NEWS AND OPINIONS

Evening Star, Issue 21316, 21 January 1933, Page 2

NEWS AND OPINIONS

HO BABIES BY LAW With the idea of " benefiting the proletariat and bettering the race ” > tha Vera Cruz authorities have decided to draw up a law introducing a system of ; State-enforced birth control, announces Dr Salvador Mendoza, one of the drafters of the new civil code. The law, would require parents wishing to have children to appear before an official board, which would inquire into the size of the family, ability to provide and educate, and the health condition of the parents. The measure would prohibit children to extremely poor, incompetent, or defective couples. Neither ' the penalties _ for violation nor the various provisions of the law have been settled yet, apparently, but a State birth control office is being established to carry out the plan. * * « • WARREN HASTINGS CENTENARY The bicentenary of the birth of Warren Hastings was celebrated in London by the laying of wreaths before the simple monument to his memory in Westminster Abbey, and by commemorative meetings arranged by the Royal Empire Society. _ _ Many people also visited the exhibitions of portraits, manuscripts, and personal relics of the famous first Governor-General in India arranged at the British Museum and Westminster School. Three ex-Vice-roys of India—Lord Irwin, Lord Reading, and Lord Hardinge—took part in the gathering held at Westminster; School. # * • • OXFORD RIOT A party of Oxford undergraduates recently broke up a meeting of the October Club, the Communist organisation of the university, after a fierce struggle. This was declared by those taking part to be in revenge for the action of the _ Communists in singing the * Internationale ’ during the Armistice Day service at St. Giles’s. Free fights broke out all over the hall, and black eyes and bleeding noses were soon in evidence. Chairs were smashed, and undergraduates’ gowns were tom into ribbons. While rival singing and cheering were going on a “ bulldog ” ap-i peared at the principal doorway, which! he held until the arrival of the proctors. A number of names were taken. • # • # WHY THE TOMATO IS SO CALLED The tomato is indigenous to America, though exactly where it originated is at moot question. The name appears to be of Aztec origin, and is, given by, some authorities as “ tomatl” and by, others as “ xitomate.” The word is still indicated in the names of- Mexican towns, such as Topmthan, Tomatepec,etc., and, according to Humboldt, tha plant was cultivated for its fruit by, the Mexican natives long before the Spanish Conquest.. #.* • • THE LATE DR HANSEN Undoubtedly Nansen’s own numerous and well-written books have greatly increased and extended his reputation--But Herr Sorensen has shown that ha would have been a great man if he had never written a line. He was compounded of contradictions, and yet a! perfectly consistent man. Although ha forsook Christianity, he was Christian; in all his. life and works'; though opposed to conventions and the enemy of all vested opinions, he was trusted by, all mankind; though one of the bravest’ of men, he hated.war as a'curse and ai degradation of humanity; himself ak most the ideal product of modern culture, he thought the civilisation of tha Eskimos as good as ours and sounder j] described as a restless idealist," he did more for his fellow-men in ten years than most politicians accomplish in a lifetime.—' Times Literary Supplement.*- 1

ONE OF THE MODERNS “As a child, 55 said Mr Haldane in s' broadcast talk here reproduced (‘ The Inequality of Man. and Other; Essays 5 ), “I was not brought up in! the tenets of any_ religion, but in a household where science and philosophy; took the place of faith. 55 That sentence is the perfect comment on .this Volume of essays collected from various sources,Mr Haldane 5 s interests are, wide, but ini the background science, or philosophy; permeated by science, is always to bai discerned. . . . When Mr Haldana turns to politics and economics it is in.’ part to deplore their failure to make! adequate use of science. Hence his interest in and sympathy with the Russian experiment, for Russia is attempting to base its policy on science; and Mr Haldane cannot forget such facts as “ Professor Percival’s wheat collection! at Reading consists of about 3,000 living varieties, Vavilov 5 s at Dyetskoo Syelo of 23,500 when last . counted. 5 ' Finally, when Mr Haldane turns to religion—for, he admits,- “ though not an adherent of:any religion, I find religions an absorbing topic 55 —it is with the eye of the man of science. Unfortunately that organ is of little use in' discerning spiritual things, and the religious eye has been so little exercised by Mr Haldane, as he confesses, from his youth upwards that when he sees at all.it is with a very distorted vision- —‘ Times Literary Supplement. 5 - * * • * IRELAND'S NEW GOVERNOR-GENERAL No objection will be raised to Mr Domnhall ua Buachalla calling himself Seneschal instead of Governor-General-Indeed, Seneschal is a fine and romantic old word, and it is a pleasure to find it reinstated in official life, if only, as a gesture of antagonism. The fact that the Seneschal haf always been a royal and never a democratic officer gives a touch of humour to the choice,The office of Seneschal dates from tha Middle Ages, when the German barbaric princes settled in the Empire,; and from the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries he was one of the five great officers of the French Court. The others were the butler, the constable, tha chamberlain, and the chancellor, all of whose functions and dignities have diverged in succeeding centuries. At one time the office was hereditary, but royal jealousies altered that arrangement. In a minor legal connection tha title survived in France till the Revolution.— * Observer. 5 • • • * A GLOOMY WHIM Mr Henry Baker, who was hurled at Stokesley during the week, “ had his coffin made twenty years ago. 55 Though a gloomy whim, that is not a very uncommon one, Sarah Bernhardt carried her own coffin (richly upholstered)] about with her during her later tours.Nelson, too, had arranged that detail for his funeral. Horne Tooke went further, and provided his own tomb, a large block of black marble, to be set up in his garden at Wimbledon, But after his death it was decided that the erection would deteriorate the value or the estate, and he was buried with the common herd in Ealing Churchyard.—' .Observer,’- -