NEWS AND OPINIONS

Evening Star, Issue 22252, 1 February 1936, Page 2

NEWS AND OPINIONS

THE ABBEY PULPIT 1 have seen no reference so far to the very interesting fact that Dr Marshall Lang. Moderator of the Church of Scotland (which, needless to say, is Presbyterian, and not to be confused with the Episcopal Church in Scotland), and brother of the Archbishop of Canterbury, is to preach at the evening service in Westminster Abbey on Sunday. Dr Lang is not the first non-Anglican to occupy the Abbey pulpit, for Dr Scott Lidgett has preached there once at least, but so far as I can discover this is the first time such hospitality has been extended to a minister of the Church of Scotland. —“ Janus,” in the ‘ Speotator.’ ITALIAN PROPAGANDA Italian propaganda has ' become _ » . highly-organised industry. Secretaries of golf clubs (their addresses being, no doubt, readily accessible) are being assiduously supplied with illustrated brochures depicting various horrors alleged to be prevalent in Abyssinia, The recipient of ope such favour, having written to ‘ The Times ’ to express his disgust at the literature the post had brought him, has since been finding in his post box' a steady flow of communications, , mostly anonymous,from Rome or some other Italian, centre, urging him to listen to tha Italian wireless, to read the proItalian Paris papers, or to study a 70page booklet (enclosed) by a Roman professor, or Baron Aloisi’s .Geneva speech (enclosed) or a four-page leaflet (enclosed) dedicated by. “ Cyril Rocke, Lt.-Col., R.P.” (who launches his apologia for Signor Mussolini from the Guards’ Club, ■ but whose address, according to ‘-Who’s Who,’ is 44 Via Sardegna, Rome), to “The Lords Cecil, Craigmyle, and Snowden, the Right Hon. G. Barnes, Sir Norman Angel!, etc., and the leader-writers of ‘ Tho Times,’ the ‘Daily Telegraph,’ etc., etc.” (There is a wealth of possibility in the two etceteras.) -If tho diligent Italians who emit this_ stuff had any conception of the effect it has on the average Englishman who reads the reports from, let us say,_ Dessie, of Italy’s methods of executing her civilising mission from the skies, they would save their trouble and their stamps.—“ Janus,” in the ‘Spectator.’ FOULING THE NEST I am indebted for the following to th« ‘ Baltimore Sun, ’:— Have we seen any League in action at all? Is it'what we mean by a League, or is- it a case of many small States saying ditto to the British Empire? - -- If threatened by the power of Britannia’s Fleet, the Leaguehaa no comparable power on the sea to oppose Great Britain’s will. • ■ There is talk of gold and oil in Abyssinia. But I believe that if these were there in such quantity as to he commercially valuable Abyssinia would have been absorbed by "the British Empire 50 years ago. Britain is seeking by League sanctions to protect her lines of communications to the East ; to avoid the invasion of Egypt by Italian garrisons in Libya, and to prevent the waters of Lake Tsana from being diverted from'the-Blue Nile, which would be a catastrophe- to the Nile Valley. ' Who is the author of these_ estimable sentiments ? Signor Mussolini ? ' Signor Gayda? A spokesman of the Italian Foreign Office ? By no means. They are emitted by an English lecturer, Mr H. N. Brailsford, at present touring tha United States. “ Air Brailsford,” according to the ‘ Sun,’ “ spoke on tho Italo-Ethiopian situation before a large audience at the Catherine ; Hooper Hall.” TKe lecture was no doubt lengthy, and the report is relatively brief, but it contains ncit a syllable to suggest that Mr Brailsford conceived it possible that League members were being actuated by principle. On the contrary. “ Sentimental reasons,” Mr Brailsford was careful to declare, “ are affecting Great Britain little.” I am sometimes asked how American doubts of British good faith are to be explained. Partially, I should suggest, by the fact that some English lecturers are not stopped at Ellis Island.— “ Janus,” in the ‘ Spectator.’ A COSTLY TRIAL The cost of the Lord de Clifford trial in the House of Lords is reckoned at some £4,000. It seems a good ,deal for the breaking (or, as it happens, the not breaking) of a nut with a _ steam-ham-mer—even if a very decorative hammer* —‘ Observer.’ JUBILEE FOREST AT NAZARETH The High Commissioner to Palestine (Sir Arthur Wauchope) planted on December 19 a cupressus orientalis sapling, presented by the late King from Windsor Royal Park, on a hillside at Nazareth opposite the Jewish settlement of Nahalal at the western end of the valley of Esdraelon. This is the first of 1,000,000 trees of the proposed King George Jubilee Forest, for which funds have been subscribed by British Jewry as a token of gratitude to the King, during whose reign -the Balfour Declaration was issued. The High Commissioner congratulated the authors of the scheme, which he said would be an asset of both practical and eesthetic value to Palestine. HERESY IN SCOTLAND The heresy hunt in the Far NortK seems to be extending, and now Mr Malcolm Macleod, an eider of xha Presbyterian Church, Skye, has been refused baptism for his daughter on the ground (inter aha) that Mrs Macleod “had attended a bazaar at Edinbane.” Where else would one expect to faM the trail of the Serpent if not at Flashadder? And ft it may be granted that to the dweller in Skye the word “ bazaar ”, may hav* an awfu’ foreign look.—‘ Observer. DICTATORS’ QUAINT ERROR A good story is told of the late General Goinez, the Dictator of Venezuela. He did not marry, but is. said to have left numerous illegitimate ciiilc]ren—“ pater patriae ” in more than, one sense—and two French airmen ' JO were received by him at Caracas after a series of flights from one South American capital to another had _an amusing story to tell in this connection. Two beautiful girls who accompanied the old President offered them bouquets of orchids of such incredible brilliance that one of the recipients exclaimed: “ How lovely; are they natural?” and was somewhat taken aback when the President, who imagined that his guest had referred to tlie ladies, replied; “ Yes, they were both natural, but I leave adopted them.”