NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 7, 9 January 1937, Page 4 (Supplement)

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

ANTI-VEIL CAMPAIGN. The Women of Damascus, one of the last strongholds of the Moslem veil, are seeking a leader for a campaign to establish their right to go bare-faced in public. The veil ■ been discarded largely in Turkey, in Egypt, and more recently in Iran. In Damascus, however, women still dare not appear on the streets with their faces exposed. The wife of a Syrian Cabinet member attempted a revolt against the centuries-old custom some years ago, and was pelted with stones. Conventions are such in Damascus that removal of the veil is a subject which scarcely may be discussed publicly, but Syrian women privately seek a leader to inaugurate a move to end the practice. DESCENDANT OF CONFUCIUS. After a romance of more than a year,] Kung Teh-chon, the seventy-fifth lineal descendant of Confucius, China's great sage, is engaged to Violet Sun, a friend of Anna- May Wong, Chienese-Anierican screen actress. Kung, who as the Hneal descendant of Confucius, has the rank of Duke, is seventeen yeat-8 old. His fiancee is a year older. He is well versed in the Chinese classics. The Japanese have invited him to attend the dedication of a great Confucian temple in Tokyo. The bride is, of a distinguished family in Anhwei province. The wedding is to take place this autumn at Chufu, birthplace of Confucius and Kung.

THE IDEAL HONEYMOON. A pair of honeymooners near Fernadina, Florida, believe they have found the world's "ideal honeymoon" —• ''going native" on an uninhabited island off the North Florida coast. The happy pair are Lieutenant and Mrs. J. F. Prine, of Syracuse, New York, and they have taken tiny Talbot Island for the occasion. It was the bride's idea.. "Just think," she said, "ten days on a lonely island without having to worry about anything— war in Europe, the stock market, or any. thing else." The pair set out to "go native" entirely, eatching fish for food and collecing driftwood for fuel. They said they would sleep in the open and "tramp',' the island for exercise. WORLD'S SNEEZING RECORD. Claim to t*lie title of "world's champion sneezer" is made by Mr. John T. Harrington, a salesman of Salt Lake City, Utah. "I estimate conservatively," he said, in an interview, "that I have sneezed more than 100,000 times to date. And I'm still a young man," he added, pressing a finger to his lips to keep back sneeze No. 100,001. "I can and do sneeze every day in the year," he explained. "My hay fever has seen, come and go more than 10.000 handkerchiefs." Mr. Harrington had some data to offer experts as to the i>ossibility of harnessing -the power of his sneezes and. putting it to some commercial use. "Tf all my sneezes were placed end to end." he declared, "they could probably raise enough pressure to lift the Rmpiro State Building—the world's highest building—ten feet off the ground."

A BIG GLOBE. A globe. approximately a yard and a half in diameter, which has been in course of construction for ten years, is almost finished. Intended for the library hall of Tokyo University, which was completely destroyed in the earthquake of 1923, it is expected to be completed in another year. The globe, reproducing the earth's geographical features, is the work of LieutenantOeneral Seligmann, ex-Director of the Belgian Military Cartographic Institute, and ex-President of the Roy»l Geographical Society of Belgium, and his collaborators. Two expert map artists of the Cartographic Institute have been engaged in drawing the map of tlie world on thirty triangular sheets of paper. They are almost ready, but the work of glueing them to tiie plaster globe requires the master hand of an expert.

THE CROWNING GLORY.

Women in the Balkans with long, soft and curly hair are making fortunes by selling it to Hollywood. The demand for hair in the film capital is the result of the present popularity of costume films and the consequent demand for wigs. Mr. Max Factor, a beauty expert, has already purchased over 15,0001b of hair in Europe, which he keeps in specially constructed, air-conditioned vaults at Hollywood. He says that there is an enormous demand for natural blonde hair, which is wortli three times as much as the darker shades.

HONOURED IN CHILE. Mr. Julius Hudson, a native of Greenwich, London, lias been decorated with the order "A 1 Merito," the highest honour reserved by the Chilian Government for foreign residents. Mr. Hudson has lived in Chile for more than fifty years, and was decorated for the "many valuable services rendered to the country of his adoption." His services to Chile included organisation of the "bomberos" —Chile's voluntary firefighters—gallantry during the Balmaceda revolution of 1891. hospitality to the homeless after the 1900 earthquake, and, in later years, municipal leadership in Santiago and the port of San Antonio.

SLEPT ON LEVEL CROSSING. Glancing out of the window of his signal, box a signalman at Spradow, Westphalia (Germany), was startled to see a car standing on the level crossing below. He hurried down to it and discovered that the driver was fast asleep. He tried to arouse him, but without sucoess. Then he heard a train approaching. Running towards it, he attracted the engine driver's attention, and in response to'his frantic signals the train pulled lip. Then the engine driver, fireman and signalman pushed the .car off the rails, while its driver slept on undisturbed. The signalman next summoned the police, who again moved the sleeping motorist—this time to the pnlirc station. Now his driving license lias lieeti taken nway from him for being drunk in charge of a car.

j MEETING AFTER 56 YEARS. After 50 years apart, two brothers, Andrs and Peter Back, have been reunited at Townsville, Queensland. They last saw each other'at Ncwcastle-on-Tyne in ISSO. They were then members of the crew of a windjammer. One left the ship at Newcastle. The other mailed on with her. Years of silence followed. Lnknown to each other, both came to Australia 40 years ago. Andrs Back settled in Newcastle, New' South Wales, and Peter became a stevedore at 'Adelaide. Although in the same country, they remained miles apart, and without knowledge of each other until a ship's steward introduced Andrs Back Hi a ship's carpenter, who turned out to lie an old comrade of their windjammer days. Later, the ship's carpenter met by chance Peter Back at Townsville. He told him that he had met his brother in Newcastle. Letters between the two brothers followed—and now Andrs Back has journeyed from Newcastle to Townsville and the brothers have been reunited.