WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 222, 20 June 1928, Page 10

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

NOTES AT RANDOM

(By

T.D.H.)

Having thrown the Wesleyans out by a past error, the idea seems to be that the Church of England should even up the balance by keeping the Catholics in. A newspaper reporter at a French seance captured the spook and found it to be the medium .. . and the faithful—as faithful always do—-punched his head for outraging their religious beliefs. It cannot be said that the United Party are beading like lambs for the slaughter.—Even sheep on such occasions have to have a leader.

The announcement that Guards regiments in the British Army are to serve overseas in peace time, like common soldiers, is an interesting new departure, for the ostensible function of these regiments has been to protect the person of the Sovereign as his immcdiate bodyguard. Under modern conditions this task has become a sinecure, but it was not ever so, for all armies had their original beginnings in such bodyguards right back to the “Immortals” of Xerxes in ancient Greece, down to the Marmelukes and Janissaries in Turkey. In Britain there still survive the picturesque Yeomen of the Guard, formed at the accession of Henry VII for his personal protection. Henry VIII added a new corps, the "King’s Bodyguard of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms.” In Scotland the Royal Company of Archers still serves to protect the Sovereign on Royal visits, but there seems to be no modern record of its using its bows and arrows on the person of any undutiful subject.

Of the present Guards Regiment, tho First, or Grenadier, Guards, was formed by Lord Wentworth for the protection of the person of Charles II in 1656. It was originally composed of the loyal officers and men of the Royalist Army who, following the Battle of Worcester, had escaped with their Sovereign to Flanders. It first fought a year later with the Spaniards against the French, and was, of course, a non-official irregular corps until the Restoration. The Coldstream Guards, on the other hand, are a legacy from the other side in Britain’s Civil War. In 1650 General Monk took five companies from two of the best regiments of the New’ Model Army and amalgamated them under the title of Monk’s Regiment. Ten years later it became famous by its march south, starting from the border village of Coldstream, and finally occupying quarters about St. James’s Palace in London. At its leader's behest the Rump Parliament was dissolved. After the accession of Charles II the regiment became known as the Coldstream Guards and was given precedence next to the Grenadier Guards.

The Scots Guards came into existence in 1660, when Charles II commissioned the Earl of Linlithgow to raise for him in Scotland the Regiment of Scottish Foot Guards, which took part in the fighting at Bothwell Brig and Pentland Hills. This' corps, however, was not joined up with the other Guards regiments until 1707. The Stuarts in their day had their “Irish Guards,” but as these fought against William of Orange they naturally went off the map, and it was not until, in 1902, after the South African War, that the Irish Guards reappeared as a mark of the Royal appreciation of the services of the Irish regiments in South Africa. In the past the Guards have never been sent on service abroad in peace time, with the exception of 1907. when a battalion was sent as a punishment for a term of garrison duty out of Britain.

Wellington in its early days had. its stocks for the punishment of offenders, but it may surprise many people to learn that as late as 1867 it was apparently customary to brand misdemeanants in this country. The following paragraph from the Wellington “Independent” of June 1 of that year bears witness to the practice:—“A black sheep, William White, whose misdemeanours comprised repeated attempts at desertion, for which he had undergone long terms of imprisonment and the branding of the letter D; the offence of striking his superior officer, breaking his arms; besides convictions before the civil power has been drummed out of his regiment, the ISth Royal Irish, at Wanganui. The man was besides branded on the right breast ‘B.C.,’ bad character.”

Although the world at large does not appear to have heard much about it, a vast amount of knowledge about the bed of the ocean has been gathered by a German expedition in the Meteor during the past few years. This expedition was organised to provide employment after the war for out-of-work young German scientists. Fifty years ago Britain’s famous Challenger expedition spent three years in oceanographic work, and only intermittent work has been done since.then. While the Challenger only made 500 measurements of the ocean depth, the Meteor made over 60,000 during her cruise of two and a half years. She crossed the Southern Atlantic sixteen times, and has made almost an* exact map of the ocean bed. The scientists on board also carried out research into the physics, geology, and life of the ocean floor, being able to extract greatchunks of material compared with the microscopic samples gathered by the Challenger. The great, success of the Meteor expedition is a contrast to the comparative failure of the Discovery expedition sent, to study whales iu the Antarctic in 1925. The Discovery was not well equipped scientifically, and while its work in connection with (he whaling industry was useful, its scientific researches were limited.

Spoonerisms arc disastrous if they occur on tbc stage. There is a wellknown line in "Hamlet’: "Stand back, my lord, and let the coffin pass.’Q One nervous actor translated it: “Stand back, mv lord, and let (be parson cough!"' Charles Kemble, the famous actor, when playing Shylock, should have said: "Shall I lay perjury upon mv soul?” The actual words he said were: "Shall 1 lay surgery upon my poll?” mountain burial. File up the cairn upon tin- screes. That lake the break of day; Outside the town: above decrees His body shall decay. The wind shall eat. him where he lies, The snow shall wash him clean. His pain shall lie beneath the skies, As though it had not* been.

He asked no shelter from the rains, Of men around the fire; He passed, like gales against the panes. In faith and in desire.

Life gave him passion overmuch, Life burnt him to the bone. Life made him fearless, and for such Heap up the shale and stone. —Dorothy Wellesley.