has granted credits to foreign countries to the amount of ROYAL VICTORIA 775 million francs. # * * HOTEL Federal Customs receipts during the year 1916 have reached a grand total of 271.1 million francs, or 186.9 million francs more than in 1915. Not included ST. LEONARDS-ON-SEA in these figures are the custom receipts from tobacco, which are given as 66.2 million francs. (1915 : 18.2 SUSSEX million francs.) # * -X- Colonel Hermann Flückiger, Swiss Minister in Moscow, has paid his first visit to Monsieur Molotov, ' I O old friends and new guests Russia's Minister. Foreign -I whose standards of comfort, # * -* * The Swiss Minister in Rome, Monsieur de Weck, taste and service rise above the was received by the Pope at the Vatican. commonplace, the famous Royal S- -X- * Victoria Hotel, St. Leonards-on-Sea, A Rumanian Trade Delegation has arrived in Berne, in order to conclude a new trade agreement Sussex, extends a cordial welcome. between the two countries, Dr. Max Tröndle, Delegate for Commercial Treaties, will lead the Swiss Delega- tion. * * * HASTINGS 3300 (5 Lines) The Chilian Minister in Berne, Monsieur Carlos, Moria Lynch, has informed the Federal Council of his approaching departure. It is reported, that his recall "The Hotel of the South Coast" has no connection with the gold smuggling affair of the former commercial Attaché at the Chilian Legation. 4064 THE SWISS OBSERVEE. February 14th, 1947.

The death is reported from Berne, after a long rubber and driven by a motor was found. According illness, of Dr. Emil Bürgi, late Professor of pharma- to reports it contained 2| tons of Salami and while this cology and medical chemistry of the University in was being secured the two navigators found time to Berne, at the age of 75. He was the inventor of dive and swim away. * * * Pliyllosan. tire which broke out the Electrical Power X- * * A at station of the " Compagnie Vaudoise des Forces de office the The central post in Biel was scene of a Joux " caused considerable damage. well-planned robbery. Two local malefactors, en- * * * lightened by a third one who for a short time was em- A Neuchfttel practitioner, Dr. Pierre Hulliger, of ployed at this post office, managed to hide in the the Mont-Riant clinic, is claiming to have devised a spacious localities on Saturday night, January 25th. chemical serum which cures tuberculosis and can be The elderly post-master having absented himself for a administered at any hospital, high altitudes being no moment was, on his return, knocked down, tied, more a necessity. The treatment, he states, has proved gagged and locked in the lavatory. Well acquainted successful but public health officials have so far with the disposition of the safes and keys, the intruders declined his offer of demonstrating his secret method quickly helped themselves to 335,000 francs in notes at a cantonal hospital. and cash, reached the open and were later on joined # * * who about be convicted a by the third of the trio. the police were on A man, was to on charge Swiftly to commit suicide cut- their track and by Sunday night they were all under of house-breaking, attempted by a the Palais de lock and key. They were arrested at different frontier ting his wrist with piece of glass at " stations where in separate parties and in the Justice " in Geneva. He was taken to hospital in a company serious condition. of the conventional lady friends they tried to escape into France. The loot, a few thousand francs excepted, was recovered and the post-master, M. Audetat, Lieutenant- Colonel George Zublin resumed his duties again the following Wednesday. Army has been appointed Commander of the * * * " Zentralschulen " of the Swiss Army. Two schoolboys from Lugano noticed a couple of men swimming in the lake near Grandria and informed In order to cope with the steadily in- the local police. A small submarine made of india- Traffic creasing goods traffic Swissair is flying special freighters to London and back twice a week, i.e., on Tuesdays and Fridays. * * * A contract made between Oberland tourist centre and " Chartair Ltd." provides for a three times a week service between Croydon and Interlaken. The planes S3 — Airspeed Consul — carry five passengers and a crew of two. An ever increasing traffic is reported from the Zurich-Diibendorf Aerodrome. During 4946, 5,437 machines have 79,872 a "K N^ca K^E S" WEST END landed, carrying passengers, total of 297 tons of post, 466.5 tons of freight, and FANCY 1,487 tons of passenger luggage have been dispatched. *- * * BAKERY That there is not only an electrical power shortage ltd- in this country, but also in Switzerland, can be gathered which in the ESTABLISHED 1903 from the following extract, appeared January issue of the " Z'ai/tcw/ Gazette " : — " One of the results of the abnormally dry The High Class Pastrycooks and weather experienced in Switzerland this winter, and