Behind the Headlines

Northern Advocate, 28 January 1939, Page 11

Behind the Headlines

UNPROTECTED CHINA A FUTURE PARADISE China, about whose portals the Japanese rage, is a land of mystery. Few white men have ventured into its fastnesses and come out again. The hinterland is hidden in doubt. Evidences are aplenty, however, that China is a land of vast mineral wealth. What is known reveals, for example, many beds of coal in the mountains bordering the plains. The best mines are more than 400 miles from seaports and therefore little value can be secured from them until China becomes an industrial country. Some mines are actually operated, but the great stratas which seem to spread into the hidden recesses have not been probed by civilised enterprises. In the South East, Honan province possesses vast deposits of copper, silver, quicksilver, tin, lead, antimony, iron and gold. Who manages to bring modern industrial trends to China will have wonderful fields upon which to work. • * • • * *

HEAT AND GUN-TURRETS IN AFRICAN PORT Italians are reported, to have moored six submarines, 10 gunboats and a cruiser at Massawa. Port of Italian Eritrea, Massawa was an" important base during the Italian- campaign against Abyssinia. Batteries of 15 inch guns with a range of 20 miles, were erected in the stronghold. Built as a small colonial harbour, Massawa is the only port in Eritrea worthy of the name. It lies in a quiet bay surrounded by numerous islands arid coral reefs which afford protection against everything but the sun. Massawa has the reputation of being the hottest port in the world, the heat having been known to reach 130 degrees in the shade. .

REICH LOOKED ON IN MARK CRISIS Corresponding to the Bank of England, the Reichbank is Germany’s central banking institution. It has come through a succession of trials that have at times rocked it to its foundations. Unlike the Bank of England, it did not simply grow up, but was officially established and constituted as part of the State’s enterprise following the unification of the German Empire in 1875. Although there is a shareholders’ committee to adminster the bank’s affairs, the Government has the real control. In 1914 its liability to redeem notes in gold was suspended, this being withdrawn in 1922. The fall of the t mark was the Reich’s greatest trial. It was obliged to sit back while the crisis went by and it was many years before it took its former prominence, although .it has always played a vital part im the general economic resettlement of the world.

* • • •• SONG-FAMED TOWN IN BOMB OUTRAGE Tralee, famed in song, history, myth, legend and religious history, arose out of a Dominican Monastery founded in 1213. It is now the county town of Kerry, Ireland. A ship canal connects the town with Tralee Bay, vessels of 200 tons being able to go through the canal with coal, iron and timber in exchange for grain and butter. Famous Ardfert Cathedral is only four miles

distant. In 1870 a tourist attraction

HIDDEN WEALTH IN WARTROD CONTINENT

round tower nearby fell to the ground after adorning the landscape for many years. Tralee was not very favourable to Prime Minister Chamberlain’s. son on his recent holiday there, • • • '• •

CATHEDRAL CITY FLOWS WITH BLOOD Founded, like so many modern cities, on the establishment of a- church, Glasgow has recently been the scene of revolutionary propaganda. Although boasting some, of the finest buildings in the British Isles, and possessing a proud history, Glasgow | still tolerates large numbers of nar- ' row streets. These, however, are being:' rapidly done away with, and more modern aspects created. This city has been the centre of many important theological differences and political arguments, many of the battles which occurred in Queen Mary’s reign being occasioned in what is now the municipal boundary. It has seen more bloodshed and warfare than most British cities and is, apparently, still determined to keep up its reputation. It provides English history books with much interesting data and is one of the most industrious of modern British towns.

MALE, AND FEMALE STREETS ' Beautiful city of the plains, Mel-, bourne, capital of .Victoria, Australia, knew the reality of bush fires when smoke from 50 miles away hid the sun from street crowds. Like every other Australian city, Melbourne claims for - its title, “The Garden City.” Sydney ' does that, so does Brisbane, so does Adelaide, so does Perth. Even Federal Capital Canberra lays claim to garden . beauty. Melbourne has at least one distinction—its male and female streets. The early town planners decided not to have streets of same sex running side by side, so they made the; ladies face one way and the men ithe other. For every diagonally running street of female name is a horizontal , l ■. ‘ • ' -• ■ ' • one of male nomenclature. Thus the streets in one direction are Elizabeth, Victoria, etc., while their right-angled: highways are George, Albert, etc. . i : .... ■' sjK- * * • •

STORMY PETREL IN BRITISH HISTORY Few parts of the British Empire have given so much troubled thought to Empire unifiers than the State of Ulster, Ireland. Recently reports have come to hand of the activities of ) ; revolutionary spirits there. The spirit has expressed itself in many cities. One of the early provincial kingdoms of Ireland, Ulster was divided into ) three parts in 400 A.D. The O’Neills • dominated the province until the Norman Invasion when one part, Ulidia, fell to John De Courcy and formed the Earldom of Ulster. English rule practically disappeared in the 15th century. Under the O’Neills, and O’Donnells it became' a Gaelic province of With the suppres- , sion of Tyrone, 1603, the. province was - subjected to the Crown, and, in 1607. plantations of English and 'Scdtiteh settlers took place. Since then the history of Ulster has been a stormy portion of British Imperial history.