1928-08-09 — Page 2

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THE HONG KONG DAILY PRESS, THURSDAY, AUGUST 9th,

BLOOD FEUD OF THE MAFIA.

HOME OF GANG WARFARE.

HINTS FOR CHICAGO GUNMEN.

#

[DY SIR PERCIVAL PHILLIPY.]

PALERMO, Sicily, Although the Mafia preyed, indus- tiously en ali etasses of society in Sicily, they were no less ready to fight each other. Some of their wpras crimes, committed with cold. -blooded ferocity, arose out of the warfare between the rival groups or gangs.

These blood feuds, which often began over a trivial dispute be tween two leaders concerning ter ritorial rights, developed with as tounding rapidity. Within a few weeks entire families might be wip ed out in consequence of a single murder. Women and children suf- fered equally with the men. If the Matose

list for on the DENG Assassination could not be reached Casily, his relatives were killed as un evidence of good faith.

This gang warfare was the logical development of a creed that existed from the earliest days of the Mafia. If your friend or your enemy be- trayed you or otherwise interfered with your sacred rights, you simply exterminated him.

Italinn The gunmen that have terrorised Chi- each are merely following the an cient precept handed down for generations. Their brethren of the Sicilian hills never reached the machine-gun stage of development, but they maintained the old prin- ciple a stoutly with the more primitive shotgun and rifle:

The history of these vendettas ist too long and involved to be related in detail. One classic example wil: illustrate how they piled up the cusualties. Two gangs flourished evilly et Piana del Colli. They were known as the Gentili and the Speracini. The Gentile who was chiet of the first-anmed band was shot by a Speracias. His nephew took his piner, and the war was on.

35 Killed..

During the next few weeks more than men and women on both sides were killed. The Gentili were disappointed on one occasion when they expected to find, the chief of the Speracini at home. They sur rounded his house while the family were at dinner and entered by smashing the windows. Only the wife and two children were there.. All three were murdered. Later Speracino senior was wounded.

The authorities, as usual, were helpless. Neither side would make any complaint or give the least in formation. It was a private war, and as such the belligerents were prepared to continue it until one side or the other had been wiped aut. It so happened that the Speracini weakened first. A truce was followed by their absorption in the Gentili.

"

1928.

THE SILVER SCREEN. OUTBURST BY

BOTTOMLEY.

MR. İ

. Marked men of a rival band would be shadowed for weeks before an opportunity presented itself of shooting them. Frequently they tried to hide in Palermo. This modern city. with its fine boule- Vards and easy-going inhabitants, had

most deceptive A security. The Mafia on murder bent were as ready to operate in a crowd- ü, street as on a lonely country road. The assassinations perpetrat- ed here have only been equalled in the lawless mining camps of West- ern America.

air

Murder Outside Theatre.

of

On one occasion a motor-ear con- taining several Mafia armed with shot guns and tiles drew up in the front of the Politeamo Theatre, in one of the principal squares of Palermo in mid-afternoon. The certain in- men waited until a diyidual, whose progress had been signalled, approached from an ad- jacent street. Suddenly they open ed fire and be fell dead.

There were many witnesses of, the crime. The men in the motor-car drove leisurely away after making sure their victim was dead. When the police arrived they found a riddled body and a mute assemblage around it,"

TALKING PICTURES AND TWO BIG FILMS.

That Mr C. B. Cochran, now on his way from New York, should have been offered big rentals for two West End theatres in, which) ho is interested to convert them into houses for the exhibition of talking pictures is not very astonish-

What could the poli

police do? If they made arrests n one would identify the prisoners. Even if evidence of a sort was forthcoming, as happened sometimes, there was very little chance of securing a con- viction. The witnesses lenew that if they appeared in the box they, too, were dead men, even if the accused got off The jury felt the same difidence in returning a verdict of guilty.

Even the accused were filled with the same fear if they happened to be innocent. There have been in- stances of men charged with crimes which, to the common knowledge,

ing.

only one

Nearly all the American 6im pro duction firms are making films fitted with one or another of the many devices for reproducing sound. At the present moment British cinema-the New Gallery in Regent-street-is adapted for show. ing any of these, though as Duy as 40 cinemas up and down the country have been fitted to use the British-made phonofilms. It would clearly be much to the advantage of American firms having sound pictures to secure central houses in London where they could put on their talking pictures.

|

**A DAMNABLE LIE?: »

K.C. ON BLACKMAIL.

MILLIONS OF NEW CAPITAL.

RAISED BY THE PUBLIC IN SIX MONTHS.

PROSPERITY INDEX.

Public companies representing a total capital of nearly £70,000,000 the first six months of the year. were registered in England during

These figures are taken from the official records of Somerset House and issued by "Jordan and Sons, Ltd., company agents, of Chancery lane, London.

