NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21295, 23 September 1932, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS

RADIO 'FOR POLICE A new radio transmitter for use in the detection of crime has been demonstrated successfully at Newcastle, England. Fast motor-car and motor-cycle patrols are to be used in conjunction with it The installation is one of the first to aid the police in their campaign against the modern mobile criminal. When the transmitter begins to work radiated energy from the aerial excites a relay coil, which in turn operates a small electric bulb in easy view of the driver. This indicates that a message is about to be transmitted, and the driver fits on headphones to listen. The experiments have shown that messages broadcast from the central police station have been received by motorcycles in all parts of the city. A receiver installed at Sunderland picked up a message quite cleaxly, and it is believed that with further trials signals could be received within a radius of 25 miles. FLYING ARCHAEOLOGIST A new type of archaeologist was described by Mr. 0, G. S. Crawford, archaeology officer to H.M. Ordinance Survey, at the International Congress of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Science. These are young R.A.F. photographers who do their archaeology from the air. Mr. Crawford explained how prehistoric camps, of which no trace can be seen from the ground, were clearly visiblo from the air. "A considerable number of' Bronze Age and other camps, previously unknown, have now been identified near Salisbury and in other parts of Wiltshire in the last few months," he said, "while a further section of Watling Street has been discovered in Kent. Fields of oats show up the old camps particularly well. This is caused by the parching of the ground over the foundations of the old walls, houses and streets. The corn grows less well and shows up as a white band. The best results are obtained by photographing in the early morning or late in the evening when the shadows are long. In each case where the sites have been excavated afterwards the plans revealed in the air photographs have been confirmed absolutely " DIRECTION OF AFFAIRS A report of the Oxford City Council makes the following quotation from Pollock's " Essays in the Law " :—" Experience has shown during quite three centuries of English life, that committees are, on the whole, the least cumbrous and the most flexible organs of almost every sort of common business and common interests. Like all human instruments they have their weak- points and their besetting risks. If it is too large, a committee may degenerate into officialism; if it is too small, it may be captured by a despot; in the latter case the evil is less. For in a society ruled by a small committee we can at least know who is master, whereas under a large committee, with fluctuating attendance and an inert majority, this knowledge is often hardly attainable except by those in the secretary's private* confidence. If the secretary himself does not know, which is a possible though not frequent case, anarchy is not far off. Industry, vigilance and judgment are needful in this as in other forms of civilised social action, if institutions are to remain efficient for their purpose. Nor is the part of tact and good offices to be forgotten, especially by chairmen. An engine without steam will not run at all, but it is no less true that without oil it will run disastrously." CECIL ON DISARMAMENT Lord Cecil of Chelwood, speaking at the Liberal Summer School at Oxford, was asked if he thought civilian aircraft should be abolished,, as they could easily be converted into war weapons in time of war. His reply was that he did not think that was practicable, although he was of the same opinion as Lord Trenchard, that it was a great pity flying was ever invented. He really did not understand what had been agreed upon with regard to the air at the Disarmament Conference, he continued. He understood they had agreed there should be no bombing of civilians. That did not do away with aerial warfare. If bombing was to go on he did not think that civilians had any right to claim a particular measure of immunity: He was convinced that if they got a real serious international agreement on disarmament in Europe, the problem would be solved and they would get the Americans to back it. If Europe and America were agreed upon a common world disarmament policy, Japan should not stand out alone against that policy. The two great difficulties of such an agreement, were Russia and the relationship between Germany and France. Nothing could be less likely than that the present Government in Russia would desire a war which, whether it meant victory or defeat, would almost certainly be fatal to the present administration. They'must get a systom of disarmament which would be agreed to both by Germany and France. It was quite plain that if they could devise some means to allay French fears in return for their genuine acceptance of disarmament then they had found the solution of their difficulties. He thought there was a real genuine desire for disarmament and the great mass of the Powers were prepared to agree to disarmament. It was a real achievement to have got a great international conference to consider a definite scheme of disarmament, which would have been wildly impossible a few years ago.