NEWS AND OPINIONS

Evening Star, Issue 22805, 13 November 1937, Page 3

NEWS AND OPINIONS

A MOSLEM CHRISTENING It was no doubt in deference to Moslem scruples that the new steamer launched at Glasgow for tho Mecca pilgrim traffic was christened with a cocoanut, and not a champagne bottle. There have been cases in which the bottle refused to break (did not a gallant lady a year or two ago swim out after the elusive craft ?), and the cocoanut technique seems to demand a still higher amount of preliminary practice. But the christener can hardly have felt more nervous than the officials of the company, who attended the ceremony in “ garlands of flowers,” a garb in which directors seldom look their best. —‘ Observer.’ MARRIAGE AS REFUGE FROM TAXATION That the tax on bachelors introduced in Italy some yearn ago and recently made heavier had never been regarded with enthusiasm by the victims was only to be expected, but that it would prove a spur to many men to embark upon matrimony was perhaps hardly to be hoped for. The legislators appear, however, to have been right in _ their calculations, for statistics just issued show that in 1936 there were nearly 60.000 fewer bachelors in Italy than in 1935. NEW ZEALAND NOVELTY One of the novelties at the Chemists’ Exhibition is “a pill made of New Zealand deep-sea oysters and meant to soothe distraught nerves.” But may not nervous patients lie awake wondering whether it is the harder task to swallow a pill or an server.’DWARFS There is to be a “ World Congress of Dwarfs ” in Budapest next year, which will no doubt take up less room than a world congress of giant*. But what is a dwarf? We know, roughly, the dimensions of a soldier or a commissionaire, but there is no statutory definition of a dwarf. The most famous English ones have been from two to three feet. Jeffery Hudson stepped out of a pie to greet Henrietta Maria (he also fought an unusual duel with a turkey-cock). Of a dwarf poet of classical notoriety it was said that he had to wear leaden shoes to avoid being blown away. But there is no authority to tell us whether a man of 4ft is a dwarf or merely “undersized.” The point has been raised, for the aforesaid Jeffery, captured by Algerian pirates, complained on his return that their hard regime had increased his height from IBin to 3ft Bin. With that dreadful example in mind, it seems improbable that the Budapest congress hall will be fitted -with a gymnasium.—‘ Observer.’ WESTMINSTER ABBEY After being closed for nine months Westminster Abbey is once more open to the public—a brighter and cleaner place. While the Coronation stands were being dismantled window cleaners got at windows which had not known the touch of chamois leather for many years, and many other usually inaccessible places were washed. The regilding of the lanterns is also a notable improvement. Then there is tho new £20,000 organ first heard at the Coronation ceremony; some of its pipes had already become choked with dust and had to be cleared. Incidentally, loud speakers are being left in the Abbey. Removing tho Coronation • stands was a big job, and it has been done by the Office of Works with all the skill and thoroughness—and leisure—which . one usually gets from a Government department of experts. There were 500 tons of steel and 500 standards of timber in the seating and platforms used to accommodate the 7,700 people present at the Coronation ceremonial. The work of erection and of removal was accomplished without the slightest injury to the fabric of the old Abbey—a tribute to the care of the hundreds of workmen engaged on the task, A THOUSAND TONGUES The British and Foreign Bible Society has just published the Gospel of St. John in Sakata, the language of 70.000 people in the Belgian Congo between the Kasai and Lukeni Rivers. Nearly 5,000 of them can read. The translator was Mr Walk) Sundberg, a Swedish missionary, assisted by two pundits, Ipipo _ Zakens and Petero Katerusho. This makes the 713th language used by the society, and brings up to 1,000 the number of tongues and dialects into which some portion of the Scriptures have been translated. MATHEMATICS IN " GAMBLING " The average cricket captain or the normal “ two-up ” expert who had reason to suspect that he was being confronted by a two-headed penny would —immediately he got the chance—solve the question by looking upon the other side. But not so the ardent mathematician. He, according to Mr H. B. Serjeant, one of the lecturers at Melbourne Technical College jubilee celebrations, would toss up the penny 30 times. And if the result was 30 successive heads, ho would accept, as a thousand to one-chance, that the coin was in truth a “double-header.”' By this time no doubt the cricket captain would have summoned the umpires and home committee and the two-up school would have been summarily wound-up. Bo that as it may, Mr Serjeant, in the course of his lecture on ‘ Mathematics and Gambling,’ had some other highlights with which to brighten a learned mathematical address for the sporting layman. To the poker player he tendered the counsel that the chance of a full hand, three of a kind and a pair, was 701 against, while the chance of a royal flush in the one straight deal was approximately 1,000 to one against. For the golfer playing for 24 years about 300 rounds a year, the chance of holing in one was about even. As to the dice thrower using two dice the chance of throwing an ace four times in six tries was 100,000 to one against. —‘ Age.’

JAPANESE PEOPLE AND WAR “ Ninety per cent, of the people of Japan .are against the present undeclared war between Japan and China,” was declared by Sciiu Hirakawa, of Tokio, at the Friends’ World Conference, recently held at Philadelphia. More than 1,000 _ delegates from 24 countries, including representatives from Madagascar, Syria, and other distant lands, met to discuss problems pertinent and relative to the growth of Quakerism. “ The present invasion of Chinn, by Japan.” Mr Hirakawa said, “ is motivated by a militaristic clique which is trying to protect the Manchnkuo experiment. This experiment has thus far proved a colossal failure. Japan is spending much more money in Manchukuo than she is getting out of it