RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 98, 19 January 1935, Page 6

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current Events (By Kickshaws.) Eggs, it is declared, have entered Empire politics. This, we understand, represents a long overdue promotion from the hustings.... ♦ ♦ ♦ If we understand the Wellington Ratepayers’ Association, it is often wise to leave a lone loan alone. » ♦ » Drastic regulations, it seems, have just been gazetted concerning the landing of inflammable cargo. In Australia a comprehensive test in Gaelic is expected to solve that problem. * # * Just what happens when nature is tampered with is indicated by the following from “E.J.D.H.” who says:— “Shooting Niagara would be child’s play compared with damming the Arctic current between Canada and Greenland, as mentioned in your notes. South America has an Antarctic current to which the name of Humboldt has been attached. It flows up the west coast, and finally strikes land in northern Peru, bouncing off in a westerly direction. Some seven years ago this current was temporarily deflected, by what means cannot be stated, and struck the coast about 100 miles further south. As a result the usually rainless Peruvian coast was visited by torrential rains from the west; the adobe houses of Trujillo collapsed into shapeless heaps of mud, and even in Lima the electric light service failed for three nights. Peru would not favour schemes for monkeying with ocean currents!” » » • One can well believe that any large scale migrationary movement into France from the Saar will cause concern to the authorities. France with some 300,000 unemployed will not be anxious to find jobs for refugees. This movement is but a minor ebb and flow and it has occurred before. A mass migration to France of an even greater nature started from the Saar in ISIS when it was returned to Germany after the downfall of Napoleon. A committee is already making preparations for a similar invasion. In fact, this committee has already dealt with a large number of cases. History, it would seem, is repeating itself. It has been estimated that there are at least 150,000 descendants of French families in the Saarlouis region, the most French of the Saar area. One hundred and twenty years ago the ancestors of these families, were faced with exactly the same problem as confronts the families to-day. Many families who have openly fought against the Nazis will have little choice, thus w.e come from Napoleon to Hitler and And—no change. When the history of present times comes to be written probably the most remarkable fact that will emerge is the surprising manner in which the people of European Russia have been scattered across the face of the world. In no other period hare such prodigious upheavals occurred among the flesh and blood of the world. The Russian trouble sent a million and a half souls scuttering to all corners of the world. Even the Southern Hemisphere felt the repercussion. Trouble in Germany sent nearly 100,000 Jews along the trail. France, Palestine, Poland, America, Holland, Switzerland, England, Belgium, and a score of other countries have been affected by this one migrationary movement alone. The country that caused the movement is the only one that has not had to worry about it. Trouble in the Near East caused a whole nation to pack up and look for a new country. They are still looking. but the Assyrian problem must be settled soon. At one time it was suggested that the 10,000 Assyrians should settle in Brazil; it was then suggested that they be given land in British Guiana. So the ebb and flow continues and history in due course will make a note of it. * * Movements of human beings have been going on for all time, and if we look carefully we may see here and there reminders of the past problems of migration. We talk, for example, of British India, but India does not belong exclusively to Britain. Part of the Presidency of Bengal flies the flag of France. At Chandarnagar the atmosphere is typically Gallic. One sees French gendarmes, and students at the college use French as the language of general conversation. A little higher up the Hooghly River there are a few square acres of Portugal. Not far away there lay an area that belonged to Holland. This area was bought out by Britain some eighty years ago, but there is still an affectionate atmosphere of the past., Downstream one may enter what was once Danish territory. In South India lhe French are still supreme at Pondicherry. On the west coast of India flies the flag of Portugal. It flies further north and one reaches the town of Goa. Goa is the only, place in the world where a Republican Government is represented by a Viceroy. Moreover, it is now two centuries since the Frenchman, De Boigne, first raised and disciplined native regiments in Rajputana. Yet to this day his words of command are used in the feudatory armies in drilling.

“I am impressed by the amount ot helpful information you give in your column,” says “Enquirer.” “Could you give us the meaning and use of the following terms as used in America and when they came into use: Tammany, graft, racketeering, gangstering, when kidnapping as practised to-day came into vogue?” [Tammany was first used as a word in 1863, according to the Oxford Dictionary. It is used to-day as the name of the central political organisation. This party is located at Tammany Hall in 14th Street, New York. The name is synonymous with corruption and graft. Graft is a slang word, used in America at the end of last century. It means “dishonest profit.” usually derived from political or municipal sources. Racketeering was first used in 1812 as the noun “racket.” It means a business scheme. The modern usage in America refers to a business scheme whereby a certain individual guarantees to see that no harm comes to tradespeople and others. In their turn the protected individuals pay a contribution every week to the protector. In practice it works out that unless the protected submit to being protected the protector damages their business. It is. in fact, a cross between piracy and blackmail, and has brought enormous profits to the protectors. Al Capone is said to have made a million a year out of it. The art of kidnapping is thousands of years old. Kidnapping came into prominence in America when prohibition stopped a year or so ago.] Perpetual emptiness! Unceasing change! No single volume paramount, no code. No master spirit, no determined road 5 But equally a want of books and men. —Wordsworth.