Timely Topics

Northern Advocate, 11 July 1938, Page 4

Timely Topics

Red tape in modern business is as obsolete 'as the red Hag that once preceded the earliest horseless cars and

RED TAPE.

still, we believe, heralds the steam-roller (says a writer in “The

Times"). Of purely legal origin, the expression “Red Tape” is associated with old-fashicned law offices where documents concerning one’s estate, actions at law r , cr matter calling for legal assistance are tied with red tape made of cotton. Because legal processes are slew and subject to interruptions and delays, “Red Tape”— the duo ‘apologies to a distinguished profession!—has come to be recognised as emblematic of circumlocution, delay and the hampering of a ; project or transaction with unneces- [ sary detail. A man who is a slave to | hard-andJfast routine is spoken lof ?as “tied with red tape.” So, like--1 wise, is the house of business ■whose I methods have remained unaltererd [for years ‘and years, and for ,whom *red tape will bo an ultimate cereiment. | 5? M S ■S' | To all Englishmen who love their I country, among the most interesting I persons in its history must be ini eluded that lion-

| KING HAROLD’S ? BURIAL.

hearted King Harold, whose

reign was ended by the flash of a Norman arrow on October 10, 106 G, wrote Mr C. Towers some months ago to, the London “Daily Telegraph.” Every schoolboy has heard of the search among the dead for the body of Harold, made personally by . his Wife, ! with her few attendant monks from the abbey of Waltham, and of her begging William’s permission to convey it to Waltham. William .at, last gave consent to this course, . Today one may go to the majestic remains of the Abbey, as left t Q us by Cromwell’s destroying hand, to look - for tomb or some suitable memorial to indicate that here lies Harold of England: but all one may find—if he looks carefully and long enough—is a fiat stone in long grass, incribed in some such terms as—“ About this spot once stood the high altar, behind which, it is thought, was buried the body of King Harold.” We all know of the grandeur of William’s last resting place; but what of Harold’s? One leaves the grand old abbey with. a feeling of deep disappointment. A plain stone cross inscribed in Harold’s 1 memory would cost so little.