CURRENT TOPICS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 241, 10 September 1932, Page 6

CURRENT TOPICS

(By "Wayfarer.”)

"To mark our appreciation of your loyal services during the last forty years, Smith,” said the manager, •‘ti,.. firm have decided to do something m, vou.” "That’s very kind, sir. \es, in future you will be addressed as Mr Smith.” * * * In a West End (London) teashop ai American woman who vigorously ap plied the pepper castor to her dish o: strawberries and cream evoked the ox clamation, "What a sliame! from more than one pitying onlooker. But it wasn’t a mistake— merely a matiei of taste 1 , » » A fair American, having her first experience of fly-fishing m Scotland after several unsuccessful casts had her flv taken by a big fish. The salmon escaped unscathed. Turning to her escort, a dignified head glnllie the American girl plaintively remarked: “Say shepherd, something has sucked the bug off my string !

The recent cable message from Prague regarding the migration of swallows gives an interesting sidelight into Nature. Just a year ago thousands of swallows migrating south were overcome by gales and torrential rain in their flight. They were collected in an exhausted condition in Vienna and surrounding villages and carried in boxes by aeroplane to tenice where, after some of them hadbeen ringed for identification, they were set free in the sunshine. IJiey totalled close on fifty thousand. -No v they are back in their old haunts and occupying their former nests. Much could be written about the journeys of these and other birds could they be traced. . « • * *

The weakness of human nature is such that it is not easy to relorm a criminal, even though there is sometimes a tendency on his part to become a decent citizen. An instance of this has lately occurred m England. When the Dartmoor mutiny occurred a prisoner, aged 35, went to the assistance of Colonel Turner, the Prison Commissioner, and wu,s the means of saving the latter s life. J-or this act of heroism the man was discharged from Dartmoor by order of the Secretary of State with one year and 179 days remitted. Ireedom, however, was only of short duration, since a few weeks later the man was caught house-breaking and received a, sentence of eighteen months’ hard labour.

« * * *= * Sir Ernie Chatfield, Admiral Commanding the Mediterranean- I'leet, whom His Majesty the King recently congratulated upon the efficiency of his command as revealed in the visit paid to it by the Prince of Wales and Prince George, has had a distinguished career and is likely to go a great deal farther in the Service, as witness his appointment a short time ago to the post of First Sea Lord of the Admiralty and Chief of the Naval Staff, which he will take up early next year. Sir Ernie was flag captain to Admiral Beatty in the Lion, which he commanded at Jutland, and later in the Queen Elizabeth. It was to Admiral Chatfield that Earl Beatty made the oft-quoted remark after the Queen Mary had been blown up: "There seems to be something wrong with our d ships today. Steer two points nearer to the enemy.” * * * * •

The British Broadcasting Company seems to have committed an error in permitting a German officer named Breithaut, an ex-Zeppelin comman- j der, to broadcast from its studio a ; description of a bombing expedition over London during the war, since protests were made in all directions against facilities being granted for such a purpose. The feeling of tho public can be understood when it was announced by the company a month later that Captain Ernst Hashagen, who commanded a German U-boat during the war, would broadcast on a national programme a talk concerning the operations of his submarine. Captain Hashagen is credited with the sinking of more than sixty Allied vessels while commanding tho U-62. He was to have told his story in what is known as the “Hazard” series, having previously undertaken not to take part in any propaganda or controversy during his visit. So intense was the feeling that the Broadcasting Company cancelled the item, but this was not known until the matter was brought under the notice of the House of Commons by Commander Marsden, the Conservative M.P. for North Battersea, who asked whether the Minister of Labour would refuse to grant a permit to Captain Ernst Hashagen to land in England. Sir Kingsley Wood, the Postmaster-General, replied: "I am informed by the 8.8. C. that the talk was planned as a serious contribution towards the elimination of this method of warfare and would have been so expressed. In view, however, of the international discussions now proceeding at Geneva. I was informed that it had been decided not to proceed with the talk.” The announcement of the cancellation of tho talk was greeted with cheers in the Commons. * * * * *

In its “Round the Empire” series the Daily Mirror says: “When Columbus discovered America in 1492 he landed at the Bahama Islands (West Indies), whose natives were afterwards, transported by the Spaniards to work in the Cuban mines. In the seventeenth century Englishmen settled there and ruled themselves under lords proprietors. But they suffered severeiy at the hands of the French and [Spaniards, and, moreover, the wateis became infested, with pirates, so in 1717 the British Government took over civil and military control. The islands changed hands more than once during subsequent wars, but. British ownership was confirmed by the Peace of 1/83. Their agriculture was severely checked by the abolition of slavery but they still export, largely. to the U.S.A., and have also a fino sponge-fashing fleet. Their wonderful Innate and their charm are well known and they are a favourite ietuge of Americans from the turmoil of great cities and the Volstead Act. The Virgin Islands, in the West Indies, were a favourite resort of EngSev ?i n l €enth centur -v buccaneers, o used to go out there to prey upon l „ Spa £ Sh They are about iOU belH + W r, + aild these Britain has , thl J|y- t 'Y°> wdh a total area of Tfifir lt hfty-mght square miles, since Tmvn • + ,P rm< hp a l town, Road fon I ’-m T ° rtoll b 'V th a population of someoOO, is probably the smallest port ti,Jw Ster ln t 1? Empire, the regisf *?? lng about sixty. The mkbitaiifs of the islands, almost all ” “S° ongm ; are fishermen and xsrsiznr wh ,° raise «ows, sheep tnhn goa^S) i=> ro "J food, coconuts and +?, +?’ &nd cl Snrs. They trade n 6 + - nolßh £ boUnn^island s. and the combination of an exauisite climate agricultural life and hardy seam a r with’ if,?" 1 J O ,,- 1111 '' 6 endowed them tion ot their^vn^ 1106 aud a disthl °-