CURRENT TOPICS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12175, 26 November 1917, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

THE AIR BOARD. Lord Rothermere, who has been appointed to the Air Ministry, vice Lord Gowdray resigned, is a younger brother of Lord Northcliffe. who, it will be remembered, was offered the position v few days ago. presumably before lie present occupant of the post was informed that it was the desire of the Government to replace him. The new head of the department is forty-nine years of Age. and, like his 1 ?tter known brother, is largely interested in newspapers, but unlike Lord Northcliffe, whom the "New York World" recently designated a "war nagger." he has always associated himself with the fortunes of the Liberal party. He is a Barrister at Law. but does not practise, his other largo interests takine: up all his time. He endowed the King Edward Chair of English Literature at; Cambridge University, and the sucsess of the Union Jack Club has been due largely to his assistance and support. Lord l Cowdray, whose practical ejectment from the head of the Air Board has been responsible for some unpleasantness, was formerly Sir Weetman Pearson, the head of the famous contracting finn which has large interests in Mexico and South America. For many years he represented Colchester in the Liberal interests, and was elevated to the House of Lords in 1910. One of his daughters is Lady Denman. wife of a former Governor-General of the Commonwealth.

THREE YEARS IN GERMANY. Professor F. Sefton Delmer, formerly lecturer in English at the University of Berlin, writes in the "Nineteenth Century" on "Three Years of tho< War in Berlin." Professor Delmer is a native of Hobnrt, who, after obtaining a post-graduate scholarship in modern languages from the University of Melbourne, travelled and studied in Central Europe. Through the mediation of a German friend, Professor Hermann Grimm, he was given a lectureship at the University of Konigsberg, and later took up a similar post in Berlin. Hermann Grimm, he tells us, was the only'berman with whom he ever form-ed a real friendship and ttoei only German he. ever met who presented to him the Germany of his dreams. The son of one of those two brothers who wrote the "Fairy Tales," Grimm always seemed to him to be the last representative of a great dying German tradition, standing out like an island against the onrushing tide of Prussian materalism. From August 4, 1914, till May 23, 1917, Professor Delmer was a civil prisoner in the German capital. From November 6, 1914, till March 10, 1915, he was interned in "that horrible place of cold, eternal twilight, hunger and Prussian bullying which the German newspapers call' the 'idyllically situated English camp of Ruheben.' " " How often did I wish," he adds, "that our Snowdens, Outhwaites, Ramsay Mac Donalds and others of that ilk could change places with me for a while; and perhaps hj? converted from their folly by knowing Germany and German's ruthless aspirations at first-hand.'