NEWS AND OPINIONS

Evening Star, Issue 21718, 12 May 1934, Page 2

NEWS AND OPINIONS

A JAPANESE DISASTER. The terrible fire that has destroyed three-quarters of the Japanese city of Hakodate brings vivid memory of that which raged iu Tokioduring the earthquake of 1923. In some ways the present disaster has been even worse, although not so dramatic. The wooden houses were dry after the long drought, and a gale blowing at sixty-eight miles an hour drove the flames in pursuit of 140,000 refugees, 700 of whom have lost their lives.. The scene was one of terror and violence—the inhabitants fleeing before the flames into cold, darkness,, and storm.—‘ Observer.’ SCIENTIFIC FARMING. Rothamsted must have £30,000' if . its classic- fields are not to be broken up into building plots. The station is known to every farmer as the birth- ■ place of scientific agriculture. It was here that Squire Laws, that practical visionary who founded the station in 1843, first began the experiments in ' fertilisers that have _ done so much to increase the crop yield. These same fields are now the unique laboratory of a little group of students who, year by year, have been collecting a mass of data of the utmost value to the farmer. The need for research in 1934 is not less than in 1843.— ‘ Observer.’ A HONEYMOON MONTH. The holding of a honeymoon month at Margate from May 18 to June 30 has, says the London Times,’ been officially sanctioned by the town council. It provides for free entertainments, games, and other attractions fqr couples spending their honeymoon in that town during that period. They will be received privately by the mayor and given a souvenir of their visit and a complimentary pass. ARMY COOKERY. The British Army has a School of ■ Cookery at Aldershot where annual : championships are held. Soldiers come 1 from all over England to loafn. Non ex iof them seems to know why; some;, f think itamakes:; a change-; others just * like cooking for its own sake. The Lon- - don ‘ Daily Herald ’ explains that when you have progressed to the ‘\advanced ” stage you are allowed to indulge in “ fancy ” work and enter the ' individual competition. Cutlets have frills on them; you can make patterns in potatoes; you have electric stoves to work with; and things start taking on French names. The competitors have to eat their creations. LONDON’S DRAINAGE. In a paper read to the Newcomen Society, London, an interesting sketch was given, says 1 Nature,’ of the. ■ streets and pavements of the capital city. In only two . periods in its_ long ' history has London been efficiently paved and drained: in the days of the Romans and during the last hundred years. How well the Romans worked can be seen from the remains of causeways and sewers now and again brought to light during excavations. With the departure of the Romans went the art of road-making, and for century after century the citizens accepted with extraordinary complacency conditions which would not be tolerated in any city to-day. As a rule the roads were unfit for wheeled traffic, the sidewalks-were of gravel and dirt, the rain spouts projected over the pavements', and such sewers as there were were connected ineffectively, with gutters full of holes. 'ln 1742 Lord Tyrconnel, in the House of Lords, said; “ The filth of some parts of Westminster and the inequality and ruggedness of others, cannot but in the eyes of the foreigners, disgrace our nation, and incline them to imagine us a people, not only without delicacy, but without Government, a herd of barbarians, or a colony of Hottentots.” CALCULATING BOYS. In a mental welfare hospital in Britain, there is a boy of sixteen, who, though mentally defective, “ possesses the remarkable power of being able to give the day of the week on which any date occurred as far hack as a.d. 1600, and as far forward as a.d. 2000, and he has not the slightest conception of how he does it.” The case, says the Lon- ; don ‘ Observei;,’ is not very uncommon. The gift of the “ calculating boy ” is not necessarily associated with mental ability, and as a rule it lasts for only a few years. How it happens none of the wonders can say. Arcjihishop Whatcley was wonderful at figures as a child. “ 1 did these sums much quicker than anyone could upon - paper,” he said, “ and I never remember committing the slightest error. When I went to school, at which time the passion wore off, I was a perfect dunce at ciphering, and have continued so ever since.” MAKING HAIR GROW.

The Lord Mayor of London (Sir Charles Collett) gave a party recently at the Mansion House in support of an institute which has many high achievements to its credit—including, it is stated, the restoration of hair to bald heads. The establishment, says the ‘ Daily Telegraph,’ is the Institute of Bay Therapy and Electro-Therapy. The conquest of baldness by electric treatment is described as follows:—One patient admitted to the institute has been bald for nine years, another for twelve years, and others for shorter periods. All these patients had tried every known form of treatment for baldness. In less than nine months the majority had to have a “ hair cut.” The object of the instittue is to provide all kinds of modern electrical treatment for people of small means at low fees —■ and in many cases for no payment. The enterprise is a recognised charity, under the jurisdiction of the Charity Commissioners, and makes no profit.

