HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1957-09-12, Page 6A United States Si
Our Queen And He
list On
r Court
Ever since a peer called Queen
Elizabeth's Speeches a "pain in.
the neck" -- and got a slap in
the face for saying it -- there
have been strange rumblings
behind the Purple Curtain of
British royalty.
e
By TOm A. CULLEN
NEA Staff Correspondent
LONDON — (NEA) — "The
greatest show on earth, bar
none—"
This is one American's ec-
static verdict after watching
Queen Elizabeth II, a tiny spot
eaf scarlet in a forest of bearskin -
hatted guardsmen, at a recent
Trooping of the Color ceremony
in her honor.
The description, if corny, is
not a bad one. Viewed simply as
a spectacle, the British mon-
archy cannot be beaten. For
pomp and ceremony, for the
sheer splendor of its medieval
pageantry, it is without rival in
Europe today.
It is one of the world's most
costly extravaganzas. The ques-
tion arises, can Britain afford it
--cinch - in - your - belt Britain,
which not long ago asked to
postpone payment on the 1945
ELS. loan? Is royalty too expen-
sive for the British taxpayer?
Certainly, the British mon-
archy has enjoyed the longest
run of any show on record. Not
counting the brief interlude of
Oliver Cromwell, it has been
playing non-stop for 1,100 years.
dominions of Canada, Australia,
New Zealand and South Africa,
these new sovereign states now
take their place as members of
the British Commonwealth of
Nations.
Being, free to come and go in
the Commonwealth as they like,
how much longer will they re-
cognize the British Crown?
A constitutional monarchy, it
is called; yet Britain has no writ-
ten constitution in the American
sense of the word—only an i11 -
defined assortment of laws, cus-
toms and conventions, some of
which date back to the Jutes,
the Celts and the Picts.
No one appears to know for
certain which of these laws are
usable, and which obsolete.
Take the Queen, for example.
In law, Elizabeth II is head of
the State, the "fountain of jus-
tice," commander-in-chief of all
the armed forces, and head of
the established Church of Eng-
land.
In theory, without consulting
Parliament, the Queen can upset
all civil government, disgrace the
nation by a bad war or peace, or
leave it defenseless by scrapping
its armed forces. But in practice
she acts only on the advice of
her ministers, which she cannot
constitutionally ignore.
"The Queen reigns, but she
does not rule," is the magic for-
mula which expresses her
powers, and none but the British
could have devised such an in-
genious one.
If Elizabeth does not rule, if
she can do nothing without min -
QUEEN ELIZABETH AT WORK—Asn Prince Philip stands by, she
greets her public during a tour of the Midlands.
In comparison, the British law
courts are only 800 years old,
while Parliament is a mere
stripling of 700 years.
It has for its leading lady one
of the most attractive personali-
ties in public life today, Eliza-
beth II, who can trace her
ancestry back to the Saxon king,
Egbert, in the year 829.
Her billing on the theatre
marquee (if one could find a
marquee large enough to take it)
would read: "Elizabeth II, by the
Grace of God of the United
'Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland and of her
other Realms and Territories
Queen, Head of the Common-
wealth, Defender of the Faith."
All of this sounds very pretty,
but what "other realms and ter-
ritories"? The truth is that Eliza-
beth is Queen of a Vanishing
Empire.
In the past 10 years Britain
has given independence to 507
million peoples, or nearly one-
quarter of the human race—
while during this period world
communism has enslaved an-
other quarter of mankind.
Since World War II, India,
Pakistan, Burma, Ceylon, Sudan,
South Rhodesia, Ghana (formerly
the Gold Coast) and now the
:Federation of Malaya—all have
joined the independence parade.
Side by side with the older
'i must have an ideeti&catioat
Card here somewhere." ,
isterial consent, is she a mere
figurehead?
The world was given a sharp
reminder that the monarchy still
has teeth when Elizabeth was
called upon to name a successor
to Sir Anthony Eden, who re-
signed as prime minister last
January.
