NEWS AND OPINIONS

Evening Star, Issue 22631, 24 April 1937, Page 2

NEWS AND OPINIONS

WORLD TRADE CONGRESS One thousand delegates from 30 different countries will attend the annual congress for the study of world trad© problems, which will be held in Frank-* furt-on-Main from May 6 to 12, 1937.World air transport is one of the subjects on the agenda, and in view of Germany’s pre-eminence in the airship sphere and the fact that the congress is being held in the home port of the airships', an interesting discussion should ensue, ' FLYING ROUTES IN AUSTRALIA Commercial air services in Australia are now flying 112,197 miles a week, and nearly six million miles a year, over an aggregate of 20,779 route nines. Commercial flying has doubled itself m all-respects within the last four years* RHINE STEAMERS IN NUREMBERG Rhine steamers will berth in Nuremberg in time for the Reich Party Dav of 1943. Herr Liebel, the Mayor of Nuremburg, has announced that work on the Danube-Rhine Canal is progressing rapidly, and the dream of the Em* peror Charlemagne for a continuous Rhine-Danube waterway is at last within sight of fulfilment. GERMANY’S OLDEST INK The oldest hostelry in Germany, the “ Red Bear,” at Freiburg, in Breisgau, celebrated its 550th 'anniversary on March 13. . - . Its had been in existence as an inn even before 1387, but it was on March 13, 1387, the first authentically recorded. . inkeeper of “The Bear” was registered. From that day the list of proprietors of “ The Bear ” continues uninterrupted up to the present day* It is an imposing collection, and includes municipal councillors, magistrates, noblemen, and commoners. BRIGHTER MELBOURNE As though in sympathy with hlu* skies and autumn sunshine, Melbourne a wharves, like the railways of Victoria, are going gay. The trains are blossoming in grey and red, and now the wharf sheds at Victoria dock are bemgpainted apple green and deep cream. The roofs are being painted in silvery aluminium. Drabness is to be chased from the waterfront, and visitors who enter the city by this doorway will no longer have , reason to feel depressed, even when skies are grey. Melbourne, in fact, should soon be one of the world a brightest ports. ... . .... - Ole hospitals, too, are joining m this brighter Melbourne Prince Henry’s is employing a New York architect and expert, Miss Mary Wprthen, to gladden the hearts of its pa» tients with brighter colour White is to be excluded. Surgical wards are to have grey-green ? walla and primrose ceilings. The ceiling beams in the entrance hall ; are to be cerulean Mue. Pinks, pale blues, and will abound elsewhere. Research work abroad has established that colour surroundings play an important part in * patient’s recovery. AN INTERNATIONAL FLAG r '\ ' If fla£s are of vaW as-symbols a* they are, - and. internationalism (of tne right kind) is a good thing, as it is, there is an obvious place in the general scheme of things for ah international flag, in particular a League of Nations flag, for use on appropriate occasions and for appropriate purposes. I note therefore with interest that the warships of different nations engaged in • the new patrol duty off Spam are to fly the pennant adopted under the terms of the North Sea Convention. This is a triangular -flag, blue and yellow, flown by the fisheries protection vessels of all signatory Powers —in addition; of course, to their own. national Sag, It is familiar enough'■ off our East Coast-fishing ports, bub has -never done such service as will fall to it now. Its adoption for .the Spanish patrol- may indeed give it a better title to be described as an international flag than any other such emblem—except the Red Cross —enjoys.— Janus, - in the ‘Spectator.’ . _ A HEW STRATEGIC BASE • A subject on which I, and I daresay, some people in Whitehall, would like to have more information is Pantellana.; What, it may be asked, is Pantellana,- ' anyway? Well,'it is an island, belonging to Italy, and lying roughly_halfway between Sicily and ‘- Turns.Actually it is rather nearer Sicily, the distance being-44 miles, ‘against 62 between Pantellaria. ana, *the African coast. As an aeroplane and submarine ( base the island virtually controls the passage between /the western and eastern Mediterranean. News about what is happening there seems hard to come by, but it is certain that plenty, would be heard of it in any war m which Italy was engaged. It adds to Gibraltar and Alexandria a third poms at which communications through the Mediterranean could be blocked, and it is pretty certainly far stronger than it was 12 months ago.—“ Janus,”.,in the ‘ Spectator.’ ■' A LABOUR LEADER The Labour victory in the London County Council is very largely a triumph for Mr Herbert Morrison. Rarely does a leader stand out with, such conspicuous predominance above the rank and file of his followers. Whether, as Mr Atlee generously predicts, he will be found some day occupying a position at the Whitehall end of Westminster Bridge analogous to that he now occupies at the Lambeth end, is a matter for the future to disclose; but Mr Attlee is not the first man to make the suggestion. Certainly the allegation of alliance between Labour and (rather vaguely) “ the Reds” did Mr. Morrison no harm. So far from having done anything revolutionary in its first term of office, I was assured by a Municipal Reform canvasser that Labour had “ done nothing ” and ought therefore to he turned out. Actually the absence of issues left the result entirely open, and it was probably Labour’* claim on the resources of such organisations as the trad© unions and the co. operative societies that gave it the advantage.—“ Janus,” in the ‘ Spectator.*