Restaurateurs under the consequent strain upon the hydro-electric power the personal stations, has been the return to Switzerland of the supervision of the Managing Director Swiss Federal Railways Brown-Boveri gas turbine locomotive. This locomotive had been on loan to the W. Bachmann, British (Swiss Origin) French National Railways since October, 1945, and had been working on the Strasbourg-Basle main line. It is now running between Basle and Zurich, as one Eranc/ies : of several measures undertaken to economise electric KENSINGTON power consumption. Another step has been the tern- porary abandonment of electric locomotives for PUTNEY - EAST SHEEN shunting, their place having been taken by the steam KINGSTON-ON-THAMES locomotives which are kept in reserve for WALHAM GREEN emergencies. On some lines, steam, locomotives are being used in place of electric for hauling passenger Heat/ Office ant/ Centra/ ßa&ery: and goods trains. The length of trains has been reduced to a minimum, and restrictions have been 48/54 DAWES ROAD imposed on the operation of sports and excursion WALHAM GREEN, S.W.6. services. Heating of trains has been reduced sub- •Phone : FULham 2000 & 6000. stantially, the current used for this purpose in nor- February 14th, 1947. THE SWISS OBSERVER. 4065

mal circumstances approximating to 13 per cent, of the total electric power consumption of the Swiss Federal Railways during winter." ACADEMY CINEMA * * * 165 OXFORD STREET, W.I GER 2981 According to the " IVortAamptow Oftj'omcïe/' Switzerland might become the owner of a " Seaport " : " A canal to link Lago Maggiore in northern Commencing' 5afurc/ay, February / A Italy with both the Gulf of Genoa and the Adriatic is being planned according to Swiss radio, which JULIEN DUVIVIER'S masterpiece said that a Swiss-Italian technical commission recently met in Milan to study details. "POIL DE CAROTTE" Such a canal would give Switzerland a water- (A., Ldn.) borne outlet to the Mediterranean. with HARRY BAUR & ROBERT LYNEN An official announcement stated that the techni- " One of the mcst moving chi/d-stud/'es ever seen on the screen." cal conditions for the first of the canal, building part LEJEUNE. running south-east from Lake Maggiore to Milan, a -CA. distance of just over 30 miles, were examined. The plan is of great interest to Switzerland, from outside that the Swiss franc was which has no seaport and sea-borne propaganda imports goods undervalued the Swiss look at the largely Genoa. The northernmost end of but preferred to through situation when the world state of Lake Maggiore with the town of Locarno, is in Swit- expected present zerland. unbalance ends. A London comment follows : " As there is no lack of evidence that both Canada and Sweden regret their precipitate action, the Swiss The Swiss Bank Corporation an- authorities seem to have been justified. Revalua- ccononi'M nounee that the accounts for the lions are no longer fashionable." year ended 31st December, 1946, For Switzerland a revaluation would deter show net profits of Frs.13,387,063 including the carry tourists and increase the burden of the internal debt. forward from the previous year, as compared with lu a measure that is true here though Canada is Frs. 1.0,627,647 for 1945. The total assets now amount helped by prices which on many goods have been to Frs.2,139,391,383 against Frs. 1,826,427,161 in 1945. lower than in the United States." At the General Meeting which is to be held on the 28th * * * February, 1947, in Basle, it will be proposed to make The " 1/oufraR Daily Star " (December 26th, 1946 an extraordinary contribution of Frs. 1,000,600 to tin; issue) writes about the boom in the Swiss Textile in- Pension Fund, to pay a dividend of 5% against 4% last dustry : — year and to carry forward an amount of Frs.4,387,663 Even though shortages of coal and labour against Frs.4,227,647. keep down production, Switzerland's textile mills * * * are prospering to-day as they have not done since From time to time rumours about a possible before the war. Most of them used the war years, devaluation of the Swiss Franc appear in the Daily when lack of raw materials kept them idle for long Press. The " Toronto (rtol>e " writes in their issue periods, to modernize their machinery. To-day they of December 30th, 1946 : — are working an average of forty-eight hours a week " European advices indicate that Switzerland as against thirty or less in war time, and while they is even less likely than last summer to follow the are not selling as much abroad as they did in the late example of Canada and Sweden in revaluing her 1930's, they are getting prices that are three to four currency. The authorities were subject to the same times as high.

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Cables : ACMETRANS, BARB LONDON. Phones : MONARCH 2692 (5 lines) 4066 THE SWISS OBSERVER. February 14th, 1947.

