RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 53, 26 November 1928, Page 10

RANDOM NOTES

SIDELIGHTS ON CURRENT EVENTS LOCAL AND GENERAL (By Cosmos.) Heeney doesn’t think he will fight any more. All men, we are told, are born free, but some grow up and get married. * * * Each Party has one big problem, states a contemporary. Well, it is certainly not very hard to guess what it is. A British physician recently stated that women cause half of the world’s wars. Which merely shows that she has exercised her demand for equal rights. •. » * In one of those little-known republics of South America, where the people sometimes consider it clever to imitate an older and larger country, the motorbuses are placarded with the sign, “In God we Trust.” Nevertheless, a traveller informs us, the machines are all equipped with brakes. • » • A new method of increasing the national revenue has been discovered in Turkey. Not long ago Kemal Pasha delivered a record-breaking ' speech, which occupied the best part of eight days, and used up some 400,000 words. When the speech appeared in print, Kemal thought that such evidence of his ability and industry should not be lost to the nation. He therefore ordered that the speech be published in book form. But unfortunately it was found that the publishing costs would seriously deplete the national coffers if a wholesale distribution of the book were made. It was therefore decided to make a charge of approximately 10s. per copy. As the published price left a fair margin of profit, it was soon realised that steps should be taken to stimulate sales. Kemal therefore issued instructions that every employee of the Government must have a copy of his speech in book form, while all citizens are expected to provide themselves with the book. As the average pay of Government employees in Turkey is in the vicinity of £3 per month, it is doubtful if they will enthuse over the idea of putting in three days’iwork for a copy of their chief’s opinions.

Herbert George Ponting, F.R.P.S., whose kinematographic record of Captain Scott’s South Polar Expedition has been purchased by the British Government, is one of the most-travelled men of the day. He made three world tours on photographic expeditions, and spent three years taking photographs in Japan. He was a correspondent with the Japanese armies during the war with Russia, the' official photographer with Scott’s Expedition, and was also a member of the Spitzbergen Expedition in 1918. He is the inventor of several kinematographic improvements, and the author of many popular travel books. Captain Seott paid a tribute to the work of Ponting, shortly before his death. “Many hundreds of photographs hare been made and a large quantity of kinematographic films exposed, which complete a wonderful record of the expedition’s work and the life of the Polar regions,” he said. “The kinematograph has proved of valuable assistance to the study of Arctic zoology.- By its means it has been possible to record the intensely interesting life of seals, penguins, and sauguins in detail. By good fortune, some striking films have been made showing those wolves of the sea —the killer whales—in their native element.” China and Japan have failed to reach an agreement over Shantung and other outstanding questions, we are told today. The ultimate outcome of the misunderstandings between these two countries is a subject that has aroused the interest of all the Powers, as the peaceful development of the East is largely dependent upon a satisfactory solution. During the Chinese Civil War, Japan, in keeping with several other countries, found it necessary to take drastic steps to protect her nationals, but it has been alleged that Japan’s action bordered on armed intervention, which was keenly resented by China. Japan, it should be remembered, has large interests in China that require protection. There are over 17,000 of her civilian nationals in Shantung alone, while the total of Japanese nationals in China exceeds 200,000. Japan has always been emphatic in her declaration that she does not desire to make aggressions in China, which is partly due no doubt to the fact that China could never be assimilated by a foreign Power. With a population of 450 millions, China presents a problem the solution of which will be awaited with interest. * . • •' As a relief from the bandits, bootleggers and oil scandals, with which America has for some time enlivened the pages of the world’s newspapers, the United States has now turned its attention to the activities of a new women’s organisation, known as Daughters of the American Revolution, which promises to have an interesting, if warlike career. The membership of the new association is, we are told, confined to descendants of those who took part in the American Revolution. This new organisation, which claims to have the interests of American democracy at heart, quickly found itself in the public eye on account of its action in “blacklisting” scores of leading United States citizens. It has been alleged that the Daughters of the American Revolution has “blacklisted” such organisations as the Y.M.C.A., Y.W.C.A., National Federation of Women’s Clubs, and other organisations of note, on the, grounds of their liberal tendencies.

For some reason, hard to understand at this distance, a number of public men, who are known to be supporters of the Republican Party, have been denounced as Socialists ! The Press of America has given considerable publicity to the new movement, which, it states, has been guilty of many serious mistakes. The officers have been severely criticised, and it is believed that the outstanding trouble with the D.R.A. is that its control has been captured by a group impregnated wPh Jingo-istic and intolerant conceptions of the duties and responsibilities of citizenship. When its members learn that power must be used judiciously no doubt the Daughters of the Revolution will be less positive in their judgment and will question the wisdom of denouncing prominent people without tangible proof of their shortcomings. However, the new organisation will provide a new interest for the sophisticated American citizen if it does nothing else.