Loading...
Zurich Herald, 1938-06-09, Page 6commentary on the Highlights of the Week's News Chinese Planes Score H.ANKOW. — The Chinese air force scored heavily against the Japanese air arm at Hankow and Royang Lake last week. Twelve Nipponese combat planes were brought down during an air battle Over the city between twenty-six Japanese ships and probably dou- ble that number of Chinese fight - els, Four Chinese planes were said to be shot down. Czech Defence Scheme PRAHA. — Czechoslovakia, sworn to defend its sovereignty against any attack, incorporated all its people between the ages of six and sixty years in a gigantic defence scheme this week. Closely following a blanket or- der that all persons, men, women nd children, must equip them- e1ves with gas masks at once, the Government in a civil ordinance required all persons of both sexes from 6 to 60 to take instruction in war preparedness. Tremendous Great Lakes Project OTTAWA: A vast project for the development of the Great Lakes System and the St. Law- rence River Basin for both ship- ping and power needs has been proposed to the Canadian Govern- ment by Cordell Hull, Secretary of State for the United States. In a surprise announcement, Prime Minister Mackenzie King revealed to the House that nego- tiations have already resulted in a draft treaty in which the United States has agreed to an arrange- ment whereby both the Canadian Government and the Ontario Gov- ernment could defer responsibility for development of their share of the tremendous project... The United States Government has also agreed to accept surplus Ontario power and permit the On- tario Government to proceed with its plans to divert the waters of ;?d,,,t4de By Elizabeth Eedy the Albany River into the Great Lakes and utilize the additional power at Niagara. Thousands Killed In Bombings CANTON, China, — Japanese planes last week -end bombed this large commercial city of Southern China for the fourth time in as many days, bringing the casualties to nearly 2,000 dead and close to 5,000 wounded. A city official announced that the casualties in one bombing alone totalled 1,400 dead and 2,100 injured. British Freighter Sunk MADRID.—The British freight- er Penthames was bombed and sunk in an air raid on Valencia harbor last week. No lives were lost. A Spanish vessel also was sunk. Air raid alarms kept the harbor district in a state of tension while the raid was on. More Onions Being Grown TORONTO. — Western Ontario is going to be the cause of even more tears this year. The Ontario Agricultural Department's prelim- inary estimate shows that onion plantings in that part have in- creased to 2,654 acres this spring, an increase of 249 over last year. Essex, hent and Lambton are the three greatest onion -growing counties of the province, account- ing for 2,093 acres. Continued Moisture Needed OTTAWA.—Wheat seeding in the Prairie Provinces is practical- ly completed, but a continuance of adequate precipitation in the 1937 drought areas is essential if the present stands are to be main- tained, the Dominion Bureau of Statistics reported in the first of its series of weekly telegraphic re- ports on crop conditions on the prairies. NEXT WEEK — A NEW FEATURE will begin in this paper "NA , ES IN THE NEWS" A record of personalities, Canadian, foreign, who are making history in these momentous times. Sure He's Found Cure For Colds Moscow Scientist Reports De- velopment Of A Serum Which Eliminates All Cold Symptoms in 24 Hours Prof. Vladimir Barikin, head of the Moscow Institute of Epidemio- logy and Microbology, has reported development of a serum which he said has never failed to eliminate completely all symptoms of the common cold within 24 hours. Prof. Barikin, who has been ex- perimenting with the serum for two years, said he tested it on himself when he was ill with the grippe and awoke the next day "complete- ly recovered." Flu Disappeared After being tested on mice the serum was applied to 80 members of the institute's staff and an equal number of volunteers suffering with grippe. In every case, he said, it eliminated all signs of grippe with- in 24 hours. The virus was said to grow best in a chicken embryo three or four days old, from which the serum is obtained. The mice used in the experiments first were injected with the serum, then with a dose of grippe virus sufficient to cause death. The mice remained alive and were given doses of virus 13,000 times stronger than would ordinarily be required to kill them. When the serum was injected they recovered, the profes- sor said. In addition to the institute staff members and volunteers the tests were conducted on students at Mos- coe's Central Hospital. Woodpeckers Are Fussy Creatures Prefer Their Nests at Bottom Of Deep, Dark Hole in Hollow Tree Both woodpeckers and flickers prefer to make their nests at the bottom of a deep, dark hole in a drolioi tree. Ther''ore if we want to coax these birds to nest in the garden we