As justification for these prices, the manufac- been gathered last year in our country. Of this, 45,000 turers point out that they were buying cotton at tons of desert fruit Avorth about 25,000 million francs about twelve cents a pound in 1938, and to-day are has been exported to practically all European conn- paying about thirty-three cents. Within the year tries, including England. the price has gone as high as forty cents. More than # * * fifty per cent of all the cotton that goes into SAvit- A.-G. Leu, Zürich, another of the " big five " pro zerland's fine laces and embroideries or organdies pose to the General Meeting, which will be held on and muslins comes from Egypt. The other half of March the 1st, to pay a dividend of 4 per cent. (1945 : the country's raw cotton supply is about equally J=%.) divided between the United States and South * # » America. The following SAviss Banks have declared their Prices of labour in the country's textile mills dividends : Schweizerische Völksbank, 4 per cent. have more than doubled since 1938, they say, as (1945 : 3%) ; Genossenschaftliche Zentralbank Basel, they Avere somewhat below general SAviss wage levels 4 per cent. (1945 : 4%) ; Leihkasse, Neu nui n ster, in the pre-war years. To-day SAviss textile labour is Zürich, 5 per cent. (1945 : 5%). highly organized and lias been able practically with- * * * out strikes, to sign collective contracts with the mill Chemical and pharmaceutical products are in- owners at wages 130 to 140 per cent, higher than the eluded in a list of commodities to be supplied by Savü 1.938 levels. This is because the country's machine zerland to Argentine under a. new commercial agree- and metallurgical industries Avere oft' to an earlier ment signed recently. Argentine will ship edible oils, post-war start in the current export boom than the raAv materials and quebracho extract. textile mills were. Shipment of Egyptian cotton did not begin to arrive here in bulk until December 1945, and it is only recently that the cotton textile As the result of an appeal, by the production here has begun to soar. //nmamfarran committee " Help for l'olish The other industries drew away thousands of children " three tons of pro- Avorkers from the textile mills, Avhich have had to visions, and 500,000 tablets of soap have been dis- compete by wage rises to get them back again. Then patched to children's Sanatoriums in Poland. too, the textile manufacturers are lamenting the • * * - fact that about 45,000 servant girls in Swiss house- The Saaûss Red Cross reports that 450 Austrian holds who used to be drawn to the country from children have arrived at Buchs for a three months stay G'ermanv, Austria and Czechoslovakia, are iioav in Switzerland. They will be distributed amongst Saaûss, and these girls Avili not be available for work Saaûss families. in the mills until the girls from Central Europe # * # return. The mills are getting a few Italian workers, The Central Office for Prisoners of War in Geneva Avhom they did not have before the war, but not has, by the end of December 1946, dispatched the 60th enough for their needs. million communication to P.o.W. and their relations. The total of Saaûss textile production, it is Thus, from 1939-1946, a total of 60 million postal estimated here, runs about 70 per cent of its pre- communications have left Geneva to bring news about Avar level. The collapse of Germany and the havoc Prisoner of War to their families all over the Avorld. of Avar in the Balkans have forced the Swiss to look At one time as many as 450,000 postcards and letters for neAV markets, but they are getting them easily, Avere dispatched daiiy. because of world-Avide shortages in what they are oOo making. Before the Avar Germany took about one- A number of schools, Avhich Avere third of all Swiss cotton goods, and noAV takes prac- great English tically nothing. Hungary, Roumania, Yugoslavia transfered to England at the beginning of the last war, have iioav returned to Switzerland. and Italy Avere also good customers, but these mar- * * * kets have almost disappeared. The Saaûss Press denies the the Swiss in- strongly allegations In their place are benefiting by contained in made the Com- creased to the United a report by International exports States, particularly mittee for the study of questions. in edgings and and in European embroidery — trimmings — The suggestion that numbers of former lace net underwear. also a large on or They are doing have taken SAvit- fine business Nazis, especially officers, refuge in with Latin America — particularly whence Nazi Avith Brazil and Mexico. zerland, they are continuing Propaganda Argentina, In Europe only and helping to obstruct the Allied administration in Sweden is a good customer for the