OCCASIONAL NOTE

The Boy Scout movement has made itself almost indispensable in Calcutta as a means of training and also as a sort of a junior volunteer service in reserve for the public. People are accustomed nowadays to see the Scouts making themselves useful. The proposal to add stability to the movement by means of a Peace Endowment Fund will doubtless meet with general approval. Sir Frank Carter, as President of the Calcutta Boy Scouts Association, and Mr. J.S. Wilson, as Officiating Chairman and District Commissioner, have issued a special Peace Appeal to the Calcutta public for a sum of not less than Rs 50,000 to be invested for this purpose, and we do not doubt that there will be a ready response. With its new headquarters the Association will have the means of doing still better work in the future than in the past. The prospect, however, will depend entirely on the organisers and Scoutmasters and their assistants, and also on the willingness of the public to provide the not very heavy expenditure needed. Sir Frank Carter and Mr. Wilson point out that constant changes of personnel are unavoidable and that for this reason the future of the movement, depending as it does so largely on the personal element, must be a matter of grave uncertainty. Continuity, both financial and otherwise, being vital to the movement, the leaders are wise in taking the first favourable opportunity of establishing the Association upon a secure and permanent financial foundation.

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HIGH TIDES ON THE HOOGHLY

The River Hooghly when, as now, the freshets are coming in, is not the safest place to be on, especially at high water and for a while afterwards. The tides during the past few days have been very high, and the ebb tide runs with a swiftness unequalled by few rivers in the world. Cargo and country boats going down on the ebb tide flash by at an almost incredible speed, and to the landsman it seems a wonder that they keep afloat at all. When tides are high, as they are just now, the approaches to Howrah Bridge are forced up to a perilous angle, and are always scenes of great excitement. When the tide was at its height on Wednesday afternoon, the water reached to the top step but one of the big bathing ghat at the Calcutta end of the bridge, which would make it roughly about three feet below the level of Strand Road.

THE LILLOOAH STRIKE

There was practically no change yesterday in the situation in connection with the workmen’s strike at the East Indian Railway workshops at Lillooah. The men are still holding out. The foreman in charge of the Bamungachi yard has requisitioned the service of the Railway Police to ensure the personal safety of the men working there. Some 500 of the strikers assembled on Thursday morning on the Howrah maidan to raise subscriptions in connection with the strike. So far the strikers have behaved quietly and there has been no disorder. The strike of European and Indian ticket-examiners at Santragachi on the Bengal-Nagpur Railway did not continue long. Mr. Leakey, District Traffic Superintendent, interviewed the strikers and promised to represent their case favourably to the Agent.

RIVAL FACTIONS OF BELIAGHATA BUTCHERS

An important application was made in the Court of Mr. Drummond, District Magistrate, 24-Parganas, by Mr. U.N. Bose, Assistant Commissioner of the northern suburbs, asking that a notice do issue on two persons named Sheik Babu Jan and Sheik Rahim, leaders of two factions, calling upon them to show cause why they should not be bound down to keep the peace. Mr. Bose informed the Magistrate, that there had been keen competition between two persons, named Sheik Cheragon and Sheik Ghulmi for the sirdarship of the Butchers’ Punchayat of Kasaibasti, Beliaghata, and that Babu Jan championed the cause of Cheragon while Rahim stood for Ghulmi. He further said that whenever the two factions met in Howrah, Barrackpore, Dum Dum or other places a fight followed, in which lathies and knives were freely used. The District Magistrate directed that notices be issued on the parties to show cause in terms of the prayer of the petition.

COMMANDER DOUGLAS S SELF-SACRIFICE

MADRAS, JULY 31

Commander W.R.B. Douglas, R.I.M., Deputy Port Conservator, Madras, was accidentally drowned on the 28th June. The Governor desires to place on record his high appreciation of Commander Douglas’s self-sacrifice in abandoning the upturned yacht in which he and his companions had been sailing. This gallant officer voluntarily relinquished his own chance of rescue rather than risk the lives of his companions. The Government record his death with great regret and express their admiration of his gallantry and devotion.