Ordinarily the naming of a
prime minister is automatic. But
Eden's sudden resignation left
his party leaderless and the
Queen with the momentous
choice between Harold Macmil-
lan and Richard Austen Butler.
The Queen has certain other
real powers which are hers alone.
Only she can summon, termin-
ate or dissolve Parliament. Only
she can grant pardons or confer
peerages and honors. And no bill
passed by Parliament can be-
come law until it receives the
Royal Assent.
What would happen if the
Queen refused the Royal Assent,
no one knows, for this question
has never arisen in the past 250
years, the last time the Royal
Veto was used being in 1707.
Elizabeth also presides over
the Privy Council, which has ap-
proved 117 proclamations in the
first half of 1957, including the
constitution of the new State of
Ghana.
She can grant royal charters
to corporations, coin money,
claim any treasure trove found
in her domain. Infants and in-
sane persons are her wards,
Also, only she can print or lic-
ense others, to print the Bible.
A lot of nonsense is written
about British royalty. Some writ-
ers go all mystical in describing
her symbolic role. There is, how-
ever, a sense in which Elizabeth
is a symbol of national unity, in
Whom people of different creeds,
racersand origins find inspiration
and strength
Thus, when she broadcasts to
the nation and to the Common -
Wealth at Christmas, she is list-
ened t0 as a universal mother,,
the one living link of common
kinship and heritage,
DIPLOMATIC DIP—Presidents Urha Kekkonen of Finland, front,
and Asgeir Asgeirsson of Iceland frolic in a pool at Akureyr,
Iceland. The dip followed the traditional "sauna", famed steam
bath of the region. l'he two Leaders were in Akureyr to see
the inter -Nordic swimming chapionships.
�itt1'Yc+a�,
If you serve hot vegetables
with cold, sliced meat, there
are many ways to make them.
decorative. For instance, wrap ,
wide strips of pimiento around
bundles of asparagus and circle.:;`
these around your platter. Or'`.
boil and hollow out turnip's and
fill them with tiny green peas
and tiny mushroom caps.
Decorate mounds of creamed
carrots with slivered almonds. '''•
Combine green beans with.
small white onions. Season with
butter, salt and pepper and
sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
To introduce a red note :on
your platter serve tomatoes
either stuffed or on the half shell. r
For the latter, you simply cut
tomatoes in half crossways and
place, cut side up in a baking
dish, brush with melted butter ry
and season with salt and pepper..
ake at 375° F. until tender
about 30 "minutes.
To stuff tomatoes, scoop ou'
centers of whole, ripe tomatae
leaving . a shell about.
thick, Chop pulp- and
juice; mix pulp with an'
amount of soft bread crumb
Add 2 tablespoons minced onion
cooked in 1 tablespoon butter
until lightly browned. Season
with salt and pepper. Stuff to-
matoes and place in greased bale
ing dish; add just enough hot •
water to cover bottom of dish,
Bake at 375° F. until tender -
about 25-30 minutes.
If you prefer cold vegetables,
try placing .potato or macaroni
salad in a mound in the center
of a chop dish and surrounding.
it with colorful, chilled, cooked
vegetables. Green beans on Atte
side, tiny cooked beets on' pan-
other side, sliced cucumbers7ton•
another side and sliced tomatoes
topped with white onion rings
on another make an attractive
cold platter to go with meat.
* e e
Potato salad is a popular ac-
companiment for cold meats for
hot weather meals. There are so
many variations of this dishthat
almost everyone has her own
special recipe. A good plan to
follow is to get a good basic
recipe thaat your family likes and
then vary it once in a while by
adding some new ingredients.
Here is a basic recipe.
POTATO SALAD
3 cups cooked, cubed potatoes
1 tablespoon minced onion.
1 cup thick dressing — cooked
dressing or mayonnaise
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup chopped green pepper
34 cup finely cut celery
3/ cup chopped pickle or cu-
cumber
Mix lightly the potatoes,
onion, dressing, and salt. Be
careful not to break potatoes.
