NEWS TIT-BITS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 137, 9 June 1917, Page 19

NEWS TIT-BITS.

Livadia. to which the ex-Czar expressed a wish to retire, is the more modern of the two Royal palaces in the Crimea. It is a very handsome castle, built in the Italian style about the middle of the nineteenth century, and was a popular retreat of European monarchs. who often travelled there incognito. Standing in lovely ground.-, it looks down upon the now fashionable watering-place of Yalta, the Russian Trouville. Bismarck, who knew Russia well, gave an opinion of her resources 50 years ago which may be recalled with interest today. "Russia is like a strong and healthy man who is attacked by an 111----nt-.-s .'' he said. "She has got a great future, her highest nobles are intelligent and honourable, her peasants arc the best fellows in the world; it is in her middle siie is rotten — the official nobility is a virulent ulcer eating away her bowels." Superstition does not worry the practical American mind to any great extent, judging from the circumstances associated with the entry of the United States into the war ,'says a London paper). President \YiL«on himself is a determined opponent of the -thirteen" superstition, and signed the joint resolution of both Houses at 1.13 p.m.—otherwise, 13 hours 13 minutes—on Friday, April G. He thus killed two birds of omen with one stone, lor is there not a superstitious warning tnat nothing should be commenced on a Friday? (i n t o ;> of t'nis came America Day—Friday. April 30th. In view of the placing of the Royal Household on national rations, it is "interesting to note that, according to the tnemoire of the Prince Consort, the Royal Family, hi 1547, at the time of the Corn J-aw trouble... did not escape its share of the national trial. "The price of bread," said Queen Victoria, "i. of an unparalleled height: we have boon obliged to reduce everyone to a pound of bread a day, anJ only secondary flour to be u=ed in Mc Royal kitcnen-'' America's purchase of the Danish West Jodies was very opportune, for it means that there i, now a semi-circle of islands from the coast of Mexico to tnnidad, which forms a perfect 6creen ■or the P anariia canal. Including Cuba, <*eh of the islan le is in the hands of one 01 the Allies, with the exception of Haiti, and even this may be classed as friendly. will now be quite impossible for a naviSjKor to reach the Panama Canal from «|e Atlantic without passing within 50 ttll « oi Allied territory. Brescia, 'by which the Austrian., it ta «»d, intended to debouch from the Trentlno into Lombard)", has through its long History, had more than its share of disfif 1 -"*' The <aotbs burnt it early in the E 'th century, and 40 years later Attila utterly destroyed it. Five times, too, PestUence swept its streets, and turned "into a city of mourning. Towards the HW Of the 18th .■••liturv a gunpowder "Plosion laid 1..- "of its churches an. houses, an -jo, j t had to wtrare a decade ~,i ,„■;,,„ rule. A city "-h has survived all these calamities d > "ope to ilourish even after the rea t of an Austrian invasion.

Brazil is in one respect the most democratic of all countries, for its laws ' prohibit the establishment of any univerI sity, because "the conferring of academic distinctions is contrary to the principles of true democracy." There are many institutions in Brazil where medicine and law are taught, and these grant certificates of proficiency to pupils who complete the course in a satisfactory manner. But, however well qualified he may be, no Brazilian can legally style himself in his own country a doctor of laws or of medicine. Germany is getting nervous about the famous War Map, if it be a fact that German contracts recently made for the supply of iron to Holland contain a clause voiding them should Lorraine not be in German hands on the date specified for delivery. German Lorraine—which has only been German since 1871—contain? the largest iron deposits in Europe, and Brit}-, or French Lorraine, is little less rich in the useful metaJ. In 1915 I the great industrial magnates of Germany pointed out to the Government that I KO per cent of the iron used for matini facturing purposes came from Lorraine ores, and if anything in the future prevented the use by Germany of the Lori raine iron, they added, "wo shall have , lost t_e war." j By the sale of the Danish West Indies Denmark is left with Greenland as nearly her sole colony, a white elephant fifty times her size. It is an irony of the ' map that the smallest countries should have the biggest colonies. Belgium has the Congo, which is nearly eighty times jas large; and, with a little trimming, ten Fortugals might be packed into Portujguese East Africa. But, of course, none of these paradoxes can be compared with that of the British Empire, where the nucleus stands to the whole in' the proportion of 1 to 109.