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The Brussels Post, 1921-5-26, Page 2THE BRITISH NAVY OF a THE FUTURE S•UTURE A` "SURE SHIELD" OF TI -IE MOTHERLAND. Naval Writer Gives a Fascin- ating Forecast --British Tar Will Remain the Same. or roma of the smper-battle-ci'utser. He Will be just the same Bran us in King Alfred's or King George V.'s day.. In short, lite Navy of A.D. 2020 will ealTy the same sort'of melt (aerial and will do the stone sort of work net the present one, though in n different way. We nese net worry about the shire and maohiue:r of the future so long' as the men are not going to change; there ie a chestnut about a destroyer etoanting at furl speed tufo action in the North' Sea in 1910, whose eaptain's steward Mine up to the bridge to u»k:. "10 yeti please, sir, will you have your bath before or after the:hattle?" 'I expect that sort of incident hos oc- What 'mit of a Navy is "Our Sure omeet pretty regularly in our Navy Shield" going to be in the future? since Saxon days (except that our There will not.be much real cltauge Saxon aucestors did not wash them - in the Fleet that tbe next generation.g.elves with ivy dangerousfrequency), is to see, so one -night go ahead a bit and look at the poesibilitles for, say, the year A.D.'20201 says "Klaxon," a welakfown •English naval writer. The only way to forecast the future sailors go to war at sea.- Aswe are is to first look back into the Past for tin 'island people this is only natural. guidance. No British soldier can go to war tut- King nKing Alfred, tq protect England less a ship takes him along to do it, against invasion by the Danes, built and. our Empire frontier is the three- chips twice as long as those of his mile limit off our opponent's coast - enemy, "both swifter and less un- line, steady, and also higher than the And we can guard It. Without any others." King Alfred's idea of pro- boasting, we know from the expert- tecting his country from invasion was ante of this war that our men are still to go for the enemy at sea. incomparable; you cannot beat them. In Nelson's day and in Beatty's day We have read a lot of the men that the idea was the same; there will be beat the Spanish Armada, and of those no change from that sound policy in that Nelson led at Trafalgar, but the the year 2020. Wren of the Great War and of to -day There le another rule that one can are even better. brave, loyal, humor - get from history and that is that ships ous, enduring, and absolutely unde- "Our Sure Shield" Must Guard 'Us, The story is typical of the plecld, matter -of -tact way in which Britt h and weapons go on getting bigger. Alfred's little battleships have grown Into monsters like the Hood, that is, from open boats of slaty rowers they bave become huge armored hulls of 42,000 tons carrying 1,100 men, shaped like racing boats, with the speed of a Midland express, and so long from stent to stern that a 300 -yd. drive by a record-breaking g o 1 f professional would only just cover their Iength. Taking a rewet's horse -power as being ane-eightb, King Alfred's flagship would have engines 71 horse -power. The hood reckons her horse -power at 144,000, and does not trouble to count the odd hundreds. Tlie first practical submarines were of about 10 tons with 10 horse -power. Now they run to 2,600 tote, with 10,- 000 0;000 or more horse -power. If tate cap- tain of one of these modern boats wishes to speak to an officer aft he rings him up on the telephone; in early days he would have merely had to dig him in the ribs to attrar 4 his attention. The Same Old Briton The early torpedo boats were little things of 15 tons --they weigh nearly 3,000 tons now. The early aeroplanes weighed about 700 Ib.; now the big wee approach 20 tons. Stating, then, from these facts, wbat could we expect to see on visit - lug a big naval base? There will be submarines there—small diving cruis- ers of 10,000 tons, and diving battle- ships of 40,000 tons. The biggest ships will be the sur- Face urFace battle cruisers—great flat-bottom- ed "skimmers," their bottoms "stela red" like bydroplane meter boats, and drawing but a few feet of water, ot 150 ft. beam and 1,200 ft. in length. 'Phe speed of these ships will be 90 *knots at least. They will have no guns, but will carry numbers of aero- plane shells which can be guided against an enemy by magnetic waves. Under those conditions battles would fake plat•-• at some fifty miles range, the real struggle. u.-nng between the magnetic- operators of the oppos- ing ships. Meanwhile, the submarines proceeding submerged at tremendous speed, will be launching out huge tor- pedaes, which will be guided to their -nark by tilt, Bahr: magnetic central, The aircraft used will be about. 