NEWS AND OPINIONS

Evening Star, Issue 22194, 23 November 1935, Page 2

NEWS AND OPINIONS

PORTRAITS OF HOLYROODHOUSE. Proposals have been made by H.M. Office of Works for the improvement of tho picture gallery, or banqueting_hall, in the palace of Holyroodliouso, Edinburgh. The scheme provides for the removal of the portaits of Scottish kings, which were the work of a Dutchman, De Witt. . . The paintings have little artistic merit or historical accuracy, and were painted on contract for £l2O per annum, 100 being painted in two years. It is understood the pictures will bo replaced by fine tapestries, and that the original panelling will bo retained. The proposed improvements also include a new oak floor in place of the present linoleum-covered floor. The scheme will be submitted to Their Majesties the King and Queen for their approval.—‘ Weekly Scotsman.’ CHARCOAL FOR MOTORS. . The Italian order that all commercial vehicles shall by 1937 be run on homeproduced fuel, primarily charcoal, will surprise no one familiar with the results achieved by charcoal-driven cars and lorries in certain countries. I say in certain countries, because in Great Britain, for example, the cost of charcoal robs it of any advantage over petrol. But users in India report that they can carry for Is lOd on charcoal a load that costs them 23s 6d for the same distance on petrol. Similar stories come from Canada and various parts of Asia and Africa. Very little alteration in tho ordinary combustion engine is needed, except in tho throttle, which has to control a gas flow instead of a carburettor. The producer unit is fairly bulky, but it can be fixed quite comfortably on the running board of an ordinary saloon car behind the front wing.—“ Janus,” in the ‘ Spectator.’ BRONZE AGE VILLAGE IN HUNGARY. A late Bronze Ago village, dating from about 1,000 R.C., lias been excavated by experts of tho Hungarian National Museum, assisted by Mr L. C. G. Clarke, curator of the Cambridge Museum of Ethnology and Arclueology. Remains of timber houses • were found. These were nearly 60ft long and about 30ft wide, and contained a large amount of pottery, some of the specimens being decorated -with spiral-lino ornaments. A miniature copy of every specimen was found, possibly made as toys for children. Bronze objects are very numerous among the find: they include bracelets, daggers, Spearheads, axes, and horse gear. The excavators were surprised to find graves below tho Janes separating the buildings, as quite a large cemetery was found at some distance from the ancient village.— ‘ The Times.’ WOMEN’S HATS IN CHURCH. The vicar of th# parish church at Kingston has announced that women need not wear hats when entering his church, and has thereby made a protest against what most people regard as a trifling and irritating restriction. To the ordinary and usually , respectful layman (writes the London correspondent of . the Melbourne ‘Age’) a woman’s hat is a piece of millinery, the wearing of which caii have no religious significajice. If a woman visitor bo* haves imdecorously in a church she, should, of course, be invited to leave it, but surely the absence of headgear does not denote disrespect. To order a hatless girl from a church and to admit her again when she has pinned a handkerchief to her head is reducing religious formalities to ridicule. The basis for such a restriction was, (if course, the injunction of St. Paul in regard to the veiling -of women; lie bade tho Corinthian ladies to keep the conventions of their time and place. Those conventions were founded on ideas which are recognised as primitive and superstitious. In arriving at the conclusion that hats do not matter, the vicar of Kingston expresses the view that ‘‘ tho time is long overdue when Christians should stop suggesting that God cares about such trifles.”

Negus. There is something curious and perhaps intentionally ironical, in the report that while the League Council was “invoking the Covenant” against Italy, tho Italian delegates were in the refreshment room drinking—Negus, writes the ‘ Manchester Guardian.’ The drink, however, though it bears one of the titles of Abyssinia’s ruler, has nothing to do with him. It derives its name from Colonel Francis Negus, Master of the Horse to George I. The colonel, so the story goes, was at a dinner.one day when Whigs and Tories fell into a heated political discussion, and when the opponents were almost coming to blows lie intervened to_ pacify them, suggesting (scarcely, it seems, very tactfully) that they would have cooler heads if they followed his example and diluted their wine with water. Argument followed regarding tho merits of wine and water, experiments were made in mixing them and other drinks, with tho result that ■ a concoction was evolved which they agreed to name after the peacemaking colonel.