A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 113, 6 February 1937, Page 7

A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Bacon is Shakespeare? Permission is being sought by the Bacon Society to open Edmund Spenser’s tomb in Westminster Abbey with the idea of examining elegies cast into the grave, in order to try to settle th” question whether Francis Bacon wrot< Shakespeare’s plays. The theory that Bacon wrote Shakespeare’s playdate® from 1856, and is based on : (1' the assumption that William Shake speare of Stratford-on-Avon, was illiterate; (2) parallelisms between the acknowledged works of Bacon and those published in 1623 as the works of William Shakespeare of Stratford-on-Avon; and (3) the fact that no authoritative Shakespeare text exists. It is pointed out that there are only five specimens of Shakespeare’s handwriting in existence, and taking the signature, which occurs in all, the handwriting is by no means clear and certainly not that of an educated man Chiltern Hills. A large part of the Chiltern Hills, including the land round Chequers, the country house of the English Prime Minister, is to be preserved for all time. The Chiltern Hills are a range of flint and chalk hills extending from Henley-upon-Thames, in Oxfordshire, to Tring, Hertfordshire, passing through the centre of the county of Buckingham, where its loftiest summit attains a height of 905 feet above sealevel. These hills were once covered with forests, and were infested by numerous bands of robbers. To proi tect the inhabitants of the neighbouring districts from the depredations of these robbers, an officer was appointed by the Crown, called the Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds, and although the duties have long since ceased, the office still exists, and is made use of to afford members of the House of Commons an opportunity of resigning their seats when they desire to do so. This being a Government appointment, though without either duties or emoluments, the acceptance of it disqualifies a member from retaining his seat. The length of the hills is 45 miles. From any of the summits to the north-west there is an immediate sharp drop of between 500 and 700 feet to an almost level plain, the Valley of the Upper Thames, or the Vale of Aylesbury. In the opposite direction the land slopes gradually and gently to the London basin of the Lower Thames. Because of the difficulty of obtaining water iir a chalk country, the chief towns of the south-east are located in the valleys; and because of their nearness to London, the majority of them are larger than the corresponding market towns of the northwest. Chequers was presented to the nation for the use of the British Prime Ministers in October, 1917 by the then owner, Sir Arthur Lee, M.P., later Lord Lee of Fareham. It stands in a sheltered hollow of the Chiltern hills, nearly 700 feet above sea-level, and is 38 miles by road from Hyde Park Corner, London. The estate, apart from the house, comprises 1500 acres. Among the treasures of Chequers are Cromwell pictures and relics. The Grand Mufti. The Grand Mufti, President of the Moslem Supreme Council in Palestine, hae demanded the abandonment of the Zionist experiment in Palestine, and the immediate stoppage of Jewish immigration. He also states that tho Jews intend to destroy the famous Mosque of Omar. Haj Amin Effendi Al Hussaini, the Grand Mufti, was born in the year of the Hegira—that is, in 1895. He received his education in Jerusalem, passing through the elementary and secondary schools; studied Arabic language and literature, Moslem theology, and French Under private tutors; studied for a short time at Al Azhar and the school of Shaikh Rashid Redha in Cairo. He accomplished his first pilgrimage to Mecca when only 17 and still a student. When the Great War broke out and the Ottoman Empire became involved in it, he was conscripted, and served with his regiment after studying at the Military School of Reserve Officers at Istambul, his military duties taking him to Ankara and the Black Sea. After the Allies’ victory he returned to Jerusalem, where he took up the Arab cause with enthusiasm, working at the formation of clubs and societies. In 1920 he was implicated in the disturbances that occurred, and was condemned by the Military Council to 10 years’ imprisonment. He escaped to Trans-Jordan, however, and the sentence was repealed during his absence. After his return to Jerusalem he was elected Grand Mufti on the death of his brother who had succeeded their father in the office. He was then elected President of the Moslem Supreme Council and the sharia courts. In 1926, he went to Mecca to assist at the General World Moslem Conference. In 1930, he went to London in an effort to have the Balfour Declaration concerning Palestine as the home of Zionism set aside. In 1932, ho was elected president of the World Islamic Congress held at Jerusalem. “I am not against the Jews,” he says. “I am against the British Government, for without its permission, not all the money in the world would have given the Zionists a footing here.” And yet he receives a stipend from the British Government. He is afraid of a Jewish majority and the effect that such a change would make in the status of the Arabs. Anatolia.

Anatolia, where 60 peasants were frozen to death by blizzards, is the name given to Asia Minor, the peninsula forming the western extremity of Asia. Its shores are washed by the Black Sea, the Aegean Sea, Mediterranean Sea, the Dardanelles, and the Bosporous. Its greatest length is 725 miles, its extreme breadth 415 miles, and its area nearly 200.000 square miles. Anatolia is an elevated peninsula comprising series of plateaux varying in height from 2500 ft. to 4500 ft., and falling away gradually from west to east. Its highest mountain. Argaeus Dagh, is 12,650 ft. The rivers, though many of them are of considerable volume, are generally of little importance, having no sea outlet, and few only being navigable for short distances by small boats. The plateaux, largely composed of sandy deserts, salt steppes, and marshes, contain numerous salt and fresh-water lakes. The climate is varied. In the north the heat of summer is damp and the winters are cold. The plateaux have lons cold winters, and oppressive summers, but on the west and south coasts mil'! winters are experienced. In some parts, especially on the Black Sea littoral. malaria is prevalent. The mountains are heavily forest-clad, and subtropical fruits are grown in some parrs of the country, and wheat, rice, cotton, tobacco, and the opium poppy 7 are also grown. Wild animals, such as the bear, wolf. boar, hyaena, lynx and leopard, are numerous. Domestic animals are the camel, buffalo, and the angora goat, the last being extensively reared for the production of mohair.