RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 185, 3 May 1933, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current Events LOCAL AND GENERAL (By Kickshaws.) Mr. Gandhi is going to fast again because he is not being taken seriously. Judging by his pictures he can at any rate point out that he has absolutely nothing up his sleeve. » « » According to Bernard Shaw within thirty centuries children will speak the moment they are born. One can but be thankful that thirty centuries is a very long time. A man in England is said to have invented a car guaranteed to turn even the worst corners at 70 miles an hour. It sounds just the vehicle in which to give prosperity a lift. • ♦ • Mysteriously yet appreciably silver coins are said to be disappearing from this Dominion. Probably the mystery will be solved in time by the Customs. But our silver scarcity is not a unique occurrence. Coins have a knack of disappearing, as we all know. Even the humble farthing is a toin of mystery. This modest little coin is the only coin that is never withdrawn from circulation. Where, then, do the old farthings go? Between 1860 and 1925 355,056,000 farthings were issued. Even on tlie most conservative estimates over 250,000.000 farthings are unaccounted for. It is the same with pennies. Since IS6O, 500,000,000 pennies have mysteriously disappeared. These bard times the authorities are wondering where they have gone. * * * Nobody seems to like threepenny bits, yet millions of them circulate about the Empire in a most mysterious manner. At the moment New Zealand has attracted most of them. Not long ago Scotland was blamed for an overfondness for threepenny bits, but the curious part was that Scotsmen did not spend the coins in their own country. While demands for threepenny bits came persistently from Scotland, stocks continually accumulated in London. The thrifty Scot it seems used to make the trip from Edinburgh to London expressly to “blow” his threepenny bits. As a matter of fact the demand for different coins fluctuates enormously. The new scale of unemployment pay in England gave a tremendous fillip to the threepenny bit. The florin, a coin that had only a moderate demand —at any rate in England—burst into popularity when it: was made the minimum "tote” bet on English racecourses. Shilling-in-the-slot gas meters made the shilling so popular that the Mint had to turn out enormous qualities. Moreover, just after the war halfpennies became a drug on the market. Things that had cost a halfpenny were then costing a penny. Moreover, the Irish sweepstake, it is contended, has caused a dearth in ten-shilling notes. As a result, existing supplies of silver are being made to work overtime. • • f “For some inscrutable reason a reader has revived the question of Mr. Disraeli aud the Suez Canal in your column,” says "Bonne Foi,” Wellington. “I have had occasion to probe into the history of how Britain obtained the controlling interest in the Suez, Canal, and find that your correspondent is creating one fallacy in ‘scotching’ another. Briefly, the London Times,' through two members of its staff, is responsible for this bloodless victory. Its Paris correspondent, M. de Blowitz, first got ‘wind’ of the fact that the Khedive of Egypt’s shares were on the market,’ and crossed to London to put the Government wise. The Prime Minister, Mr. Disraeli, would have iiont* of it, so M. de Blowiz handed the matter over to a .Mr. Greenwood, of ‘The Tinies’ staff, and returned to his post, in Paris.”

"Mr. Greenwood met with considerable difficulty in persuading the then Minister of Foreign Affairs (Lord Derby) to look into the matter of the Suez Canal shares,” continues “Bonne Foi.” “However, he succeeded. ‘Mew Court’ (Rothschilds) found the cash, and so the matter was completed, with no credit to Disraeli, and very little to the ill-informed Lord Derby. It. is of interest to note that the apathetic Consul for Egypt (a Colonel Stanton) was afterwards transferred to some desolate port ou the Black Sea, and, further, that, at a meeting held to celebrate Mr. Greenwood's 75th birthday in 1905, report does not mention M. de Blowitz in the matter. The latter died in 1903. The whole business was a great achievement for journalism, almost equalling that of Mr. Mac Goban, of the London ‘Daily News’ in the matter of the Bulgarian atrocities of around 1576. Again Disraeli ‘sat back’ and it was left for W. E. Gladstone to take action when he attained to power ’’ » The American Commander of the air forces attached to the 10th. Chinese Army, recently on holiday in New Zealand, who says that the Chinese are slow to learn aviation is putting Hie case somewhat mildly if the following enlightening extract from the Chinese Year Book is the official opinion "Foreigners who have had experience of Chinese pilots,” says this candid Year Book, “agree that they are clever, levelheaded and courageous flyers. As mechanics the Chinese are careless and inaccurate, except under a very close supervision. From a military point of view the Chinese pilot is far from satisfactory. Discipline among them is conspicuously lacking. They regard themselves as privileged persons and fly when and where they like. Over a field of battle they show a disposition to tly much too high for accurate observation. During the campaigns of 1921. 1925 anil 1926 their target practice with bombs was absurdly inaccurate. They showed no inclination for aerial combat or the use of armed planes against hind forces, and wore opposeil to the introduction of such tact ics."

In spite of Hie disarmingly candid official opinion of Hie Chinese military aviator tiieiilioued above, it cannot be denied that China has been in the forefront of matters aerial ever since the davs of Bloriof. As far back as 1909 inlorest was sufficiently stimulated for the General Staff to establish a plant to manufacture aeroplanes. The only criticism that can be levelled at this effort io keep abreast ot the times is that the only machine constructed failed to tly. Undismayed, the southern leaders decided to .attack Peking by air. Two out-of-date aeroplanes were obtained and placed in the charge of a Chinese student, who had returned from England, and a Chinese student who had studied in America. The American taught student crashed on his third flight. The other student failed to reach Peking. In .1916 the Chinese made another aeroplane. Unfortunately it fell to bits in mid-air.