TERSE COUNSEL. One of those experienced matrons who appear to be consulted on all kinds of domestic problems tenders young wives this fragment of advice: —lf you want to keep your husband, look after his inside and your outside. PROTECTING FRENCH MINISTERS. In view of the official inquiry being conducted into the Paris riots, the London ‘ Daily Telegraph ’ mentions some of the existing means to protect members of the Chamber of Deputies against hostile mobs. The President, as he sits iu a high chair, controls an elaborate system of “defences.” Under his desk is a row of bell-pushes. By tapping out various messages on these he can have an unruly visitor removed from the gallery, or a rebellious deputy subdued. He can lower steel shutters through doorways, and enclose the Chamber in the safety • of a fortress. He can even summon firemen through a concealed door, and have an unwelcome crowd drenched. The system of sprinklers built into the ropf can also be started by the President. THE AGE OF WITCHES. At a lecture on- ‘ Satan’s Invisible World Discovered,’ delivered in London last month, it was pointed out that the golden age of witches and their persecutors was the fifteenth century, but on the Continent they never really let up on witches from the earliest times. The ‘ Daily Telegraph ’ reports the lecturer, Miss Helen Simpson, as stressing the fact that the witches of England were of good character. Mother Shipton was consulted by princes, respected by neighbours, and had a monument erected to her on the Great North road. Answering the question why there were more women “witches” than men, Miss Simpson quoted from King James’s book on demonology, in which the King explained that the feminine sex was the frailer and more easily trapped by the ways of the jdevil, who, after his success with Eve a# tilt beginning, was “ homelier tfith |fie,fSx.” *

MISSIONARY EXPLORER. Livingstone is held in veneration as a missionary, and his religious work apart from any other would have entitled him to remembrance. He was more than a missionary. He had the spirit of the pioneer and his intrepid ventures into the unknown regions of Africa plane him in the first rank of explorers. It is largely due .to his initiation that Africa has been found to be a country of great possibilities; and Livingstone holds a definite place as an empirebuilder. His missionary enterprise has been recognised by such memorials as his monument in Edinburgh, and, more recently, by the establishment of a museum at his birthplace in Blantyre; and in Africa, a small island on the Zambesi and a town in Northern Rhodesia bear his name; but it has been felt in Africa that a more distinctive memorial was needed, and funds were readily subscribed for the purpose. A statue has been designed and completed for erection overlooking the Zambesi Falls, one of Livingstone’s notable discoveries eighty years ago. Executed by Mr Reid Dick, R.A,, it represents the missionary-explorer in walking costume leaning on a staff and carrying field glasses. The unveiling should be a notable ceremony. —‘ Weekly Scotsman.’ THE FRENCH PRETENDER. Ihe French Royalists have come out into'the open and proclaimed their intention to restore the monarchy at the first favourable opportunity. The name of the Due de Guise has been mentioned more Ireely lately than for several years. The great-grandson of King Louis Phillipe is the Pretender to the throne of France, the heir of “forty kings, who in a thousand years created Franco.” What is most ominous is that his manifestoes are being exhibited on the walls of the cities without provoking any forcible protests. Under a law passed by the republic, the Due is an exile, living in Brussels. 'There is also a Bona pa rtist claimant, the young Prince Louis Napoleon, a great-grandson of King Jerome Bonaparte, but he is little spoken of. Nevertheless his family is wealthy, and it is said that very large sums of money would bo placed at his disposal if his advisers decided to make a bid for the throne. The movement in favour of the Due de Guise was launched by a group of literary men, led by the enthusiastic Leon Daudet. son of the famous novelist, and Charles Manrras, the brilliant journalist. They had become convinced that what was required for the regeneration and salvation of France was a head, and that head a king. They argued that throughout eight centuries it was the monarchy that had made France and given her stability. The organ of the Royalists is L’Action Franchise,” through which Daudet and Manrras daily make their appeal to the active, thinking elite in all classes of society to give their influence, their time, and even their money “ lor the salvation of our country ami for our security in the future.” In the various groups formed as a result of these appeals—the Cnmelots du Roi, the Etudiants d’Action Francaise, the Dames Royalistes and the Jeuno Fillos Royalistes—there are said to bo hundreds of thousands of members belonging to every social level, all resolved to go into action when called upon. In. favourable circumstances •such as a recurrence of rioting in Paris, and a weakening of Government authority, a coup d’etat by the Royalists would not be outside the realm of possibility.