Chill until serving time, Add re-
maining ingredients and mix
lightly. Add more salt and dress-
ing, if needed. Garnish with
tomato wedges and olives.
Serves 4. , s
A colorful mold that combines
potatoes with ruby red toma—
toes will. add a bright, gay touch
to your summer dinner table.
This serves 6.
MOLDED POTATO -TOMATO
SALAD
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
34 cup cold, water
1% cups hot ,chicken broth
1/4 teaspoon ground black
pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 hard -cooked egg, sliced
4 slices fresh tomato
1 cup diced cooked potatoes
1 cup diced fresh tomatoes
1 cup diced Celery
1 teaspoon minced onion
1 cup eottage cheese
1 adishes for garnish
Soften gelatin In cold water.
dd to hot chicken broth along
ith pepper and salt. Stir until
solved. Pour a 1/4 -inch layer
ti a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan. Chill
ntil firm. Arrange slices of
ard-cooked egg and tomatoes
any desired pattern over the
illed gelatin. In the meantime,
hill remaining gelatin until
ghtly thickened. Fold in re-
hining ingredients. Pour over
g -tomato slices. Chill until
ady to serve. Just before serv-
g, turn out on salad greens. Ar-
nge mounds of cottage cheese
d radishes around salad.
*
If you're tired of potato salad,
tit want one that adds a hearty
bte to your co meat meal, try
Is one made with macaroni. It
rves 6 to
MACARONI SALAD
s.E ounces elbow macaroni,
cooked until tender, rinsed,
and drained
cup -sli ed stuffed olives
e?ngs fiix®pped green pepper
e;hopped. celery
s,, :,;diced
Swiss cheese, diced
up French dressing
teaspoon salt
Combine . all ingredients in
ge bowl, mix thoroughly but
htly. Chill several hours be -
re serving.
ellyfish.On Top
Annul War
The annual war etween jelly -
h and bathers, which usually
mes to a painful climax around
bor Day, gives every indica-
on of ending up in a resounding
story for the jellyfish this year.
ith unprecedented frequency,
e undulating creatures have
en shooting their stingers into
e unwary swimmers from
aine to Florida. By last week,
ey had already routed thous -
ds of persons from some of
aine's famous coves, from the
arge shallow bays of Long Is-
nd and Ne wJersey,. and from
ie usually placid inlets of Chesa-
eke Bay.
'So severe was the jellyfish, or
ea nettle, situation in the Chesa-
aake that Sen. John Marshall
`)Butler of Maryland was stung
into strong rhetoric ("The sea
nettle must go") and resolute ac-
tion (a bill for crash research on
how to disrupt the jellyfish's life
Cycle).
• The jellyfish scourge, the worst
in years for scores of Atlantic
Coast towns, may well be a direct
consequence of the East's Unger-
ing drought. One theory has .it
that slack rivers and low rain-
fall keep inland waters saltier
than usual, a condition that seems.
to appeal to jellyfish.
Though jellyfish are the most
primitive form of multicelled
animal life, just one level above
sponges, they are equipped -with
Ingenious weaponry. Spotted
around their umbrella and on
their tentacles are thousands Of
tiny sacs each holding coiled;
threadlike stingers, When a
thorny trigger is tripped, the
coil thread explodes outward
and impales its prey, injecting
a paralyzing poison which stuns
the victim so the jellyfish can
feed at leisure.
Lethal to most small fish, the
sting of the sea nettle will rarely
cause more . than temporary
agony to the bather. The large,
almost orange jellyfish (Cyanea)
that visit the northern coast pro-
duce a fierce burn. The sting of
the bluish, transparent Aurelia
cluttering New England and
Long Island waters is milder. The
red or white sea nettles (Dacty-
lometra) of the Mid -Atlantic
states are more vicious, some-
time clutching a panicky swim-
mer and jabbing him repeatedly.
A well-placed sting (say, on the
spine) can put its victim in the
hospital. The great killer jelly-
fish sails the Caribbean. This is
the Portuguese man-of-war
(Physalia), a remarkable float-
ing colony of polyps as fearful
as anything in the world's oceans.
