POINTS OF VIEW

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3828, 2 November 1936, Page 5

POINTS OF VIEW

OPINIONS OF OUR READERS. SCHOOLBOYS’ HEADGEAR. Sir, —As an ex-pupil I venture to reply to “Broadminded,” a nom de plume the use ofavhich is hardly justified by his letter, for how anyone so considerate of the average schoolboy’s sensitiveness to ridicule could choose the columns ol a local paper as a medium for broadcasting his views on so sensitive a subject is scarcely credible. Is it not a mat ter for wonder that any man so broadminded and so extensively travelled as your correspondent should find such amusement, indeed the entire humour available in Te Awamutu concentrated in the size, shape and rakish angle ol the local school cap? That some alteration might be necessary, indeed advisable, is readily admitted. Constructive criticism is always welcomed —as such “Broadminded’s” remarks are justified. But as an ex-pupil I deplore his implication that the headmaster has anything but the well-being of his pupils at heart. And if there is any sensitiveness to ridicule on the part of the schoolboy, which I doubt, "Broadminded” may be sure that it is felt a thousand times more by the headmaster. In conclusion, I would appeal to the citizens of Te Awamutu to provide more humour for broadminded people.—l am, etc., EX-PUPIL. THE CORONATION. Sit, —You announce that the Coronation delegation has now been selected, and wo would wish them all good luck when they fare forth. The “fly in the ointment,” though, rests in the fact that a historical inaccuracy is about to be committed once again. The present King is not Edward VIII of Great Britain, but Edward II ot Great Britain, and no amount of ceremony can ever make him anything other than Edward 11. Besides Edward II of Great Britain is a title of much greater dignity than Edward VIII of England. No wonder Scotsmen are talking of resuming abosqlute independence and scrapping the union altogether. What a graceful gesture the present King could have made if he had taken the title oi. say, David I of Great Britain. It certjainly would have made a pleasant change. In these days, when nations are at the parting ot the ways, this action would iavj made for consolidation. Can tnyone supply any good reason why Edward VIII was selected? What have the members of our Coronation delegation to say about it?—l gm, etc., ACCURACY. BRITAIN AND EGYPT. Sir, —It is said the real author of the British-Egyptian alliance is Mussolini. He has been so far-reaching and grasping in his extension of the Italian empire that it has caused fear to both Britain and Egypt, particularly as to the future of the Suez Canal and the protection of the route to India. The new basis opens a new era of peaceful co-operation with Egypt, and ensures cordiality, equality, and confidence to a degree not thought possible a few months ago. The Italian population in Cairo is of considerable proportions, and its influence has been cast in the direction of causing friction between Egypt and Britain. Egypt will now have right to membership in the League of Nations —if that is of any value. Egypt may have been influenced in her recent alliance with Britain by watching Italy’s “civilising” methods in Ethiopia. Even as far back as 1911 General Grazioni (one of Italy’s advanced “ missionaries ” to Ethiopia) was exercising his “ civilising” methods in Tripoli (now known as Libya). When the Italians went to Tripoli it had a population of 2,660,000; now only. 80,000 are left. Grazioni “civilised” them; he exterminated them. One of his feats was to take an 84-year-old man who had protested against his brutalities, carry him up, bound hand and foot, in an airplane, and at 2000 feet throw him overboard- upon the rocks below. The British war correspondent, Francis McCullough, produced photographs dealing with Italian deeds in Tripoli. He showed soldiers jeering at naked, dying women; soldiers examining a corpse to see -if it needed another bullet; a pile of fifty men and boys shot down after they had surrendered their weapons; and women marching to a worse fate than death over the dead bodies of their menfolk. With such happenings over the border is it any wonder that Egypt was pleased to make an alliance with Britain ? A traveller reported lately that all over Italy he found lawyers,, teachers, and the common people fully convinced that the British Empire was about to be dismembered, ' and that Italy was to take its place in Egypt, Arabia, Iraq, Palestine, lndia, and even Australia. The whole country was aflame with the idea implanted by the Italian press, owned body and soul by the Mussolini Government. Broadcastings voiced the same sentiments. —I am, etc., EX-NAVY.