LosDos. July 18th. Evidence for the defence was given in the libel action by Mr Horatio Bettoniley (who conducted his own case) against Messrs Hurst and Blackett, publishers, and Ar. Heary James Houston,

New Company returns are this formerly in MP. Bottomley's car ploy.

| year much greater than during the i MAN Bottomley complained that corresponding period of last year, he had been accused of blackmail as the following table shows:- in passages of a book, "The Ren! Horatio Bottomley," published" by Messrs. Hurst and Blackett and written by Mr. Houston.

their

Mr. Bottomley was asked by Mr. Justice Horridge to deal with the various allegations under respective heads, because it was a dimcult matter for the jury, to fol- low.

And it is for me, too," replied Mr. Bottomicy,

Talking pictures which are stereo: scopic and also in colour, projected But you are a man of very cou on screens filling the whole width siderable experience and ability,' and height of proscenium openings. commented Mr. Justice Horridge. and in which words spoken by thei

Mr. Bottomley: And a great deal characters, shouts of crowds and of anxiety and hard work. noises actually seem to emanato

Mr. Bottomley denied emphati. from their visible source of origin, cally the allegations made in the are already envisaged by the ex

book concerning his sweepstake. perts in many branches of cinemato graphy.

*

The outcome of this sudden burst of sound filing is that the British cinema proprietor must consider whether he will fit his hall with the apparatus needed for reproducing sound. The cust may be as much 4. £2,000 or £3,000, though the cost of British-made apparatus is much lower. He will also be faced with the problem of choosing which company's devices he will adopt.

"I say now" he declared, that 1 distributed every penny of the £25,000, and not one farthing of it remained in my possession. Every statement about it in the book is a lie. It is a damnable lie to say that to satisfy the £30,000 sweep- stake winners I spent the modest sum of £1,000."

Mr. Bottomley said there was not an atom of a blackmailing element in any of the payments or fees he received from certain Erins.

"Honestly Barned.”

1928 1927

1995 1027

PUBLIC COMPANIES.

No.

Capital.

334 ...... £8,391,130 230 £34,738,489

PRIVATE COMPANIES.

...... 4.246 ...... £34,363,793 4.023 ......£30.697,367 "Millionaire Companies.

------

No company has been registered this year with a capital larger than £2,500,000, but there have been more millionaire" companies than in 1927. The number of companies

with a capital of £1,000,000 and upwards registered from January to the end of June last was twenty- one, as against twelve in the cor- responding part of last year.

Dog racing is represented in the registrations by thirty-one dew companies, with capitals totalling £186,550 Last year-over the whole of the twelve months-no fewer than 131 dog racing companies, with £3,750,000 of capital, were gistered.

HONG KONG STOCK EXCHANGE.

CLOSING QUOTATIONE

AUGUST 8, 1939.

But the cinema proprietors ask

"I honestly earned them," he de themselves, what of the future when the novelty has worn off? clored. "I saw nothing improper in taking them. I was doing noth- Would Ben Hur or Chaplin's ing more than what was frequent Back $1,2771 bay.

The Circus bave been better forly done in other journals of great! mechanically produced dialogue ?

"

eininence.'

Opening the defence, Mr. A. 5. What a pity that. the biz

Comyns Carr, K.C., said the pas Napoleon" picture, with its ab-

sages complained of concerned a sorbing material, its fine types, the subtly concealed and cleverly devis vast dramatic possibilities shoulded scheme of Mr. Bottomley's. In have turned out so badly! It might substance the scheine was blackmail, have been one of the most effective

for it induced firms to pay money pictures ever made: yet it is one

when attacks had been made on of the least accomplished.

them or were threatened by Mr. Bottomley. The real purpose of the scheme, whether the payments were made by advertisement or by a retaining fee to investigate com- plaints said to have been against the firms, was to put money into Mr. Bottomley's pocket, direct-

Often it is quite impossible to find out what is happening, and M. Abel Gance. the director, never seemed to know quite what he wis doing Sometimes he shows us the historical Napoleon; sometimes the

.uom ܕC,,: i4

nom.

bay $40 buy.

6. 145 oty.

Te

Do.. London...£1599 com Chartered Banks ..........................£22; buy. Mercantile Banks, A. &B...£36 nom,

Do P.&O. Hall bom East Asia Blak

auton Insurance Onton Insurances...... u‡3174 büy, North China Ins Yangtore insurances......M. 150 nam. Chins Underwriters...... buy. China Fire Insurances....$215 buy. Kong Fire in.......$730 bay. Hong Douglas bus.

Steamboate....

.........$20 buy. Tags

$3 BO made Tado-Obinas (Prof.) $35 bay.

(Det.)

дом, .$70 Bom Shell 2 Transporta Waterbost...$20. buy.. Benguets..... ...$1.85 bay. Kailan Mining Admini .:.