100 fens weight and 3OA0c horse -Power. They will join in a battle of their own et a height of 25."00 ft. above, the! ftgbfing fleet. There mut- be: very fiats and tight- fng thrn. Tieing ael tra however, la :dice! 5010er Changed: human lettere be i jest the vitae' Ming Alfred'-+ cox..t.,,`o. e -rather 1 hairy and eueonlh man, wile wore t eaeking round lis lege, and a ':oaree woollen jumper over the vat of him. end who emote the helmsman of the a seeming Danish flagship with skill• earnestness. and a ten -pound spiked g %arnmed whit intent to cause the said helmsman grievous bodily harni. was east the sante man a,e he who was on wateb in the Great War! In the year 2020 the same Briton vsOIl be found in the magnetic-cleflect- (eatable--the British Tar is the ad- miration of his officers and the pat- tern of the navies of the world. Aa for the material of the future Navy, it will be as good as anyone else's. Britons know quite a bit about the design and building of wax -vessels. The new shtps, submarines, and air- craft foreshadowed for a hundred years hence will he British and not foreign models. Tlie Navy never stands still—every officer and man is 1 a potential inventor, and the ideas for improvement come chiefly from those who have the practical experience of sea life to teach them what is wanted. Horse -Power From Sea Water? We have taken a look at the future Navy through the lenses of the past. That is a good way to reach the re- sult, but it is liable to certain unex- pected errors. The fact is, the last twenty years bave seen such extraor- dinary se•ten•tific advances made that we may find estimates for the distant future suddenly brought much nearer. The greatest revolution in naval de- sign will come when some scientist finds a method of producing horse- power from, for instance, salt water, Oxygen is latent force, and we have plenty of oxygen In the sea. The air itself could conceivably be used as a sole fuel for engines! We are only at the beginning of our knowledge of electricity, sound -waves and power -waves. We know of explo- sives tea times as powerful as any in use today, but we do not yet know i ' ,. hn . me s+tt su wait M ,84 HOURS OF SADNESS ett W1 all have hours of aafinei , 'when WO abandon mirth, and talk about the badness of everything on earth. Perhaps the grab we swallow has made our innards ache, and we say life le hollow, a grins and ghastly fake. Perhaps saute firm is busted, wheel) stock we lately bought, and we are s•gre disgusted, dis- couraged end distraught, Perhaps the neighbor's Leghorn has scratched our beans again, and we, with language corking, de- nounce that active hen. But after eight hours' sleeping we're glad and gay once more, and have no use for weeping, and think that grief's a bore. Unfortunate the inertia who rises' from his couch, aud• feels no wish to chortle, bet airs a beastly grouch. Man's sorrow should be driven by slumber from the mind, for that's why sleep is given to weary humankind. A grouch isy in the gloaming, a common thing with tie, for then. tired men are combing their soulsfor things to Cuss; their feet are full of thistles, their whiskers full of hay, and 130 one sings or whistles at closing of the day. But in the brilliant morning, when all the world is bright, the healthy man is scorning the spectres of last night, TWENTY YEARS OF HOMESTEADING DEVELOPMENT OF CANA- DIAN WEST. Few Areas Now Remaining Which Contain Large Section of Homestead Land. There can hardly be any gainsaying the statement that the biggest factor in the phenomenal development of the. Canadian West has been the conces- sion. of free land by the Dominion gov- ernment to farmers and intending ag- riculturalists who undertook to settle and reside thereon and bring a part of the soil under cultivation. The pros- pect of obtaining, for a mere incur- rence of the most ordinary obligations, land which in settled sections ot the continent was valued at hundreds of dollars per acre, and in older Euro- pean countries was absolutely beyond the purchasing ability of the average citizen, drew thousands of land -hungry men from all over the world to people the vacant plains of the west. In the record of homestead patents is con- tained the gist of western develop - meet, for it was the agriculturalist who came first to realty develop and stay, and all else has followed in his wake. The favor with which free home- steads of 160 acres were regarded is reflected In the early rapidity of set - how to prevent them going off when Clement within the areas where they we don't want them to! All that our were made available, while the dim - designers and experts can do as to go inishing numbers of homestead en - on improving material along the prac- tries in the past few years indicates ileal lines of development permitted the approaching exhaustion of desir- by present-day science, but as they able land to -be secured by this means. work they keep a wary and watchful In the last two decades, from 1900 to eye on the men in the laboratories, for 1920, more than 604,000 homestead en - none can tell when some small die- tries' were made in the provinces of covert' by chemist or engineer may • Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, not give the signal to prepare for com- which represents the settlement and plete changes in all new types of war- fencing off of more than 80,000,000. vessels. acres by this system of appropriation. Not all this can, of course, be con- A Camp Torch. sidered as under cultivation, though If, when camping, you leave ever the farmer who takes a homestead tried to light your way from the tent without additional holdings usually to the spring or the boat landing by has the greater part of the area ren - the lightof a flaming brand, you have dered productive. probably been surprised to have your torch go out and leave you ht dark -A Survey of Homestead Statistics, ries. United States immigration to Cana - Make your torch of three blazing da has .always bebn regarded in so de- sticks instead of one stick. You may , sirable a light, largely because the ma - have noticed that in the camp fire , jority of those emigrating to the Do - three brands that lie close together minion find their way to the land, I will blaze with a single flame to which !where the' Dominion has the greatest all of then- contribute. They continue ` economic need of them, whereas a te burn because the heat cannot es- large section of the British emigration ':Apr- in all directions, as it can when !tide flows into the cities and Indus - only our stick is on fire. It is time trial centres. Amertrsru settlers have, ,ora' With she torch, in the past, been possessed of the greatest per capita wealth on arrival Knew His Bible. in Canada, far which reason a great Tae sehonl inspector was one day 1 many have been in the babit of Our - �lring some children questions on chasing improved farms and become Bible knowledge. So far' as he had producing assets to the Dominion with- Bible the children did very well, but out any loss of time whatever. A sur - when asked: vey of homestead statistics, however, 'Mere close the word 'holy' first also reveals the fact that they have occur in the Bible?" the children could constituted the most important single not answer for a minute or so, 2112 a factor in tbe settlement of these. lands, ranged urchin stood up and said: and that in the tiling and provi.eg an "Please, sir, on the covet:" the approximate 500,000 homesteads ri of the past twenty years, . former United States citizens • have been re- sponsible for the settlement of nearly 140,000, or almost thirty per cent, The British Isles, taken together, account- ed far about 91,000 entries, divided approximately Into English, 67,500; Scotch, 17,000; and Irish, 6,600. This was surpassed by the settlement of continental peoples in general who flied on nearly 100,000 .quarter -see - Cons of western land. The banner year of homestead entry was 1911, when 44,479 applications were received at the various land of- fices. Figures dropped somewhat un- til the outbreak of the war, when in 1914 31,829 potential farmers from all countries took homesteads. During the fiscal years 1915, 1916, 1917 and 1918, a total of only 60,636 homesteads were taken up, in 1919 only 4,227, in 1920 6,732, and in the first seven months of the last fiscal year, 3,784. Dwindling Available Homesteads In the dwindling figures of hone stead entries, cue observes the reflec- tion of both the wartime cessation of British emigration and the falling off of the United States annual contribu- tion, and the depleting areas of home- stead land in the west. To -day, the luxuriant open tracts of the Peace River Country of Northern Alberta re- main one of the few areas which con- tains large sections of land whicb may be homesteaded. This favored sec- tion has recently been the Mecca of many farmers and many of Canada's ex -soldiers desiring to exercise the rights' of soldier grants. The homesteads of today are the rich productive farms of to -morrow, and the homesteads settled upon with- in the last twenty years are now pro- ducing much of the crops and cattle which have made the western pro- vinces famous the world over. They are now netting their owners, In many cases, handsome yearly revenues, and