NEWS AND OPINIONS

Evening Star, Issue 23723, 2 November 1940, Page 3

NEWS AND OPINIONS

SWEDEN'S FREEDOM At a public meeting in Stockholm recently, Prince Wilhelm, the youngest sou of the King of Sweden, said: “ A small nation has none other than itself to rely upon. If it wishes to preserve its peace it must be ready to meet every eventuality. We have .perceived this, and we have acted accordingly to the best of our ability. We wish to preserve our peace—but not .at any price. Rather than relinquish our independence we will make the most supreme of all sacrifices. For one thing is certain: The nation which does not sell its own soul will never completely lose it. What belongs to the earth can be exterminated from the earth, but that which is born of the spirit is deathless. Therefore, our claim to freedom will live as long as the world exists.” THE SPIRITUAL WOUND “ Step by step,” wrote Mr J. A. Spender, “ we have seen Nazi practice reproducing that of the slave owner before emancipation; transporting men and women in droves from country to country, treating them as hunian implements without rights, claims, or souls. It is this contempt for the individual man or woman which places Nazism in fundamental opposition to all civilised and Christian ideas of human relationships. I To renounce liberty,’ said a great Frenchman, ‘ is to renounce being a man, to surrender the rights of humanity and even its duties.’ It has fallen to us to defend this immemorial cause against the upstart tyrants who think it to be a ‘ rotting corpse.’ We shall undeceive them.” LAST OF EMDEN In the backyard of a shop in Victoria street, Singapore, is scattered a twisted and rusty mass of metal, all that remains of the most destructive sea raider in eastern waters during the Great War—the Emden. After the Emden had been sunk by the Australian cruiser, Sydney, oft Cocos Islands, unauthorised people salvaged much of the metal. When they attempted to land it at Singapore it was confiscated by the police. The metal lay behind the marine police station for nearly a year. Last year it was 'buoght for 575 dollars by Chop Sin Swee Hong, a dealer m metal scrap. AUSTRALIAN AERO ENGINES Tests on the first De Havilland Gipsy engine made in Australia have been entirely satisfactory, giving another example of the high standard of workmanship of the Commonwealth s aero aircraft engineers. The engine, installed in an airframe manufactured in Sydney, was tested in a flight over Essendou air 1 port. Experts declared after tho flight that the engine was “ as sound as a bell.” THIS STRANGE WORLD To-day tho English newspapers are full of advertisements for novel accessories required or recommended in the strange new world England has become since the German air bombs started to drop. For sixpence, for example, one can buy rubber teeth-grips guaranteed to minimise shock under gunfire or explosion. More elaborate are the “ anti-concussion bandeaux,” rather like an airman’s helmet, and cushioned inside with aerated rubber. Lumumus paint is offered, for use in indicating the householder’s keyhole during a blackout. A patent paint to reduce window shattering, black-out lampshades, black-out curtains, gas masks for clogs, portable steel ladders to reach incendiary bombs on roofs, and stirrup pumps to extinguish them, are other items among the daily ads.— ‘ Scientific American.’ * A LONG WAY ROUND Italy’s entrance into the war preseuted Hollywood with a. difficult prohlem. Shipments of films to the Balkans and Near East had hitherto been made direct by way of tho Mediterranean. When this thoroughfare became impassable to American shipping a new route had to be found. An extraordinary detour has been devised to meet the emergency. American films are now despatched from New York in freighters round South Africa and up through the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf to Basra. Thence they make a two days’ journey by rail to Mosul, in Iraq. They are then loaded into trucks and transported across the desert—another two days ■ to Nusaybin, in Turkey. From Nusayhin they are carried by rail to Istabul, which becomes the centre for their distribution throughout the Balkans and the Near East. Tim time taken for the whole of this roundabout journey from New York to Istanbul is approximately 45 days.

MUSICAL PRODIGIES Infant prodigies have been more numerous in music than in any of the other arts. Mozart composed minuets before he was four years old; Beethoven placed in public at eight years, and at 10 composed works which were published. Hummel gave concerts at the age of nine; Schubert began to compose at 11; Chopin played a concerto hi public before he was nine; Mendelssohn began to compose systematically at 12; Richard Strauss wrote a polka at six; Samuel Wesley played the organ at the age of three, and composed an oratorio at eight. THE " LOST PROVINCES ” Franz was late to school. He slipped into his place on a vein, wellpolished bench and was surprised to see the elders of bis Alsatian village fathered in the classroom. Gentle M. Hamel, teacher for 40 years, was dressed in his frock-coated Sunday best. To Franz and the others ho said: «My children, this is the last day I shall teach,you. The order has come •from Berlin that henceforth in the schools of Alsace and Lorraine all instruction shall be given in German “ Then M. • Hamel spoke of the strength, the clarity, the beauty of the French language. The noon bells rang and a trumpet-blast announced the return of the conquering Prussian troops from drill. Old M. Hamel could not speak. He went to the blackboard, writing there: ‘Vive la France.’ The last class was dismissed.” Thus Alphonse Daudet described how Alsace-Lorraine was ceded to the new Gorman Empire by defeated France in 1871. His story might have happened yesterday, for already the provinces have been brought within the Customs system of the Reich and the German language is being substituted for French.