རྗ༠༠

sentimentalised Napoleon, strikingly or indirectly. That was the a posture with corpses at his feet; quickest, easiest, and cheapest way sometimes it is a ghost of Napoleon, of silencing him. as in the Corsican scenes where his wraith drifts across endless land. scapes

The whole picture is infinitely be wildering, and hard on the eyes with its crazy photography and silly little fashes of scenes.

What can be praised is the in- cident of the first singing of the Marseillaise, vividly and simply done. The Danton, the Marat, and the Robespierre are wonderful figures, of whom we see far too little. But there has never been a film which failed so completely, almost so magnificently.

*

"Love's Crucifixion" is of quite Another type. The story opens on the Polish border, with a woman. and her child in a sleigh escaping from Russia and trapped between the White and the Red armies. Some beautifully staged battle. scenes, with cavalry charging across the snow are given.

It would be almost impossible for the most unemotional person not to feel a shiver of excitement when the child. tossed out of the sleigh, cowers under a snow bank with his little hands pressed over his face as the oncoming cavalry rash to- wards him.

The middle of the film concerns the efforts of the mother to find the child again, first in Poland, then in Paris. Olga Tschechowa plays many of her scenes with great res- traint and sensitiveness, especially where she believes she has found her boy, and as the door opens and the child is brought to her, sees and yet will not believe that it is after all not her boy, but another.

The story ends with a breathless chase, with the mother striving to reach the missing child before the villain does. The contest is finished cmong the cracking ice of a Polish lake, the hero slipping and struggling from floe to floe to snatch back the child before it is too late.

The Elm has been made with power and with a delicate feeling for atmosphere and character by Signor Carmine Gallore, and while

had been committed by well-known it is unashamed melodrama it is

Retaining Fee."

Mr. Houston, in evidence, said that Mr. Bottomley, between 1912 and 1016, frequently visited Birm ingham to interview a bookmaker talled Beston. When Beston came to the hotel Mr. Bottomley would say: "Beston, can you do a thou sand?" That occurred on about four or five occasions, Mr. Botton ley had never explained to Mr. Houston why the payments were

nade

At a luncheon to which he (Mr. invited with Mr. Houston) was Bottomley to discuss attacks mads by Mr. Bottomley on a West End firm, Mr. Bottomley said to the directors of the firm: "Why don't you do as other firms do, and pay me a retaining fes of, say, 00 guineas, to adjudicate on disputes between yourself and your staff?" The directors agreed to that sug gestion.

On the way back in a motorcar lent by one of the direc tors Mr. Bottomley said: "That was a good luncheon. Did you notice that the old hand has not lost its cunning?"

When a year later the payment became due Mr. Houston heard 3 Bottomley tell a director of the same hrm. I'll take it out in champagne.

+7

The hearing was, adjourned.

RECORD PRICE FOR A REMBRANDT.

VALLE NEARLY DOUBLED IN TWO MONTHS. Rembrandt's famous "Portrait of a Mas Holding the Torah been sold in New York to American at a price which sets up & new record.

~633

B

Da

Hom

ECZEMA ON FACE AND HEAD

Was Ashamed To Go Out. Healed by Cuticura.

Bore

"I bad weeping eczema. My face and head were covered eruptions so that I was ashamed to go out. Later it broke out all over my body and down to my knees and then spread to my eyes. I could not sleep for as soon as 1 got warm it Itched, and I used to scratch, uz ing more eruptions.

"One day I read an advertisement for Cuticure Soap and Ointment and sent for free sample. 11 helped me so I purchased more and in two weeks I was heated." (Signed) Wm. J. Hicks, Marlais Villa, Lindetle Rd., Ammanford, S. Wales.

Rely on Cuticura Soap and Oint- «ment to keep your skin clear.

Soep and Oistment, sold throughout the world

Hingle week free d

Atro for mail order with pelen.

Try the Catlow Shavins Idick,

MILK

The Food of Life

In the interests of Good Health

it is advisable to use only a well-known and established brand. Buy always and insist on

BEAR BRAND

Obtainable everywhere

bay, 20 ct. A. B. MOULDER & CO.

681-bay 501-

Langkat (combined)......Tis, 11 sei.

Do. (single)

Tis. 5 sel Th. 2.45 nom. Sb. Explorations. Shanghai Loans Th. 34 nom.

bay,

Baube

nom.

(AP.3]

KATA, GOWKS

& NOVELTIER.

*Felix.??

STELLT,

How Low.

TEL 0.094.

7, len How

BOY ELECTROCUTED WHILE DIVING.

Tronoh Mines

17/8 nom. M.K&K Wharte ..$138 vol. EK, & W. Docks.......40 sel.

...$

..$4.95 buy,, 5.10 sel. China Providents

TL. 156 nom. Honghews.