mustput up just the right kind of a house. A houee intended for woedpeck ere or flickerS :should lie covered A—O with bark. A wooden box can be made and covered with strips of bark, or better still, make the house from wood from which the bark has not been stripped. After the house is made place a handful of sawdust in the bottom of it to facilitate the building of the nest. A house intended for a red -head woodpecker should have a floor space six by six inches square. The entrance hole should be made two inches in diameter .and drilled about 12 inches above the floor. The house should hang from 12 to 30 feet above the ground. A flicker house should have a floor seven by seven inches square. The entrance hole should be two and one-half inches in diameter and 16 inches above the floor. Hang the house from six to 20 feet above the ground. Artificially Made Lightning Flash Is Shown Publicly At Philadel- phia—Half-Million Voltage Could Split Block of Wood Man-made lightning has been shown publicly for the first time at the Franklin Institute, in Philadel- phia, and the demonstration will re- main there permanently. The arti- ficial bolt has a potential of 500,000 volts and strikes with enough power to smash a block of wood one foot long and four inches thick. The dis- charge is produced by a giant surge generator built by the Westing- house Electric and Manufacturing Company. The bolt, made up of particles travelling at 2,200 feet a second, about twice the velocity of sound, hits its target with the force of a .50 -calibre bullet, Natural lightening hits a blow equivalent to a thirty- pound shell discharged with a muz- zle velocity of 2,200 feet per sec- ond, The current is taken from an or- dinary household socket. Despite the high voltage, little total energy is involved since the flash lasts less than live -millionths of a sec- ond. The current used by an elec- tric toaster in one second would produce five such hashes. A natu- ral flash of 10,000,000 volts and 50,- 000 amperes, lasting up to twenty - millionths of a second, rises 20 cents worth of electricity only, at 8 cents a kilo -watt hour, according to Dr. P. L. Bellaseh!, Westinghouse research engineer. his II Duce Makes Inspection On Genoa Trip Vtie Premier Benito Mussolini adopts his most famous stance as he inspects recent visit to Genoa, Italy, where he later made a strong speech. a heavily armed tank, during News In Review WHAT, NO NEWS?: Why is it that nothing seems to be going on in Canada this week—apart from the talk at Ottawa, we mean? Rather hard on the newspapers, you know, having so few stories to feature in the headlines. What's behind it all? Why, everybody's too busy to be making news. British Columbia is trying to cope with its urgent relief problem, while thinking about the new highway through to Alaska; AIberta is busy untying Social Credit knots and keeping a fin- ger in the Saskatchewan election pie; the farmers of Saskatchewan are blessedly busy on the land, giving little thought to how the election will turn out; Quebec is occupied with provincial problems, taking time off now and then for a bit of a "Red" hunt; while down here in Old Ontario everybody is out gardening or golfing or listen- ing to the crops grow. It's June. Isn't that enough for anybody? news NO REST FOR THE WIN- NERS: Their long fight over, the four winners in the Millar Will Stork Derby are deserving of a little bit of quiet and time to en- joy their new-found riches. But no, the big invasion has begun— of salesmen and hangers-on into the Toronto homes of the four mot'hexs: it will,. apraxentUr come to an end only when each sum of $75,000 has been exhausted by lawyers' expenses, new cars, ra- dios, refrigerators. Not that vigorous resistance isn't being put up in each case. But you know those salesmen.... EMPTY VICTORIES: An im- portant cable from Peiping which came througn, uncensored, to the Globe and Mail and the New York Times, neatly sums up the war situation in China as it now stands. Says the correspondent: "It is idle to say the Japanese armies have 'conquered' many Provinces—the facts are that the Japanese authority rarely runs beyond the range of Japanese guns . . . Militarily, politically and economically there is a grave danger of Japan becoming hope- lessly bogged down in the vast morass created by the Chinese stubborn refusal to admit military defeat." For Japan to conquer the whole of China, and hold it, seems at this tune impossible of accomp- lishment. But new factors may yet enter and change the situa- tion. Japan is reported to be nego- tiating with Germany for arms, munitions and military support, offering in return a portion of the conquered territory for Germany's later use. Should such a deal go through, the outcome of the Sine - Jap conflict would be unpredict- able. TREATY HINGES ON IT: One reason why the National Govern- ment of Great Britain appears to be anxious to have insurge t Gen- eral Franco win