POSTSCRIPTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 79, 30 September 1944, Page 6

POSTSCRIPTS

Chronicle and Comment

BY PERCY FLAGE

Dear Adolf's chance in Riga Is what men call it—meagre. ' * ,■*■'.■ *■ The twelve-sided threepenny piecf costs one-tenth of a penny to make. * « ♦ "He who does not fight today merely upholds the illusion of being alive • He who does not fight is morally dead." —Benito Mussolini. * ■■•'* * ' Were we to take as much pains t<| be what we ought to be as we do to disguise what we really are, we mighi appear like ourselves, without bein{j» at the trouble of any disguise at all.—f Rochefoucauld. ■*" „■ * *. LINCOLN'S INN. Lincoln's Inn was damaged in a flying bomb attacks. The windows and woodwork of the gate house facing Chancery Lane, which bears the date 1518, also a. block of lawyers' changers and residential flats, were shattered, but no one was injured. A tablet on the chapel wall records that on October 13, 1915, a bomb from a y Zeppelin fell outside the building, causing damage. * # -::- "QUEENSLAND DIGGER." A cable from Ottawa recently re^ ported: Captain E. Levi, Jewish chap. lain, who went to New Guinea "with the American army, said that Allied soldiers had upset the economic life of the South Sea \ islands by buying grass, skirts and other trinkets. Natives, he added, complained that they could -■ get a good wife before the war for one pig, but now a wife costs between £4C .' and £50 in "good Australian cash." * # * LULLABY OF ROSES. The slender rosebuds droop in sleep, Upon each petal dewdrops weep; With folded .leaves, like tired hands ai rest, Bowing their weary heads to earth'? brown breast. Flowers, they sway upon the stems To lullaby of roses—fragile gems. They sleep, rocked by a gentle breeze. Guarded by fairy folk—amid tall trees—Rosa Knight. « ■ * ' * HEARD THIS ONE? The Aussie and the Yank who had chummed up in the jungle were waiting for the hop-over. Said the Yank, with deep feeling, "When we do go over, remember Pearl Harbour." The Digger looked quizzical. "Dunno any sheila of that name," he said. "But, anyway, this is no time to be thinking of women." ■* ■ *■ * FIVE WEEKS. Dear Mr. Flage,—No doubt you have heard the conundrum: "If it takes a man three weeks to walk a fortnight, how long will it take him five weeks to walk a month?" The answer if "Five weeks," and it suggests the following: "If it takes 19,000 investors 32 days to subscribe £19,000,000, how long will it take 21.000 investors six days to find the remaining £21,000,000?" By the same token, the answer is "Six days" (I don't think!). —Yours,. —Nobby. « « •■ * STRANGE CLAIM. A railway official tells how claims for losses of goods in transit are very high, and make quite an item in companies' accounts. The strangest story of a claim against a railway is that told by Colonel Deneys Reitz, High Commissioner in London for the Union of South Africa. It seems that, some years ago, a Johannesburg magnate ordered a replica of Venus of Milo from Cape Town. It was sent by rail. Magnate was much annoyed -to find on statue's arrival that it-had "lost" its arms—and jtt once claimed against railway company for "damage" done to .work' of art through negligence of its' employees.. ■X- « > «• .-: "■■■■■■ .:}■ SMUGGLING, : Band-leader Victor Silvester w^ .. fined £600 at Marylebone Police Court for participating in smuggling sill stockings, perfume, wrist watches, anc alarm clocks from the United Statei and Canada. He v. Tas suspected, bu* when interrogated denied possessior of any goods on which duty was due Revenue officers searched his fiat anc discovered the articles hidden in i wardrobe. Silvester's counsel said th« crime was a foolish, misguided attempt to take advantage of an offer of an American pilot officer to provide luxury articles for use by Silvester's wife The prosecution declared there was m question that it was a deliberate smuggling venture. «• * * THE HILL. Breathless, we flung us" on the windj hill, Laughed in the sun, and kissed the lovely grass. , You said, "Through glory and ecstasy we pass; Wind, sun, and earth remain, the birds sing still, When we are old, are old. . . ." "And when we die All's over that is "ours; and life burnt on Through other- lovers, other lips," . said I, "Heart of my heart, our heaven is now, is won!" "We are Earth's best, that learnt her lesson here. Life is our cry. We have kept the faith!" we said; "We shall go down with unreluctant tread Rose-crowned into the darkness!" . . t Proud we were, And laughed, that had such brave, true things to say, —And then you suddenly cried, and turned away. ' —Rupert Brooke. * * * WISHFUL THINKING. Dear Flage,—During the interval at Athletic Park- on Saturday, where the enthusiasm of the schoolboy barrackers for their respective representative teams ran riot, a little leg-pulling was indulged in by the usually "correct" and sedate manipulator of the minute hand of the clock and momentous figures of the score-board. "Ak-3, Wg.-3" was shown on the board. Then a nought was slowly placed after the three of the Wellington score. The youthful stand patrons went goggleeyed and buzzed their excitement that Wellington had "stung back" this time. Then the scerie changed. An arm shot up and "subtracted" nought from thirty—leaves three. Who claimed that figures can't lie? But who cared? The lively lads from Petone village were indulging in Rugby fireworks, pleasantly "passing" the time away. The score might have reached 30 if the minute hand hadn't stopped and the final whistle blown—"no side." —G.F. - *■ * -SIADMIRAL WITHOUT A FLEET. Hungary seems to be next on the Red Army's list. This semi-feudal, "Merry Widow" kingdom without a ' King, socially one of the most backward countries in Europe, has been ruled since 1920 by Admiral Miklos Horthy de Nagybanya as self-styled "Governor-General," representing the big land owners. Now 76 years of age, Horthy was Admiral of the Aus-tro-Hungarian Adriatic fleet in the last war, and in 1920, when Hungary for a short period became a Soviet Republic, a counter-revolutionary movement of officers elected him their leader, Horthy being the senior officer present, and with the. help of Rumanian troops the movement succeeded. Ever since he has remained the Cnief of State, and he even had coins minted with his .head on them To join Germany was the natural " thing to do for an autocrat like Horthy His son has; been killed in this war m Russia. After the last'war Horthy 1 lost only his fleet, but kept his admirals uniform, which he still wears as the ruler of landlocked Hungary After this -war he is likely to lose his uniform, too, and he will be lucky if the head on his shoulders stays as secure as the head on his silver coins. —Yours faithfully, .