THE GERMAN COLONIES
"SCOTCHING" THE THREATENING POWER. Sir—Mr. Witherby's use of the word "scotch" in his letter oil this subject yestorday is misleading. Wlint we have to do is to kill, not "scotch," Prussianism. "Since," says the "Oxford Dictionary," "Theobald's generally-accepted conjectural reading of Macbeth, 'we have ficotch'd the snake, not killed it,' it has become a stock quotation in which the verb scotch is taken to mean 'to inflict such harm upon (something regarded as dangerous) that it is rendered harmless for the time.'" The following illustrative quotation, given in ■ the "Dictionary," seems applicable to the present situation, in view of the pacifist tendencies: "I fear relaxation and too much clemency, but the snake must bo killed, not scotched."—l am, etc., H. F. VON HAAST.
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Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 237, 25 June 1918, Page 6
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126THE GERMAN COLONIES Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 237, 25 June 1918, Page 6
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