RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 163, 6 April 1938, Page 10

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights On Current Events

(By

Kickshaws.)

Photographs of politicians are banned in Rumania. Sympathetic treatment of the general public is unusual these days. ♦ * * If it be correct that Mussolini has introduced the goose-step into his military machine because it is difficult, we suggest the next step should be the bolero.

Colour photography, it is stated, has been found invaluable in reconstructing faces. The average woman, however, still finds the mirror has its attractions.

. “I would be very much obliged it any of your readers could inform me as to the correct method of reconditioning the fabric on the body and roof of a ear? The fabric is looking dull and whitish in places, and' so far I have been unable to find out how to treat it, or what is a suitable dressing to apply,” says “A.M.” “I am appealing to your boundless source of information in the hope that, as usual, the correct information. will come along.” [One very simple way is to trade-in the car for a new one, but readers may have other suggestions.] ♦ * * The surprising thing about the report of a peach 15in. in circumference is that it isn’t a pumpkin. We have entered the giant pumpkin era by now, but so far there have been no reports of giants. This is to be deplored, because Kickshaws was hoping that something would be stirring in pumpkins. New Zealand is a land where giant plants appear to flourish. Only a few years ago we had gooseberries four inches in circumference. This heartening news came from Mangatainoka. Even better gooseberries have been reported from Otago, where it was revealed they grow, 14 to the pound weight. It is strange, however, that we do not do better with our tomatoes. New Zealand, a little earlier, was covered with tomato plants. Yet there was nobody who claimed tomatoes that weighed 21b. These grew on trees 20 feet high to the utter astonishment of a resident of Lawrence, Massachusetts, who was forced to borrow the step-ladder of his next door neighbour in order to pick the tomatoes. Can any tomato fiend bea* that? « » * It was mentioned in this column four or five years ago that the islands of the Pacific were destined to take on a new significance in the light of aviation progress, which at that time was not sufficiently advanced to make 2000-mile hops of commercial value. The time has now come when steppingstones of that nature are being selected. The astonished gulls that have lived and loved for generations on barren islands have suddenly found themselves ousted. Japan has stretched her air tentacles among the Caroline islands. America has been busy finding stepping-stones to the west. The situation has reached such a stage of interest that we have the spectacle of English and American “colonisers” sitting amicably together on a dot in the Pacific, while their parent Governments argue the matter. In the days of sail these little islands had a certain significance. This was denied them when steam came along, and made ocean voyages of 10,000 miles a practical proposition'. The seagulls came back and hoped for peace. The difference between the buccaneering interest that was taken in the Pacific Islands a couple of centuries ago and the interest now being taken is that the buccaneers "were content with what Nature provided. Island snatching to-day has behind it the massed cement bags of governments. Heligoland pointed the way. This decayed tooth was filled up with steel girders and cement. Aviation has now reached a stage where machines make long ocean hops, but they are less than the size of the oceans. We have, in fact, got to the sailing era in aviation, so -to speak. ,■ One cau well wonder if interest in Pacific and other islands is going to last.' Already there is talk of an aeroplane that can fly 10,000 miles without a stop. When that type of machine has been introduced commercially' there is no ocean that cannot be flown non-stop. Island steppingstones will cease to be of commercial interest. They will remain, however, of consfderable tactical interest from a defence point of view. Nations will acquire islands to deny their use to other nations. So far as the Pacific Islands are concerned, it is just a pity that commercialisation of the Pacific air routes happens to be almost the monopoly of the United States of America. If Japan and South America-had wanted to develop air routes the islands would have been there ready for the journey. Indeed, New Zealand could place herself conveniently along an island route connecting Chile and Japan if only Chileans and Japanese had anything worth flying about. It may be that, when aeroplanes are fully fledged and long ocean flights a possibility, the main air route will be where the islands are thinnest. Australia, New Zealand, Pitcairn, Galapagos and Panama will connect with Haiti, the Azores and Europe. Apart from the trip across the North Pole, this happens to be the shortest route to Europe. Eventually it is inevitable that the North Pole route will be used, and we shall fly via New Guinea, the Philippines, Japan, Siberia and Iceland tf Edinburgh—or is it Glasgow? ♦ » * “Monsieur or Signor de Kickshaws,” says “Coming Events,” “reviewing the varied sources of information revealed in your valuable column, one may hope ydu will kindly obtain for us» information as to the words of the present German marching song, ‘Horst Wessel.’ Is it identical with one published a short time ago, depicting the joys of ‘wading knee deep in Frenchmen’s blood’ ?” [Professor G. W. von Zedlitz, M.A., has kindly provided the prose translation published below in verse form: ‘‘Raise the flag and close the ranks. Storm troops march with firm tread; In spirit the comrades march in our ranks, Whom Communists and Conservatives shot. “Free the streets for the brown battalions, Free the streets for the Storm troop men. Millions gaze hopefully on the swastika, ' The day of bread and of freedom dawns. "For the last time the war call sounds. We all stand prepared for the tight; Soon in every street will wave Hitler’s flag, The age of slavery will soon be gone.* (First verse repeated.) 1