the Spanish "civil" war is that the entire suc- cess of the newly -signed Anglo - Italian treaty hinges upon a speedy conclusion of the war in Spain. (The treaty cannot go into effect until the war is over.) And since General Franco has appeared for some time to be on the win- ning side ... . The non -progress of the insurg- ent campaign in the Spanish pen- insula the past few weeks, then, is causing serious embarrassment to both the British and Italian governments. It looks as though the embarrassment is likely to • continue, too, with General Franco making preparations to carry on his part of the war into the fall and winter. And the Loyalit Government declares it is pre- pared to hold out indefinitely..,, SPONTANEOUS COMBUS- TION; "Film Explosion in Detroit Kills One Man," reads one of the week's headlines. Seven persons, incidentally, were seriously burned on the same occasion. The film? A. Mae West picture. Nuff said. EACH OF US PAYS $3.11: Canada's defense program at the present time is costing $3.11 per capita. Most of this money is going into construction of for- tifications on the Pacific coast. We're getting off easy over here. In Great Britain, the cost is eight times as much for every individual. TIME LIMIT: Although the Czechoslovakian crisis has sub- sided for the moment—Germany has found a bigger problem to deal with than she bargained for —a real crisis is to be expected before the fall. A time limit has been set for Czechoslovakia to come to German terms. For last week the leader of the Sudeten German (trouble -making) party in Czechoslovakia made an announcement: "By next autumn a solution will have to be found for the Sudeten question in Czechoslovakia. Unless Czecho- slovakia halts its "repression" of the Sudeten minority and grants far-reaching concessions, the Ger- man Government may be forced by direct action to bring them within the frontiers of the Reich." So there you are. Britain Fortifies Channel's Mouth A naval base is being built on the Island of Portland to guard the western mouth of the English Channel from any attack from Spanish ports. re base, to protect an approach used by the ill-fated Spanish Arma- da of 1588, has :ong been a second- ary defence asset, but achieved pri- mary impertance as a result of for- eign intervention in the Spanish war and the theory that a hostile power might use Spanish ports for wartime operations. Modernization and extension of the harbor and dockyard at P .t - land is alre: av u der way. Naval air squadrons soon will take over a large part of the island, including the military citadel, known as the Verne, normally garrisoned by the army. Britain's largest warships can an- dhor in the harbor, entering and leaving whatever the state of the tide. .,The defence force probably will be mostly light torpedo boats, however, since they are better suit- ed to the narrow waters of the channel. Already the site of the navy's anti-submarine school, Portland soon will be the chief anti-submar- ine base, sheltering a l: werful force of swift motor torpedo boats, submarine. and bombing planes. Naval experts believe that a fleet of small sr -'-e might "worry" an in- vading fleet much as the Spanish. Armada was harried 350 years ago. The isl-.nd is heavily armed. Across Weymouth Bay, opposite Portland, a coastal defence battery, first s( up in tree Great W• • is be- ing remounted. Pedestrian Prelate The l'ishop of Winchester etrlien golly r.s he sets out on his p'7 in& a;all:ing tour of his dio- r ^e, The venerable English pre- i <t •iw p r orte ti ed, as usual, by • .1 ehalrlain en the trip. Will Solve Riddle Of Fish Migr..; tion Maritimes Project Is Taggi'n'g Salmon Fingerlings To Find Out Where They Go Thousands of salmon, spawned in the Restigouche River and turned loose as fingerlings in the St. John River in New Brunswick are get- ting ready to return to home waters and the question that fish- eries department officials are hop- ing to answer is whether they will start up the Restigouche or will they seek the river from which they started to swim seawards. Three years ago 400,000 Resti- gouche fingerlings were released in the St. John as part of a fisheries department plan to determine characteristics of the migration of salmon. Each one of the little fish bore a price tag of one dollar when it was placed in the river. Two fins were snipped off each fingerling and anyone returning the scar tis- sues, left by removal of the fins, to the department of fisheries to- gether with information as to how and where ho landed the fish and its weight will receive one dollar. f Fisheries oiiieials laugh when asked if there is any chance Of some dishonest fisherman snipping off the fines of a fish be has caught to earn the dollar, Nature has Ito own way of prei'enting this kind of trickery because the scars left by removal of fins from a fingerling can be easily distinguished from sears made on a grown .fish. If no fish return, experts