RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 32, 1 November 1933, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current Events LOCAL AND GENERAL

By

Kickshaws.)

Chiselling in America has been countered by a little plane speaking. • • • • One can well believe that those Soviet Judges in the Urpls pre having a trying time. •• • - Germany, it seems, intends to sterilise her two million unfit at the rate of 80,000 a year. At this rate most of them will be dead by the time their turp comes. ♦ . * » “I would be most grateful to you. if you could give me some information upon the following.” says “A.E.P.,” Palmerston North. “J understand that five American gallons of petrol only equaj four English ones. Does this apply to milk also? Is an American quart of milk a smaller quantity than an English quart, and by how much?” The Americans use the old wipe gallon of 231 cubic inches. This gallon is five-sixths of a British gallon. It is divided into 8 pints or 16.6 Imperial ounces. It will be seen, therefore, that the equivalent of a quart of milk or a quart of oil is less in America than in England.—Kickshaws.

The very latest idea for up-to-date fire engines, it seems, is a system of clearing streets by blowing sirens, enabling the engines to dash down the principal streets of a city at 45 miles ap hour. Everybody will surely agree that fires are bad enough, but the fire epglpes, if much njor? progress is made, will become worse than the fires. The pedestrian when the motor became popular was chased off the streets onto the pavements. The motorist now, it would appear, is to be a prey for the fire engine Moloch. The pedestrian had a pavemented refuge upon which to fall back, but the motorist has no alternative but to take to the air. in fact, all traffic might well take to the air. This would enable the fire engines to reach their fires at 65 miles an hour. It could be argued that this speed might endanger the pedestrian. If the fire engines kill ten pedestrians to save five people nnd a building, if is a nice little problem |n comparative values to discover who gains out of the transaction.

Considerable interest will no doubt be created by the claim on the part of Africa to have beep the cradle of man. This last claim now makes it doubtful if any further claims cap be put forward for the very good reason that every land area ip the world has already done so. After being brought up with the claims of the Garden of Eden in Mesopotamia to this honour, oue was at first a little shocked to learn that Central Asia had put in an over-riding claim. Europe naturally put forward her claim that early man started first in Piltdown or ip France. China, not to be outdone, proved conclusively (thapks to the work of professors) that the Mongolian desert was the cradle of man. When this claim was challenged, because that region will not hold water, other experts were persuaded to prove that at one time the desert was a most fertile spot. A small piping voice from the Australian aboriginal has always been overlooked. Now that Africa has put in her claim, there is every reason to believe that someone will find something in an odd corner , of Australia that will prove that that continent is worthy of a share of the honours.

If it is a mystery why we laugh, it is still more a mystery why we cry. Human beings are the only creatures in the world that cry, if we except crocodiles. But crocodiles cry for digestive reasons. If we have a laughing jackass we have not got a crying jackass or a crying anything. Even tlie monkeys do not cry. Possibly primitive man, as well as his inability to laugh, also never cried. But then primftive man was not able to appreciate the stimuli that cause civilised people to cry; except perhaps the death of a friend. Thanks to the cinema, books, music, and agricultural progress that gave us the onion, we to-day have more than enough crying stimuli, not excluding the hopeless muddle in which we live. But if we cry at the loss of a friend, why do we also cry when the cinema unites 'two people in the final kiss. Why do we cry over spilt salt almost as readily as over some sharp mental barb. It is civilisation that encourages cryingWomen must be over-civilised. They have reduced crying to a mystery-— perhaps because they are developed psychologically to a higher plane than men.

Presumably Mr. Richard Wilkinson, of the Foreign Legion, took all the trouble to swim a mile to an English ship off Algiers because he did not like the Foreign Legion. One hears so many “truths about the Foreign Legion,” and all are so completely contradictory that it is very difficult to discover whether this Legion is all that is claimed for it. Probably the most hated man in Foreign Legion upper circles is the author of “Beau Geste.” Whether this is because bis writing lilt home one is left to decide without any help. Certainly Americans ape not wanted in the Legion because of their ability to create "diplomatic incidents.” Just whether "diplomatic incidents” would be created if life in the Legion was what the leaders of the Region make out is a matter than can only be decided by inference. One Chicago youth who served in the Legion until he was released owing to a “diplomatic incident" declares that there is no romance of the “Beau Geste” typo. “It is all pick and shovel work nowadays aud dirt.” this youth declares. But, then, he may not have seen all there was to see of the Legion.

If we arc to take the word of those high up in the Foreign Legion, it is badly misrepresented to the general public. It appears, that it is not composed exclusively of criminals and outcasts. The type of officer portrayed in fiction, we arc told, does not exist in the Legion. Any nbn-coniffiissioncd officer who went about his nefarious business like his prototypes of fiction would be degraded nt once when his actions were reported. Perhaps, though, his actions would not be reported? The penal battalions, moreover. it is stated, were abolished years ago. Incidentally, “inou colonel” does not ride up and down the lines calling out. “Accursed pigs, march or die." Quite definitely, Legionnaires are no longer made to clean out the sewers of Sidi-bel-ahhes. It would seem that tlie punishment of Crnpundine, tbit consists of tying n man’s hands and feet to his liack, was abolished years ago. One cannot help feeling that, coining as they do from send-oflieial sources, these denials must be taken at their true worth Perhaps It ’s what they leave out that makes men want to swim a mile at the peril of their lives to escape the life of a ECgionnaire?