A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 197, 18 May 1936, Page 7

A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Locarno Treaty “Puzzled” asks whether any other of the signatories, except Germany, violated the terms of the Locarno Treaty before Germany repudiated it. He asks also whether it was not a fact that one of tlie terms of the treaty was that the signatories undertook to disarm, and that, immediately, France erected strong fortifications along the Franco-German frontier. France began to build her famous Maginot Line of fortifications along the Franco-Ger-man frontier in 1923. The Locarno Treaty was signed in December, 1925. It did not deal with disarmament, but was concerned only' with giving security to France, Germany and Belgium, Great Britain and Italy being guarantors. Germany and Belgium and Germany and France mutually undertook that they would “in no case attack or invade each other or resort to war against each other” except in the case of legitimate defence, “flagrant breach” of the Rhineland demilitarised zone, or actio... under certain articles of the League of Nations Covenant. In the event of a “flagrant 'breach” Great Britain and Italy guaranteed to support, with military force if necessary, the victim of the aggressive act. Germany contends that France, by forming an alliance with Russia, has violated the Locarno Treaty: that she is really pursuing a policy of "encircling” Germany, as in 1914. France denies this. Germany has insisted on complete equality with the other world Powers. This includes the right to arm, erect forts and build a navy and aeroplanes. To secure these rights, Germany has had to violate the military clauses of the Treaty of Versailles. This she did step by step until all that remained was the clause relating to the demilitarised Rhineland. To break this clause involved the automatic violation of the Locarno Treaty. She could not violate the one without violating the other. Cinque Ports. The King has approved the appointment of Lord Willingdon as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. The Cinque Ports are a group of towns in Sussex and Kent, consisting originally of Hastings, Romney, Hythe, Dover and Sandwich, Winclielsea and Rye being added afterward. When England was being constantly threatened by invasion from the Continent they were relied on to provide help to beat back the enemy. In return they enjoyed certain privileges which were definitely set forth in a charter granted by Edward L This charter provided that iu return for a contribution of 57 ships for 15 days in the year they were to have exemption from all taxes and a criminal and civil jurisdiction of their own. The contribution of the Cinque Ports was the backbone of the Navy until the time of Henry VII, after which their influence declined. Their charter was surrendered to the Crown in 16SS, and in the nineteenth century their administration was brought into uniformity with the rest of the country. The ancient office of Warden of the Cinque Ports survives to-day as an honour only. It confers the official residence of Walmer Castle, near Deal, and the right to appoint justices of the peace within the ports. Dr. A. C. Aitken. Dr. A. C. Aitken, a New Zealander, who has been elected to a fellowship of the Royal Society, is said to have the most retentive memory in “the world to-day. Besides knowing the number of every soldier in his company and the number of each soldier’s rifle, during the Great War, he has performed marvellous feats of calculation. indeed, he has been described as the world’s lightning calculator. He has been known to square a threefigure number in six seconds, an eightfigure number in one minute, and extract the square root of a five-figure number in one minute. The Royal Society. The Royal Society, to which Dr. A. C. Aitken has been elected a Fellow, is the premier scientific society in the United Kingdom, it originated in a meeting in London, in 1645, of a number of learned inquirers after knowledge, for the discussion of various speculations in natural philosophy and of experiments connected therewith. But it was not until 1660 that the society actually became organised. On April 22, 1662, it was incorporated by Charles If under the title of the The President, Council and Fellowship of the Royal Society of -London, for improving Natural Knowledge. The Philosophical Transactions (the society’s publication) first appeared in 1665, and the whole series presents a complete survey of the progress of scientific knowledge down to the present day. Several medals are offered each year in encouragement of scientific research and discovery. Piracy.

There is a possibility that a trawler, the Girl Pat, may be declared a pirate. The Privy Council has cited with approval a definition of piracy given as far back as 1696 that “’piracy is only a sea term for robbery, piracy being a robbery within the jurisdiction of the Admiralty. If the mariners of any ship shall violently dispossess lhe master, and afterward carry away the ship itself or any of the goods with felonious intention in any place where the Lord Admiral hath jurisdiction, this is robbery and piracy.” The essential characteristic of piracy is that the acts complained of are done without the authority of a sovereign State or a politically-organised society, and for private ends.

The Abuna. The Abuna, the Egyptian head of the Ethiopian Church, has informed Marshal Badoglio of his full adherence and co-operation. The Abuna is the til st man in Abyssinia after the Emperor. This important post is under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Cairo, and so far has always been filled by an Egyptian monk of the Coptic Church, and never an Abyssinian. The present head, Kyriloff, is a man of peace, who spends most of his time in his palace surrounded by his old ecclesiastical books. His priests carry out the political activities of the Church under the rule of Abu Hanon, the Bishop of Harar, and it is they who hinder the Emperor’s reforms. The churchmen have the masses in the hollow of their hands. The Emperor has had often to give up radical reform plans for fear of straining his relations with the Church. ‘‘ln many respects,” it has been said, “the Emperor is the Church’s prisoner, for the Church is the real ruler of the country. The Emperor’s organisation for governing the State is handicapped by the inadequate means of communication. . . . His power does not extend beyond the range of his machine-guns, and in many villages the inhabitants think that the Emperor Meuelik is still reigning in the capital. But. the Church holds sway over the whole land by means of its churches, which are to be found in even the smallest hamlets."