A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 158, 1 April 1937, Page 9

A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Sir Patrick Hastings Sir Patrick Hastings, who will defend Mrs. Joan Sutherland in the action for alleged slander brought against her by Mr. Ernest Simpson, husband of Mrs. Wallis Simpson, is Britain’s leading counsel in such eases. He has appeared in almost every cause celebre and, with his sense of the dramatic and command of rhetoric, has been instrumental in securing the most surprising verdicts. In court he has a habit of leaving his table while speaking, walking up toward the jury and wagging a linger at it to emphasise some point. Although 56 years of age, in appearance he is in the 10’s. He has had an adventurous life. Leaving Charterhouse School at the age of 17, ho worked as a miner in a Welsh goldfield. Then he spent six months in a lightship. Then came a short spell iu Fleet Street, but he gave that up to enlist in a Yeomanry regiment and go to the Boer War. When he returned he became a journalist again, but spent his leisure hours reading for the Bur. “There have been times,” he has said, "when I walked the streets of London with scarcely any boots to my feet I have known what it is to go for days with only one meal a day.” Now his income cannot be below £l2,O<X) a year. He has written several plays, is an expert yachtsman, and can sometimes be persuaded to give conjuring entertainments. He enjoys the theatre, fishing and shooting. Paderewski.

Doctors are concerned that M. Ignace Jan Paderewski, who is 77 years old, is suffering from influenza. Born in 1860, he studied at Warsaw and Berlin, and became noted as one of the greatest pianists who have ever lived. Late in life he took up politics, anil during the Great War was active iu the cause of Poland. On the formation of Poland as an independent State jni became its first Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs. In 1920 he retired to his estate in California, and in 1922 returned to the concert stage. From that time, too, he has lived in Switzerland. To make himself the accomplished musician the world knows him as. Paderewski underwent an amazingly strict schedule of practice. Time aud again he was known to keep on working until three or four in the morning, often doing from 14 to 16 hours a day. Only a physical giant could do that consistently, and Paderewski was that. His endurance and strength were known to be enormous. In his prime he was especially strong and even powerful. This very physical power gave him an enormous range of tone colour possibilities. It was possible for him to go from gossamer effects to veritable storms. If it had not been for his enormous endurance he could never have accomplished the work which gave him a seat at the Peace Conference following the Great War as the foremost citizen of Poland —proud position for a musician. The Stratosphere.

The existence of what is now known as the stratosphere was discovered by a Frenchman, Teisserenc de Bort, who gave to the new region of the atmosphere the name “Isothermal layer.” By the use of sounding balloons he found that up to 11,000 kilometres (approximately seven miles) his observations were consistent with previous observations. Above that point, however, the temperature, instead of decreasing at the normal rate of six degrees Centigrade for each kilometre as it had below, remained stationary or even increased with further increase in altitude.

Subsequent investigations, notably by Professor Piccard, of Belgium, commencing in 1931, have served to show that the distinguishing feature of the stratosphere is its temperature. This factor varies with the conditions existing at the surface of the earth, and, therefore, with season, latitude, surface altitude, and barometric pressure. The average temperature at the lotrer edge is about —55 degrees Centigrade in the middle latitudes.

Other interesting characteristics of the stratosphere are its freedom from storms and clouds and ite very moderate winds. It is a region of clear, rarefied atmosphere; tree of all the moisture and turbulence found close to the earth’s surface. It is a region of mild currents. The density of the air in the lower edge of the stratosphere is oneninth of what it is at sea-level. Japanese Fascism. General Hayashi assured the House of Peers that Japan had no intention of going Fascist. Among the younger officers and adherents of the military party in Japan patriotic feeling runs exceedingly high and finds expression in secret leagues whose members pledge themselves to the most extreme actions in what they hold to be the supreme interest of the State. These leagues have of late years resorted again and again to the assassination of high personages of whose attitude and policy they have disapproved. To a great extent Japan possesses already most of the characteristics that are associated in Europe with the “totalitarian” State. Local government is under highly centralised control by officials appointed by the Central Authority, so that the locally-elected councils have very little power. The central administrative system is. highly authoritarian and bureaucratic, and penetrates into every part of the national life, actively suppressing criticism and removing inconvenient persons from positions of influence. Industry and commerce have been fostered under strong State encouragement ami control, with State participation and financial help in many types of enterprise: and the Japanese business man, in his dealings with the outside world, confidently expects the backing of the State authority, to which he submits practically without question. The monetary system and commercial relations are managed under the control of the State to serve the national interest; and in the organisation of every branch of economic activity, including agriculture, Japan comes nearer to possessing a "planned economy” than any other great State except Russia. But whereas European Fascism, despite all the exaltation of the military virtues, has been a movement of citizens, in Japan extreme nationalism bases its power directly upon the armed forces, with their assumed immunity from parliamentary control. A civil Fascism, with somewhat radical demands for the redress of peasants’ grievances, has developed during the past few years, but it can hope to exert influence only to the extent to which it can gain the support of the military aud naval leaders,