The Gilbert Islanders in the
Pacific find boiled jellyfish a
great delicacy (it tastes like
tripe), but their economic pros-
pects elsewhere are • generally
nil. They clog fishermen's nets;
tI1ey eat into the revenue of re-
sort operators. But L. Eugene
Cronin, director of the Chesa-
peake Biological Laboratory,
Solomons, Md., which is explor-
ing jellyfish control, raised this
caution: "If we ever find a way
to eradicate them, we may not
want to apply it. Jellyfish eat
a lot of microscopic organisms
that may consume oyster larvae
by the billions."
The experts 'have little to re-
commend to the bather. The
Maryland biologists suggest
soothing one's stings with a"bi-
carbonate of soda solution. Down
East, Leslie Scattergood, Fish
and Wildlife man at Boothbay
Harbor, Maine, made what was
perhaps the soundest observa-
tion of all: "Anyone who goes
'iisei } nming' in water . this cold
deserves to get stung." — From
• Newsweek. •
Asiaticnu—How
it Makes You F r: el
What is it like to get Asian
flu?
The ocean liner Arose Sky
docked in New York, eight days
out of Rotterdam, with one-
third of its 667 foreign students
(coming to attend U.S. high
schols for a year) still' down
with the new "bug" or just get-
ting over it. Their attacks had
been mild, they reported, and
death seemed far away = then.
The virus had aparently been
carried from Turkey; 46 Turk-
ish students had been joined in
Vienna by 26 Austrians fOr the
voyage to the U. S. The Turkish
students were already ill. At
Rotterdam, the ship's doctor re-
fused to let them sail. But the
Austrians were cleared.
The third day out, a few
youngsters complained of mild,
throbbing headaches. "It wasn't
bad," Wolfgang Steininger of
Vienna said. But the next day
he began to feel hot and his
throat hurt when he talked. The
third day he knew he had some-
thing. He felt utterly exhausted,
lost his appetite, and was nause-
ated. By the fourth day, 200
were in various stages of Asian
flu.
Their symptoms varied. Only
half of them felt any nausea.
Most managed to show up for
meals. But almost all of them,
like Johnny Hangaas from Nor,
way, felt worse on the third day.
"When I awoke I was dizzy and
my knee joints were stiff," he
said, " and my back ached."
In most instances, the victims
felt better after four days. When
they landed, only 27 were sick
enough to be kept in bed. Then,
a thin, pale 6 -foot student from
Athens, Nicholas Memmos, com-
plain of abdominal pain. The
height of his attack had come
on shipboard.
Thinking the pains might be
caused by appendicitis, doctors
sent the 17 -year-old Greek stu-
dent to a New York hospital.
Eighteen hours later he died. An
autopsy indicated Nicholas had
succombed to an influenza type
of bronchial pneumonia.
— From NEWSWEEK.
MODERN ETIQUETTE
, by Roberta Lee
Q. What would be the correct
way for two unmarried sisters
to register at a hotel?
A. They should register: "Mise
Shirley Walton, Miss Sue Walton,
Detroit, Mich."
JUMBO FERRY—Watchina the elephants take their daily bath is
a prime attraction for tourists at Kandy, Ceylon. Occasionally
the Tess timid, like this pretty pair, climb aboard the huge
animals for a ride across the Ganges River.
�,�3zRrar�:rm�,..,uKs�a>:wF„w,✓rc�„yrs,�.�...,�;....-.w...,..,.�....w.
FRED JETS ARE COMING—The U.S. government has approved a Soviet request to land iwn
Russian TU -104 twin -jet airliners in New York in September. The TU -104, one of which is
kfured above at Le Bourget Field, Paris, France, in May, 1957, travels at about 500 m.p.h«
at altitudes up to 35,000 feet. The sleek, 70 -passenger air°iners will be first Russian civilian
plant& ever to Ia.id itt fhb United 'State*
•