of the department will know they will have to seek a new method of tag- ging agging the fingerlings. Removal of the fins may hamper the flesh in keeping away from their natural en- emies. Few of the marked salmon are expected to appear in Nova Scotian waters so the posters will be placed in New Brunswick. Trade F dvisers r Big Cities Canadian Government Consid- ering Proposal, Official Re- veals, to Increase Export Trade. Appointment of trade commis- sioners in Toronto, Montreal and other Canadian centres is being considered by the Department of Trade and Commerce in its efforts to encourage the extension of Can- ada's export trade, according to A. E. Bryan, Inspector of the Trade Commissioner Service. Such commissioners would con- fer with and advise manufactur- ers and other businessmen on conditions in other countries, Mr. Bryan told the foreign trade con- ference of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce at Hamilton last week. He urged Canadian manu- facturers to pursue foreign trade more vigorously. The resulting in- creased business would enable them to be independent of the do- mestic market. Men prominent in industry, fin- ance and commerce attended the trade conference, first meeting of • its kind organized in Canada. Many technical questions were discuss- ed. During the conference the business leaders sought to achieve concerted action to further the Dominion's place in the Interna- tional market, There is only one scaly -backed ant -eater in captivity, called the African Pangolin, and it is in the London Zoo. V THE WORLD AT LARGE of the CANADA THE EMPIRE amemnoomaPli CANADA Death By Drowning The toll of drowning in On- tario during the spring and sum- mer months is greater than the toll of highway traffic. It is a heavy price to pay for sport and recreation, where risk is pre- ferred to safety.—St. Catharines Standard. One Every 20 Minutes Divorces were granted at the recent assizes at London, Ont., at the rate of one every 20 minutes, after which we cannot very well complain about Reno or other "divorce -mills." — Brockville Re- corder and Times. It's Safe For A While Now that Mr. Crerar has in- formed the House that Canada's title to the Arctic regions is be- yond dispute we will breathe easier realizing thete is no danger of waking up some morning and finding some foreign power has annexed an iceberg or two. — Peterborough Examiner. Drivers Are Different It is surprising how so many otherwise honest, just and consid- erate men and women become per- fect boors when they enter the driving seat of an automobile. In their homes, on the street, and at public gatherings, these motorists are practically the personification of courtesy and kindness. Place a steering wheel in their hands, and their .whole nature seems to change.—Chatham News. Bought At The Door Just for curiosity, we bought an article the other day, which the door-to-door salesman said was sold more cheaply because the firm didn't advertise. Comparing it with standard, advertised goods, it was not a surprise to discover it had cost more than the same kind of article and the quality was much inferior to its competi- toe, which hears a well known trade name.—Niagara Falls Re- view. Hopes For June It will be just too bad this year; if we get a frost during that first full moon in June. In that list of coming events in June the men folk will find ample excuse for getting away from home for a day when they get fed up with the work. There has been a splendid bloom, but not until after the June drop can the fruit crop be estimated. However, this much is certain,, no bloom, no crop!—Far- mer's Advocate. What They Hear About Us "Canada," said Lord Tweeds- muir to the visiting Scottish far- mers the other day, "gets rotten publicity; too much for the fail- ures and too little for the suc- cesses." There is much truth in that remark. The world hears about our Western drought, the problem of our railways, but much less about our solid accomplishments. Per- haps the world does not realize that this small population in half a century has made a nation out of scattered settlements, has' made a good start in the development of rich natural resources, is one of the foremost trading countries on earth. Sometimes in the face of immediate difficulties, we fail to bear these facts in mind even among ourselves. — Ottawa Jour- nal. The EMPIRE Don't Kill Your Doctor! Dr. Harry Stark, of Stoke New- ington, at the age of 35, had reached what most of us would call "success". He had a very good practice; his patients loved him. Dr. Stark died last week. He died in the most unspeceacular way a man can die—in bed. But he. gave his life for a pa- tient whom he probably scarcely knew. Dr. Stark contracted blood pois- oning from the patient. The pa- tient still lives. I•Ie is cured. Next time you say, "Oh, the doctor's bill can wait," think of Dr. Stark. Some day YOTJ might kill your doctor. --- London Sunday Dis- patch.