RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 50, 22 November 1928, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

SIDELIGHTS ON CURRENT EVENTS LOCAL AND GENEIAL

(By

Cosmos.)

Leon Trotsky has just spen three days in Russia. Trotsky, it wil.be remembered, was killed four or fiv times last year, according to the Russin oflicial cable man. “Whatever happens during Hit next month or so, there will still befools in the Government,” writes a corespondent. No doubt due to the faetthat there are always a number of foos in the ranks of the electors. It would be interesting to learn jis: why Winston Churchill joined the Brick Trade Workers’, when he would have made such an excellent member of the Cabinetmakers’ Union. We hear a great deal about the American hunger for education and self-improvement these days, some writers stating that serious books are rapidly gaining on novels in popularity. The movement has apparently reached its zenith in a town called Peace, in Mississippi, where, according to the latest dispatches, some fervent yearner for betterment stole the town schoolhouse. When the Southern Cross arrived in New Zealand after its epic flight across the Tasman, the Customs officials treated the visitors in a manner which met with the unqualified approval of all. In the United States, however, it appears that business is business, in spite of even the most unusual circumstances. The arrival of the Graf Zeppelin was made the occasion by Customs officers and New York police for one of those charming welcomes that are commonly reserved for mere maritime travellers. The passengers were compelled to wait some time before being permitted to leave the ship, and then, according to Mr. Albert Graze* sinski, Prussian. Minister of the Interior, who was among them, were pushed into a Customs cordon, where their baggage was subjected to the usual scrutiny. One of the passengers, according to Mr. Grazesinski was struck in the face. Twenty-five thousand men and women crowded into Royal Albert Hall in London to see and hear Mme. Aimes McPherson in the first round of her contest with the devil for the soul of England. The collection was taken before the evangelist began to speak, although one of her assistants on the platform informed the audience that an offering was “very, very distasteful to all evangelists, particularly Mrs. McPherson.” And it is particularly distasteful to Mrs. McPherson, as she has so often told her flock at Angelas Temple, when it clinks'as it drops into the hat. By., the clink the soul-saver knows that some common people place so little value on their redemption that they render thanks for it with metallic money I

That the evil men do lives after theni is recalled by a cablegram to-day which states that the son of Roger Casement has changed his Christian name. Sir Roger Casement entered the British Consular service in .1910, and for services rendered was knighted. In 1912, however, he seemed to develop an intense hatred of England, and on the outbreak of war he went to the United States, and from there to Germany. In 1915, while in Germany, he commenced writing anti-Brit-ish pamphlets, and even endeavoured to induce Irish prisoners of war to take up arms against England. In April, 1916, he sailed for Ireland in a German submarine laden with arms and ammunition. It was his intention to plan a rising during Easter, but the submarine was taken by a British ship, and although Casement escaped in a collapsible boat, he was arrested a little later. Casement was tried for treason, the case creating widespread interest. He was convicted, deprived of his knighthood, and executed at Pentonvilie, London, on August 3,1916.

Trotsky, who was once said to be the embodiment of the original revolutionary spirit of Russia, has, we are told in the news to-day, once again visited the unhappy land in whose destiny he has played such an important part. Thrice exiled by the ’•evolutionary organisation he helped to create, Trotsky has just concluded an abortive three-day conference with Stalin and has returned to-exile, from whence he will no doubt continue to watch the march of Bolshevism towards its inevitable doom. Trotsky, who once held one of the highest offices in the Soviet, was deposed because he ventured, to tell the truth about the regime he helped to create and to denounce it as “Russia’s greatest peril. He revealed boldly the truth of the political and economic degradation of Russia. To the extent to which he confined himself to unsparing criticism of the Stalin regime, Trotsky had the ear of the people. Where they could not follow him was in his positive programme, which called for a return to the old military Communism, the source of Russia’s great suffering and travail. It was but natural that between Communism of the _ Trotsky variety and that of the Stalin brand the Russian people preferred the latter however. miserable they might.be under it. Trotsky has declared himself a militant, unrepentent Commun-ist-and is a believer in government backed by powerful military forces. » ♦ *

The approaching enthronement of Dr Cosmo Gordon Lang, former Archbishop of York, as Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of England in succession to Dr. Randall Davidson, is announced. Dr. Lang is sixty-four years of age, an Aberdonian, and a bachelor (although in 1909 he was one of the Royal Commissioners appointed to inquire into the law of divorce). The son of an ex-Moderator of the Church of Scotland, he was educated at Glasgow University, winning in 1882 a scholarship at Balliol College, Oxford. Originally destined for a legal career, he was for some time a. student of the Inner Temple, but in 1890 he changed his vocation, taking a curateship at Leeds. From then on he rose steadily, his efforts in industrial centres being constantly directed toward the improving of the relationships between employer and employed. His success in administering a large working class parish led in 1901 to his nomination as bishop suffragan of Stepney in the East End of London. Seven years after he was given the Archbishopric of York. While in charge of the Northern Province he played a conspicuous part in tlie social and economic as well as religious affairs agitating his industrial community, and in the House of Lords his eloquence and clear common sense gave him great Influence. In 191 S he was sent on a mission to the United States in connection with the war. doing much to gain American support for the Allies by bls preaching.'