TE, 3 DO. New Engineerings.. Shanghai Docks....... 100 m. Ewo Lotions

Tls. 8.80 po Driental Cuttons.......Th. 2; sel

ba. Cottons (old) ......Th. Si nom. Do. (new)......Tis. 271

$8.90 buy. H.K. 4. Hotels.......

.3661 buy.. 67 K. Lands Shanghai Laude...T. 138 ony. Humphreys Estates......$14.5 nom.

$7, wel. B.K.

$24.6) bay. Tramways .. Realties

COVENTRY, July 10th.. Peak Trame (Did),

$13 buy,

Stanley Jones, aged fourteen, of Eo. (now)

Coventry, was electrocuted while Star Ferries..........

diving in the public baths, Priory China Lights (old). 11.20 buy.

Street, tonight, when his hands Do. (as).........$11.10 bay.. Do. (1928 Issue)...JIL

accidentally touched a live electric bas $491 buy.. H.K. Hiestrica (old).................

cable just before he reached the water. 49 50 sa

T

Do.

Do (new)......$48, bay. Macao Electrice $16 bay... Telephone.......

bay, & sa Tia. 10 buy. China Buses...........

..10/6 buy, Singapore Tractions......

(Pref.) 417,6 buy. China Sugarasal. Mainbón pngsry ...$24, nom, Canton ice $3.70 nom. Cements (combined)...... 19,05 buy.

Do (ok) Do. (new) $1 sel HK. Roper (old)

18.20 now. Do.

(new) $69 com United Asbestos .............. Dairy Farms... $21.10 bay, 211⁄2 sal Watsona

$15. 30.50 nom. Der & Wings Lane Crawfords..

..124 bel. Mackintosha...... Sinceron

Wm. Powells

..$20 пот ..19+ bay. 13 bay.

H.A.. Amasemanta......3263 buy,

A Daily Exprent message from

B'que. Indus. G. Bonds...65% nom. New York puts the purchase figure. Constractions..... al. at

close on £100,000."

DOM,Domini

Messrs, Knoedler, the London art. Gert, Loans. pram. buy. dealers who sold the picture, stated buy.-bayers; sel-sellers; sa-salis; on July 11th that the sum certainly new record for a established a Rembrandt.

Messrs. Knoedler paid £30,400 for

Mafia agents. Rather than purchase often beautifuily and always com the picture, againe: fierce competi. Yau Chiu Man, DC.L

their freedom by telling the truth and thus denouncing the guilty, the scapegoats went to penal servitude. Possible imprisonment was prefer- able to certain death

Other: Penalties: "

petently presented.

carrying on his business. No one dared sell him food or give him shelter. Such a man was forced to, leave the district,

For offences which did not deserve

Even then he was not safe from death the Mafia prescribed after a kind of trial held by the leaders. the attentions of the Mafia. Some A culprit might be expelled the proscribed persons have emigrated society or subjected to a kind of tù America, only to be killed sooner excommunication which, in fts ex- or Ister by local member of treme form, prevented him from the organisation on information (Continued at foot of next column.) I received."

tion, at the great auction at Chris tie's last May of pictures from the Counsellor & Attomey-at-Law wonderful collection of the late Sir George Holford.

WAR

That deal has an aspect of tragedy, for the death in Lordon announced, simultaneously with the new sale, of the man who bought the picture in May--Mr. Charles Carstairs, chairman of the Knoedler firm.

The price paid at Christie'e pur. passed by nearly 220,000 the same auctioneers' previcus record for a Rembrandt.

Undertakes all Chinese and Foreign Legal Busincis. Property registratiozi

"speciality.

Supervises buying and sel-

ling of real estate.

HEAD OFFICE: ・・

81, CHEUNG HING SUB STENT (2ND FLOOR), CANTON,

LIVE WIRE TRAGEDY AT PUBLIC BATHS.

..

The presence of the bare cable is explained by the fact that the hatha are sometimes used for con- certs, when the pool is covered with a platform, and electric wires are run for lighting purposes all over the building. One of these was close to the diving board..

Many people were bathing at the time of the necident, and Jones was rushed to hospital, where it was found that he was dead.

It is stated that the current pass- ing through the wire was 30- VOCH.

EXCHANGE RATES.

(BRITISH WIRELESS SERVICE)

Berlin

Oslo

Helsingfors Athens Bombay New York Anísterdam Stockholm

ROBY, August 7th.

Paris

124.00

Geneva...

25.22

20.35

18.10

1023

3741

1/51

4.85.15/32

12.09

18.14

24.405

23.145

700

5.29/32

34,90

12.80

- 18.10

1031

2.7/32

Vienna....

Madrid

Bucharest

Bio.......... Brussels

Milan

Copenhagen Prague Lisbon Buenos Aires, Yokohama.......

Shanghai- Hong Kong

47.7/16

1/10.13/32

9/72

2/0

Silver, spot & forward 27