Post-Scripts

Southland Times, Issue 22293, 7 April 1934, Page 6

Post-Scripts

"The time to talk of many things. . . .”

New Lord Strabolgi. Lieutenant-Commander Kenworthy R.N., who was a Labour M.P., and became noted for his activities at Question Time, returns to politics as Lord Strabolgi on his succession, to the peerage: His thirst for knowledge revealed by his queries appeared to extend to almost every topic. In debate he intervened constantly, particularly on the subjects of trade with Russia, foreign affairs, and the Navy. When he abandoned the Liberal party and was re-elected for his own constituency, Central Hull, as a Socialist in 1926, there were many who predicted that he would one day lead the party of his new allegiance. In fact, he never achieved office under Mr MacDonald, and in a book which he brought out last year he explained that “MacDonald looked upon me as a possible rival, and determined, therefore, to keep me off the front Bench.” Lord Strabolgi (pronounced Strabogey by the holder, but Strabolgi .according to a reference book) has within the past three years expressed the view that the House of Lords should be abolished, or placed upon an elective basis with a limited number of life peerages for men who had performed great public services. O—O“”O Etonian Nazi Leader. Duke Charles Edward of Coburg, whom Hitler has promoted io a still higher eminence in the Nazi party, was educated at Eton. A. C. Benson, in whose house he was, had a high opinion of his qualities, and sympathized with the Duke of Albany (as he then was) when, as the result of his English upbringing, he took up his German inheritance very unwillingly. Duke Charles Edward was the posthumous son of Prince Leopold—always said to be the only one of Queen Victoria’s children able to influence his august mother. Wimbledon Referees. If Mr Frank Burrow is appointed to fill the office of referee for the Wimbledon tennis championships in 1934 it will be the sixteenth consecutive year in which he has held this difficult responsible post. Since the championship meeting was founded in 1877 there have been six referees. The first was Mr Henry Jones (“Cavendish,” of whist fame), Mr Julian Marshall (author of “Annals of Tennis”), Mr S. A. E. Hickson (who has seen every Wimbledon), Mr B. C. Evelegh, Mr H. S. Scrivener, and Mr Burrow. Mr Burrow in his spare time is an acrostic expert, while another of his hobbies is writing looks for children. o—O—o Customs Duties in A.D. 976. According to tradition, Billingsgate was founded by Belin, King of the Britons, in 400 B.C. Coming nearer our own times, King Ethelred made laws, in A.D. 976, regulating the customs duties under which boats with fish had to pay halfpenny or a penny, according to size. Billingsgate was constituted a free and open market for the sale of fish in 1699, since when there have been many attempts to remove it. Mr C. Stanlay Crosse, chairman of the City Corporation committee which controls it, stated at a City luncheon that what was really required was enlargement. o—O—o Despatch in Verse. Although the French are at present at loggerheads with Britain over quotas and tariffs, a hundred years ago Canning regarded them as sweetly reasonable compared with the Dutch. To Sir Charles Bagot, Britain’s Minister at The Hague, he sent the following cipher despatch on January 31, 1826, announcing a duty on Dutch shipping: Sir. in matters of commerce, the fault of the Dutch Is offering too little, and taking too much, The French are with equal advantage content. So we clap on Dutch bottoms just 20 per cent. Chorus: 20 per cent., 20 per cent. (Chorus of English Customs House officers and French douaniers.) English: We clap on Dutch bottoms just 20 per cent. French: Nous frapperons Falck avec 20 per cent. Falck was the Dutch Minister in London. Canning was a very fine light versifier and parodist, as the col ums of the “Anti-Jacobin,” of which he was the moving spirit, show. But his verse completely mystified the Embassy clerk who had to decode the despatch., and thought it was a kind of cipher within a cipher. o— O— o

Gen. Goering, Animal Lover.

General Goering, the Prussian Premier, who treats his human opponents so drastically, has nevertheless one very tender spot in his composition—a remarkable love of animals.

He has just introduced legislation which imposes severe penalties for cruelty to animals than are to be found in any other country. He has also, in a country where vivisection has been widely practised, instituted greater restrictions than exist in Britain. It is now to be excluded from teaching in medical schools, and confined to certain medical research institutions under a most stringent system of licences. Thirteen Trumps. Every little while the statisticians attack the problems inherent in a pack of playing cards. The latest assessor of the odds on various combinations is an American, Professor Woodruff. According to this mathematician’s calculations, the odds against a player holding thirteen trumps is 158,753,000000 to 1. Accepting his estimate that there are 10,000,000 bridge players in the United States, an instance of the all-trump hand should occur only once in three years, even if every one of those players played fifteen hands a day throughout the year. But Professor Woodruff’s calculations are based on the assumption of the perfect shuffle, harly ever achieved by hand-shuffle at the bridge table. Ample Variety Promised. Some types of hands appear with far more frequency than mathematics allow. The Sterile 3-3-3-4 distribution—a hand containing, for instance, 3 hearts, 3 clubs, 3 diamonds, and 4 spades—so hated by bridge players, should turn up only 11 times out of each 100 hands. Its more frequent appearance is due to the playing of the cards in suits in the previous hand —a pattern the ordinary shuffle does little to disturb. With the ideal shuffle the most frequent distribution, experts agree, is the 4-4-3-2, which should turn up 22 times in each 100 hands. Each player should get a 6-card suit every six hands, a 7-card suit gvery 28 hands, a singleton every three hands, and a void suit every 20 hands. How many possible hands at bridge are there? Professor Woodruff says (80,660,000 billion billion billion billion Million. z