from being secured for the exchange of a ten dollar bill and a few agricul- tural and residential duties, are held in many instances, at values of one hundred dollars, per acre. Carefully compiled statistics prove that land in Canada is rising In price at a start- ling rate. The excellence of crops produced and the rapidity of settle. ment are in a large measure respons- ible for this. Homestead land settled to -day will be worth a large figure in a fewyears,ond improved land purcbased at the comparatively low prices pre- vailing at the present time, when Com- pared with those existing la other countries, will within the span of the purchaser's life, realize a price many fold what be paid. Value of Education. The most important thing you ac- quire in school is neat the information You get but the habit of study you es- tablish. With a mind trained to study you have the ability to work at the solution of the problems which come up in life. Without an education you would be In a quandary as you do not know the methods of solution. Edu- cation gives you comprehension while lack of training causes bewilderment. In a new thermometer a flag auto- matically points the degrees of tem- perature on a circular horizontal.scale, Old .Age is Spiritual Decay. Youth is tl quality, a spiritual energy and, properly smia1cleg, thele la 110 "01d age," but spiritual decay, "The foot less prompt to meet the mornieg derv" le no valid evidence of growing old, any more than to lose it log in battle. Fussy physical activities are not the only teats of youth, That brain of Sophocles which gave ee Ole greatest play at ninety is more to the 'point, 08 1(180 that fatnoIM saying re- corded of him, in referenee to the cool- ing of the passions with the years, that to grow cad was like being set free freln service to a band of mad- men. Because we grow wiser and strong- er, less selfish and generally more useful to our fellows with the passage of the yew's is not to say that wo ltniZe lost our youth. It only means that 'sfo have learned how to enipl0y It. We do not tun in every direction as we did. We know a little better what we are doing, or what we want to do; but the motive force that enables us to do ft 'le that same energy' which (nee drove es to snake fools of ourselves at the beginning and still provides. the same "swift means to radiant ends•" Decay, disillusion, weariness; we mean Glebe things when we speak of. "growing old," but we fail to ,realize that these are no necessery.acceni- panlments of the years, We may, un- fortunately,'inherat them, or acquire them, like bad habits, or through neg- lect of a proper care and exercise of our spiritual selves. Spiritual and in- tellectual laziness makes most persons "oldbefore their time." If we lose in- terest in life, life will soon lose in- terest in us, and it is just'as possible to achieve a precocious senility in the, twenties as at any later petted of our lives. Why English Roads Are Better Than Ours. One of the very interesting trips duringour stay in England was to Cheshunt, which 4s 20 miles southeast of Harpenden and a little to the north of London, says a tourist. Our trip across was made by auto, aver the narrow but perfect roadbed- typical' -nf the English roads we travelled over. These roadbeds are often several feet lower than the adjacent fields, worn down by centuries of travel, and 'wind- ing about to follow the cowpatha' that first marked the route thousands of years ago, Much of the way the roadside hedges had been permitted to grow until the fields beyond could only be seen through the occasional gateways. Piles of road material were passed at fre- quent intervals, and occasionally a re- pairing outfit, consisting of a =tinted tar boiler, a steam roller; and two or three men spereading the broken stone and applying the asphalt. This is the "stitch in time" by which Eng- lish roads are kept In repair at a frac- tion of the cost prevalent in Canada. Our roads are usually neglected until their consequent injury to vehicles and impediment to travel have cost far more tban would the timely re- pairs. In this matter of road -building and repair, it would seem that Canada can learn a great deal from a study of Old Country methods, For many of their roads that date back to Caesar's time are In more perfect repair to -day than some of our costly macadam roads that are not yet five years old. France's Official Capital. Paris is not the capital of France. This is not a paradox, nor a joke, but an official fact. Parieians who are given to an alarmist disposition are disturbed In their minds, for from the fact that Paris has ceased to be the capital of the country since 1914 