POSTSCRIPTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 70, 20 September 1939, Page 8

POSTSCRIPTS

Chronicle and Comment

BY PERCY FLAGE

j Hitler's water-colours are not striking, but as a self-taught cartographer he is hard to beat. -** # / Should the 'price of pe"trol go still 3 higher, many motorists will know 1 what it feels like to b3 a mere pedes- , trian. t * * * 5 There is not the slightest truth in the rumour that Russia is magnanimously hoping to revive the . Anti» 3 Comintern Pact. '• I * ■* ' ♦ ' f Times do surely changer- Little t Tommy used to hide his cigarettes from I mother. Now mother has to hide her r cigarettes from little Tommy. i . * * ♦ . Advice to submarine patrols: Chuck 3 a line over with a slice of sausage on 1 the hook. Practically certain to get a 7 fierce bite from a U-boat. ' H.W.B. s . ■ ft * * ' ■ > MIND OF A NATION. Jetzt gehort uns DeutschlandUnd bald, die ganze Welt. - , That is the song that the children 1 and the young men and women were r singing in the streets of Germany before war broke out, and it means: "Now * Germany belongs to us, soon we shall * own the whole world." The mind of a 5 nation is expressed more plainly in its ". popular songs ;than in the speeches of : its leaders (comments Duff-Cooper), 1 but now speeches and actions and songs j all point to the same conclusion. ♦ ♦ ♦ c INTIMATION. i J.B.L.—New Zealand time1 is HJ - hours ahead of English standard time - and 10J hours ahead of English Sum- ■ mer Time. Regular Reader. —(1) We have no ■ serious opinions to offer; everything is ■ so unpredictable. (2) You should be able to find the necessary references * in the Public Library. Potshot.—Better not go gunning in " that covert just now. - Johansen.—So far as can be gathered t the word Zeppelin is merely a collo- ; quial term. Pronunciative. —Why descend to per* T sonalities? Anyhow, your argument 5 is not impressive. Jake.—You "read Col. 8 before turning to the war news. '. . "? The** are more like you. ' * . • * . THE MAD DOG OF EUROPE. (From the "Punch" Bowl.) The dog, to serve.some private end* t Went mad and bit the man. The man recovered from the bite, The dog it was that died. —Goldsmith. Medical Officer: Sorry, I must reject you on account of your teeth. Would-be Recruit: I'm no wantin' to bite the Germans; Fm wantin' ta shoot 'em. Of wolves that wear sheepfs clothing ; The world has long been full, But I've a special loathing For one in Berlin wool. Although the' wool may cover Not more than half the beast. Perhaps when all is over He'll be entirely fleeced.- ... . • - * « INFORMATION DEPARTMENT. "Will you settle this question f«T me?" asks London Town. "The girl friend says that there is an island in the Atlantic which periodically rises and falls. I've bet her a bottle of : beer (by the way, she doesn't drink) that somebody is pulling her leg. What about it?" This—that the girl friend is right. There is such an island, Falcon Island, which plays such pranks. It first appeared in 1877, eight years later it rose to a height of 250 feet, in 1895 had sunk to forty feet, after which-it became a mere shoal. Yet the islandit is in the Pacific, not the Atlantichad been named and put on maps and charts. In 1913, after becoming a mound it vanished completely, and a ship passed over the spot where it had stood Suddenly it rose once more, in October, 1927, and this time it became higher than ever before—the peak stood up 365 feet. The island remained stationary ior some years, but now it has begun to sink. • ' * ■ ■',*■'-■■ ■■■■ THE FUHRER. (With Apologies to William Blak**. Hitler, Hitler, were you "tight," That you sought another fight? What mere mortal hand or.' eye Could gauge your fearful lunacy? And what distant deeps or skies, But have heard your blatant lies? On what wings must he aspire, Who'd outsKine you as a liar? Could no pity on your part Melt the hardness of your heart? And did mortal heart e'er beat; That could fathom your conceit? What the maggot, what the strain. Wrought delusion in your brain? Did God smile to mark anew, A megalomaniac like you? R.J.P. 'Parody on William Blake's "Tbm. Tiger." .#■.». ♦ STALIN'S SHADOW. Molotov has the name of "Stalin** shadow" in his own country, says a French newspaperman. Another de-, signatkm is: Leader No. 2of Russia. In--1909 he was given two years in gaol for revolutionary propaganda. Three_ years later he was again arrested, but attacked his gaoler and escaped. In 1916 he was caught and exiled to Siberia, where he slaved in the mines at Irkutsk, to'bredk loose once more and join up with his friend Stalin in. London. When the Revolution broke out in 1917 he was twenty-seven years old For a space ITolotov was Head of the party, but on Lenin's return to, Russia he retired into the shadows. When Stalin came to power Molotov became Second Secretary of the party and Stalin's closest collaborator. This association has now continued for eighteen years. "Stalin's Shadow" has. given valuable service to his chief, and has helped him to suppress numerous, insurrections. While the original chiefs of the Soviet have been condemned, executed, or proscribed in a number of trials, Molotov has remained in favour. Although hardly known abroad prior to last year, it is he who directs Russian politics. He was the chief ojC Litvinov, whom he replaced not so long since. His wife, Olga Karpovs-kaya-Molotov, is reputedly the most extraordinary woman of the U.S.S.R. A beauty and a .woman of taste, she also shows a real genius for organisation. She was an employee in a cosmetic factory, soon became its chief, and today directs seventeen factories, controlling the whole beauty-product industry of Russia. In 1936 she studied American methods, in the U.S.A.: and introduced them into Russia under the slogan: "Beauty products -are, not a luxury but a necessity." "Viacheslav works upon the-soul.- I work upon, it-he face." she said. Since this was written Molotov has become;something of a world figure. He has proved himself as "foxy" as he was away back when, blooded in the Revolution* hm converted Stalin to his ideas.