proving high Germany, is denied, and the figures Saaûss as the other flat- emphatically quality textiles, countries, adduced the be tened by report are declared to wholly in- by bombardments, are giving priorities on ex- accurate since of the number other of do they are in excess total port to types goods. They not want of Germans in SAvitzerland. emproideries, they Avant bridges. During the Avar the artificial silk mills Avere kept running here Avhen the cotton mills closed down. One result is that there are new artificial silk products — such as an imitation straw for straAv //afe WA7"C// repazrec/ 6y hats — whereas there has been very little progress jour in design or the creation of anything neAV in the cot- CHAS. ton mills." IMHOF SKILLED * * * 37, DULWICH ROAD, 8.E.24. :: WORK- Soft fruit to the value of 190 million francs has February 14th, 1947. THE SWISS OBSERVER. 40C7

Since the conclusion of the war there has been an investigation of Nazi organisations and nearly 4,000 Germans have been deported. Minister Stucki, at a Press Conference, to which Foreign and Swiss Journalist were invited, said, that the Government at the end of the war blocked all Ger- man owned accounts, and that those still remain blocked, the allegation, that considerable sums are still at the disposal of the Nazis in Switzerland, were ab- solutely unfounded. Fie remarked that the expulsions ordered by the Swiss Government during the last two years did result in suppressing all Nazi organisations AROSA 5400 feet Hotel Juventas of importance. * * * THE SUNNY SITUATED FAMILY HOUSE By way of introduction to the centenary célébra- ALL WINTERSPORTS IN SUN AND SNOW tions of the opening of the first railway in Switzerland, Full Board Fr. 16.- E. Streiff, Propr. Tel. (081) 3 11 17 which will be held throughout the country this year, a Favourab/e Arrangements for January and March travelling exhibition of railway drawings by children is to be held in 14 Swiss towns. An invitation had been WEISSES extended to Swiss children by the Swiss Federal Rail- KREUZ ways to tell in drawings their impressions of railways. 1400 m have Some 10,000 drawings were received, and these Chumm i d'Heimet been sifted a composed of members of the Swiss by jury health Society of Drawing Teachers. The best drawings are get in snow to be shown in the exhibition, and 10 per cent, of them and sunshine. will be granted prizes. The travelling exhibition will have the official title of " La jeunesse et les Chemins ST. MORITZ-Campfér Hotel Julierhof de fer " (Youth and Railways). * # » Tel. 3 36 96 6000 feet Thirty-three persons have been arrested in Vuil- Nearest Ski-hoist Suvretta. Good food in warm the and comfortable rooms. Garage, Bar, Dancing. lafaiis near Pontarlier, in connection with circula- Skating, Curling and all Wintersports. tion of Swiss banknotes. More arrests are ex- forged Pension Fr. 16—to 20.— C. Fasciati, Propr. pected. * * * number Swiss have A of Journalists arrived in Y Grisons 3750 feet Vienna to study conditions in connection with food PAN supply for the population of Vienna. A reception, in Pension MALUTT their honour was held by the Swiss Minister, Monsieur Feldscher, at which the Austrian President, Dr. GOOD FOOD — OWN FARM Renner and the Austrian Minister of Food were Full Board from Fr. 9.50 Miss C. Hartmann, Propr. present. * * * 4000 Reports from various parts of Switzerland an- Children's Home BRAUNWALD feet nounce heavy snow falls and low temperature. The Homelike atmosphere for Children in need of recreation, " Aegerisee " as well as the " Murtensee " are com- age I-I 4 years. Sunny, quiet situation, specially for Children pletely frozen over. A part of the lake of Bienne, with breathing and gland complaints. No infectious diseases. between Neuenstadt and the St. Peter's island, and Loving care — medical control. Nourishing food, 4 meals, the " Untersee " from Ermatingen to the outlet of the best alpine milk. Help in study. Easy skiing grounds. Trained Nurse. Phone : 78, Braunwald. Rhine, are also frozen. E. Elmer,

EDUCATION IN SWITZERLAND SWISS BANK CORPORATION, (.4 Compawy bp .STiar«« Incorporated tn .Sfa'ftzerZand) SWISS ALPINE COLLEGE DAVOS 99, GRESHAM STREET, E.C.2. 5250 feet and REGENT STREET, S.W. 1. lie, BOARDING SCHOOL FOR BOYS AND GIRLS Classics, sciences and commercial, modern languages. Summer and winter sport, open-air life. Age 12-20. Small classes. Capital Paid up s.f. 160,000,000 For fu// particulars app/y : Dr. Schaffer. Reserves - - s.f. 32,000,000 EDUCATION IN MOUNTAIN CLIMATE NEW YORK AGENCY Girls Institution and KlOStßFS 15 NASSAU STREET. Household School GRISONS 3800 ft. All Descriptions of Banking and Girls High School — Household Session Course Foreign Exchange Business Transacted Dr. and Mrs. Landolt