re- sults that all official documents of the Republic of France signed since the above date are theoretically illegal. On September 8, 1914, when the Government left Paris before the nen• ace of the German advance, the Jour- nal Official announced that Bordeaux was henceforth and until further no- tice the legal central capital of Franco and afoetal documents would be dated from Bordeaux. Until December this procedure was followed. One by ane the ministries came back to Paris, and by December 11 all documents were once again dated from Paris, No one, however, in the atrees of the tines, thought to insert a notice in the Journal Official to the effect that Paris once again had become the capi- tal of France, wth the result that all decuments since September, 1914, should be dated from Bordeaux, and those dated from Paris are technically illegal. Dr, James Cotton Whose new ether discovery, at has been reported, snakes any man or wo- man tell the truth, (It will not be sold for household purposes). Speed Records in Writing. The man who lives by his pen can possess no greater gift than that of being able to write easily. 0100 can sit down at their desks, and rattle off stories or articles at the• rate of a thousand :words an hour; others toll desperately,_ turning and re -turning every sentence, and think themselves lucky if they can produce a thousand words of satisfactory copy' within the working day. The, average novelist produces two books a year, each of about eighty thousand words. But there are others —for example, the late Miss Beatrice Harraden-who take two years to pro- duce. one book. To go to the other extreme, there are exceptional writers to whom the speed of a thousand words an hour is nothing. Mr. William Le Quenx is re- ported eported as having recently completed a whole novel in the epace of three weeks. This is the story of the big Italian film—"The Power of the Bor- gime The late Mr. 'Marion . Crawford, whose work certainly never showed any,signa of slovenliness, beat this re- cord' by•wrlting "A Tale of a Lonely Parish" in the space of twenty-four days. This novel, 'coneidet'ably-longer than Mr. -Le Quenx, contains oh hun- dred and twenty thousand. words: Another amazingly rapid writer was Mr. Guy Bootirby, who published twen tyeedx books in less than eight years, and a number of short stories into the bargain. Ile sometimes turned' out eight thousand words at a sitting. This is a big feat from the physical point of view, let alone the strain of composition. The elder Dumas was not only the most prolific, but also the most rapid of authors. ,On one occasion he made a bet that he would write the first volume of a new novel within three. days, the number of words being about thirty thousand. lie won his wager easily, with half a day to spare. Remember, too, that Dumas wrote everything with a pen. He had 'Sone of the modern assistance of type- writer or dictaphone, Working with a goad stenographer, there are writers Whose output averages thirty thous- and words a week. One of these, who makes a specialty of juvenile fiction, keeps five and sometimes six serial etaries going at the same time. And the instalments average five thousand words each. Some writers of newspaper feuille tons aro extraordinarily speedy. An author of this type has been known to complete a story of the kind within a week. It was one hundred thousand words in length, and he received for it a cheque for' 51,000. Looking Ont� her Bright Side. A cheery little fellow of seven, whose optimism was a perpetual sur- prise to his parents, was being pun- ished by his father. He was sprawling across his parent's knees, and after about six strolces of the cane be muttered to binrself; "It won't matter. I don't sit down much." Possessed the Combination, The cafvaseer knocked at the calico door and walked in with a canfldent smile. "Sir," he said, "I have for saie a combined carpet -sweeper, talking -Ina - chine, potato -peeler, and --" "Not to -day," interrupted the' man- ager, "I've got one. I was married twelve months ago." Tunnels three miles long have been discovered excavated by South Am- erican ants. REGLAR FELLERS—By Gene Byrnes HOW 14001-' Yorj\ LIKE 'To BT- A 4REP,T �El4E.R. rL? 45 IF `(or i COULD HAVE. `1OJR OWWWhi WAY WNo WOLA-D YoiJ RATHER- 6F- -rH,44 MAY014E, ELSE'? fW4.1. 