LOOKING BACK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 25, 30 January 1937, Page 12

LOOKING BACK.

NOTABLE EVENTS. COLOGNE EVACUATED. NEXT WEEK'S ANNIVERSARIES (By M. V. WHATMAN.) One of the most impressive days in the history of the Gorman city of Cologne was January 31, 1920. As midnight approached a crowd of 20.000 gathered in the Cathedral Square and, on the stroke of the hour, the strains of "Deutsehland Ll>el' Allots" rang out. This was followed by a. speech by the Burgomaster. Rockets sped up amid the crackle of fireworks and the city gave itself over to revelry. This great demonstration marked the end of the seven years' military occupation of the city which followed t.ie Great War. The noisy celebration of the night was preceded by a more dignitied, but even more impressive, cereI inony earlier in the day. I Just before the great clock struck j three (everything was done strictly to j time on this day) men of the Shropshire Regiment paraded in front of the hotel where the British General Headquarters staff h«d been lodged for so long. Great Singer's Gift. It is not very often that people are in the fortunate position of being able to serve their art and, at the same time,, build up a private fortune by so doing. This was the case with Dame Clara Butt, the famous English contralto. When she died last year she left £40,000. Of that sum there was a bequest of £3000 to the Royal College of Music, to provide an annual grant for the most successful vocal student. Dame Clara Butt, who was. born on February 1, 1573, was the daughter of a captain in the Merchant Service. After studying, first in Bristol, then in London, Paris and Berlin, she made her professional debut at the Albert Kali in 1892. She first made her name in oratorio, but her later career was mainly confined to the concert platform. In 1899 she made her first tour of America and, in the following year she married R. H. Kennerley Rumford. a well-known baritone. Possessed of a magnificent voice, Dame Clara was the most popular contralto in England. She chose songs likely to appeal to the simplest taste, with the result that her concerts drew vast audiences composed of every grade of society. She sang by command before Queen Victoria, King Edward VII. and King George V. She was made a Daine of the British Empire in 1920. That deep, rich voice thrilled people in the remotest corners of the Empire, and Dame Clara's tour of New Zealand is still fresh in the memory of all who were privileged to hear her. Rangatira's Mishap. So regular is the steamer service between Lyttelton and Wellington and so well-established the tradition of perfect safety and reliability that any mishap to one of the inter-island steamers is a sensation that stirs the Dominion from one end to the other. Consequently the report which flashed round the country on February 2, 193(5, that the Rangatira had struck a rock off Wellington caused a great deal of excitement. It was 6.10 a.m. when the Rangatira, carrying .000 passengers, was nearing Wellington Heads. There was a wild southerly storm raging and visibility was bad. The vessel was considerably off her course when she struck rocks. The passengers were told to don lifebelts. There was no panic and the behaviour of both crew and passengers was beyond criticism. Fifteen minutes later the Rangatira backed off the rocks. She had torn a hole twelve feet long in the bottom of No. 1 hold and" there were other holes at the bottom of No. 2 hold. Stern first and down by the head, the Rangatira steamed slowly up Wellington Harbour. The trip from the heads, with three tugs standing by, took three hours. A feature of the mishap was the splendid seamanship of the master, Captain W. D. Cameron, in bringing the ship safely to the quayside after the accident. A lengthy inquiry followed, and for some days the eyes of New Zealand were on the witnesses, who put forward ! a tremendous volume of evidence j regarding the causes of the mishap and I the reasons why the Rangatira was so far off her usual course. Lindbergh's Birthday. America has three great national heroes whose photographs, framed in flags, are to be found in many homes throughout the country. They are George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Charles Lindbergh. It is difficult to put into words the average American's feeling for the great airman. The nearest one could get to it is to sav that he occupies in America much th'e same position as King Edward VIII. did in the British Empire' when Prince of Wales. Colonel Lindbergh, who, to avoid the attentions of gangster kidnappers, now lives in England, will be 35 years old on Thursday next. Whatever feats are carried out in the air in the future, America will never forget Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic in the Spirit of St. Louis on May 20. 1927. It was the first non-stop flight from New York to Paris, and by it this quiet, unassuming young man became world famous. Lindbergh is the j worlds ideal of a hero. He is quiet, unassuming, courageous and a patriot lin the practical sense of the word. His goodwill flights, both before and after | his marriage, still further increased his j prestige, and his popularity was such that when America learned of the kidj napping of the Lindbergh's baby son in March. 1932. the crime was regarded as almost a national calamity. The baby was later found murdered. Now the Lindberghs have another son. Jon, and it is so that he may be brought up in peace and security that America's greatest hero has been forced to find a haven for his family outside the shores of his own land. The Lindberghs chose England as their refuge largely because of a belief that the English have greater regard for law and order in their own land than the people of any other nation in the world.