NEWS OF THE WORLD

Evening Star, Issue 23113, 12 November 1938, Page 7

NEWS OF THE WORLD

FRANCE REMEMBERS HORSE GUARDS

Hossegor, a picturesque spot in the forest of the Landes in south-west France, has a name which puzzles visitors, for it is strangely un-French. It comes from the words Horse Guards, because the British Horse Guards of Wellington had their camp there in 1814.

MILITARY TRAINING FOR GIRLS

All memßers, including girls, of the Party of the Mexican Revolution, the political group that dominates _ the Mexican Government, are receiving military training daily for an hour before beginning work.

AUSTRALIA’S SURPLUS OF MEN

Australia has now arrested the ad- * Terse movement of population away ' from the Commonwealth which de- ' veloped during the depression, but in so doing has. produced a surplus of men, eligible and otherwise. The latest official figure for the total population is 6)881,848. The net increase from migration was 340 during the quarter, compared with a net loss of 1,799 for the same quarter of 1937. Males now number 3,481,871, and females 3,399,977. All the States have a male prodominance.

PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL IN FRANCE

Six of the 16 professional football clubs in France—professionalism is still young in that country—are being trained by five Englishmen and a Scotsmen. A South American, a Hungajrian, and seven Frenchmen are training the remainder, one club doing without a trainer. Of the 308 professional players in France, 52, or roughly 17 per cent., are foreigners. Only two English professionals appear among them, the other professionals coming mostly from Central Europe. One club, the Havre Athletic, has no fewer than nine North African players in its team.

TRAGIC QUEEN OF SPAIN

Numbed by the news of the death of her son, the Count of Covadonga, Quean Victoria of Spain left the tea party at which she was the guest of honour at Carisbrooke Castle on September 7 and walked without a word to her room. Her mother, the aged Princess Beatrice, daughter of Queen Victoria, was with her when a lady-m----waiting crept into the room and whispered the tragic news, which had just bean telephoned to the castle.. Tragedy after tragedy had thus befallen Queen Victoria, and • she received her latest sorrow with stoic calm. On the day of her wedding to King Alfonso in Madrid a bomb was thrown at the royal carriage, and her dress was splashed by the blood l of the victims. Then came the revolution in Spain.

HUGE METEORITE FOUND

Two Soviet airmen recently located the hnge meteorite which disappeared in Siberia over 30 years ago. They were helping an expedition of the Russian Academy of Sciences in its efforts to locate and study the meteorite, one of the largest known, which fell on June 30, 1908, in the region of the Siberian river, Podkamennaya Tunguska, a tributary of the Yenisei. An extensive .aerial photographic survey of the region revealed the havoc wrought by the force of its fall. Many of the 1,500 photographs taken in the course of 50 flying hours over the' region showed row after row of uprooted trees within a 15-mile radius from the point of the impact.

It is estimated that the meteorite weighs several hundred tons, and has penetrated the earth to a great depth. At the time of the fall in 1908, the luminous silvery vapour, formed at the height of some 50 miles as the meteoritp struck the earth’s atmosphere, illuminated a great part of Russia. The glow was visible at almost any point in Siberia, and was even seen as far away as the Caucasus.

CAIRO BAZAARS TO COME DOWN

The famous Khan el Khalili quarter of Cairo, better known to thousands of tourists as the Cairo bazaars, is to bo pulled down and rebuilt in Arabesque style. When Gowher el Sekaly founded Cairo ho built a palace known as “ A 1 Qasr el Sharqi el Kebir ” (the Groat Eastern Palace) and near it a cemetery for the mortal remains of the Fatimite Caliphs. The cemetery is believed to have occupied the site on which the bacaars now stand. The Khan el Khalili was so named after an Amir who was the Chief of the Stables of the Sultan of his day. This Amir believed that the Fatimite Caliphs were apostates and therefore had their mortal remains taken from the cemetery and thrown on the hills east of Cairo. In place of the cemetery he erected a “ khan ” or an inn. The “ khan,” which was dedicated to the benefit of the poor at Mecca, existed for over 100 years until, in 1498, it wqs demolished by the then Sultan A 1 Ghoury and replaced by shops. The road was enclosed by three gates of beautiful workmanship, one of which still exists to the west of the road leading to the old Husseini Mosque*