1� coU1;0 ALWAYS HAue )qY 0b414 WA`l 1 WOULD R.NTHE2 Est- Lr- 0 F_.L '- • Silesian Bad Eaith, I There is the making of first -clack trouble in the i$ilositttn situation, Practically every nation huvirlg any, thing to do with the matter is beint ;charged with ugly txeaohery and bad faith. Italy eeeme to be the otic con- ception, The Italian forces followed the orders of the Entente Council that put them in Silesia, They fought thal invasion and they fought to hurt. , Germany themes that France and England knew all ,about the Polish plans and did nothing, It is passing - strange that Warsaw should know no- thing about the trouble for two days and not till after the Poles had taken about all the territory they could hope, to hold. There are indications that the French- are not averse to -seeing' the Poles hold all of Silesia they want. The broad outlines of the .situation are these. - The Peace Treaty provided. for a plebiscite to determine whether Silesia should be German or Polish, The balloting was duly held with plenty of charges of trickery and bad faith on both aides: I1 was a sort of mixed 'victory for the Germans, the sum total of votes favoring Germany by about two tos'one, with the Piles carrying manyof the agricultural dis- tricts and mining centres, The plebiscite was, held 'late in- March. nMarch. No rulings or. interpretations -on the vote have been handed down by the Entente. The Poles, the lasers in the balloting, start a surprise move- ment that is a mixed invasion,incur- rection and riot. Such authority as. the Entente claims in Upper Silesia has been flouted. Entente forces have been driven out by the Poles. Adalbert Korfanty, a sort of imitator of the Italian D'Annunzio, who was in ohaxge for Poland during the pleb- iscite, is leading the invaders and riot- ers. Ile openly defies the Entente, says that he is ready for a guerrilla warfare against Entente troops and will maintain an army of occupation. of 30,000 men. Silesia may be largely Slav and probably is. TIM Germans :nay have won by trickery, and they probably did: But the manner of winning should be deterni'nnd by the authority that . authorized the balloting.and not one of the interested parties. A Polish adventurer should not be allowed to dictate what shall be done. On the face of the situation, Ger. many is right in claiming all this con- stitutes a violation of the Treaty. It is on the point that the Entente and not Poland shall make the final ad- justment that the Entente must assert itself. Order must be restored in Silesia., the country put back where it was before the Polish move, or the Entente must admit that it cannot enforce its own orders, or that it does not care to do so in certain instances. The Promise -Maker. Tho French are a practical folk and their experiences with Germany have left Paris' without any illusions. France has found that Germany is a callous and stubborn debtor, who pays when she must and only when she must. When the news that Germany had undertaken to fulfil the demands laid down by the Supreme Council reached Paris, not one hat was thrown in the air, Official circles remain, as they, put it, "expective," while unofficial quarters are almost pessimistic. Who, asks the practical Frenchman, is ening to see to it that Germany keeps her word this time? With a million Frenchmen standing to their arms, Germany agreed to the terms; but the Freneh are troubled about it. They are wondering if they must ir.nintain.an army of occupation on the Rhine for the neat forty-two years. The French fear is that Germany will keep her promises just as long as n French bayonet is at her threat. This fear is founded upon experience. The French are tired of having to mobilize a few army eorps every time the German gets arfaher fit of stub- bornness. They fear that the agree- ment just made by Germany' is but another "scrap of paper." The "No -Luck" Gardener, He stuck a few rose bushes Into the. ground in the back yard one day. He did not prune them and he per- mitted wild shoots to grow. I1e never cultivated the sell. Iie never sprayed the bushes after the warns days set in. He did nothing to help theme or en- courage them, but later whenever gar- dening was the topic of conversation he always said: "5 never have any luck raising roses." Perhaps, "Where," asked the female suffrage orator, "ould men he today were it not for woman?" She paused a moment and looked around the hall, "7 repeat," she said, orator, "would men be to -day wore it not for woman?" "IIe'd be in the Gardon of Laden eat- ing strawberries," answered a voice from tate gallery. Betty's' Definition, "Whet," asked Bliss Jones of one of her pupils, "10 We meau by the 'word 'plural'?" Batty responded promptly. "By the plural of a word wemean the sense, thing only more of it.". Not Appetizing. "Get up, Bobble!" called hie mother from the bottmn of the etaltw. "You know On early bird gots the worm." "15 that all you've. got for break- fast?" reltlh,od Bobble, sleepily, aa he turned over 'for anotinir moue,