Loading...
Zurich Herald, 1928-03-08, Page 6'Red Goes to Russia Coarses Back Cured Boars, Once "Firebrand of Java,,, Renounces Com- munism and and All Its. Works The 'conservative press of Holland ie-sejoicing in the repudiation of com, n tnism by. the Dutch engineer Boars, known at the time of his expulsion from the Dutch East Indies last Sep- tember as "the firebrand of Java," where he had been the head, of the subirerslve Soviet movement. After his expulsion he went to Rus- sia in order to learn at first hand the political and social principles lie hall been advocating. ' This visit, judged from the point of view of a long ar- ticle he has written for the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant of Rotterdam, has resulted in his entire loss of faith in communism. He says he considers it his duty ou his return to Holland to advise the population of the Dutch East Indies, whom he himself had directed along the path of communism, to retrace their steps. His survey of the con- ditions in Russia has brought him to the following conclusions: "Wages are very low. In 1927 they never went higher for the proleta- • riane than $310 for the year. Al- though the ruble is rated at 50 cents it zhould bo borne in mind that its purchasing power is only 44 per cent. of that, or of what it was before the war. As higher employees and skilled workmen earn much more than $310 a year the wage of the unskilled is constantly shrinking, as the amount of money in circulation is carefully limited, in order to give a fictious value to the ruble abroad." He found that the Soviet Govern- ment was able to do little for educa- tiou and the care of the sick, despite all the fine slogans. As in capitalistic countries all available mousy is first of all spent on the army, and further on the enormous bureaucratic appar- atus. "In 1927," he says, "the expenditure for the Department of Education, Na- tional hygiene and other cultural re- qu:rements in the whole of the Soviet Union amounted to 254,000,000 rubies, that for the other administrative pur- poses about 700,000,000 and for mill-, tary purposes 645,000,000; that is 40 per cent. for `militarism' and. 15 per . cent. for the cultural needs of the population. All this is, of course, the result of low production. The ex- chequer is empty, so that it is impos- sible to indulge in greater expendi- ture. 'The incomes. of farmers are very emelt Nine -tenths of them have in- comes of. 25 rubies per month. Only auc-tcnth eara more thin thet.t -.Elven the casual visitor must no- tiec that the ;great masses of the large enies are miserably poor. The eliebbe cloihiug, the old repaired fur- I the streets; and in the • evening he The Patriot. By John Galsworthy The other day I was told a true story, which I renmember""'vaguely hearing or reading about during the war, but which is worth retelling for theme who missed it, for it has certain valuable ironic implications and a sort of grandeur. It concerns one of those beings who, when they spy up. on us, are known by that word of three letters, as offensive as any in the language, and when they spy for us are. dignified by the expression "Secret Service" and looked on as heroes of at least second water. You will recollect that when the war broke out, the fifteen hundred persons engaged in supplying Ger- many with information, mainly tri• vial and mostly'erroneous, concern- ing our condition and arrangements, were all known by the authorities, and were put out of action at a single swoop. From that moment there 'was not one discovered case of espionage' by spies already resident in this coun- try when war was declared. There were, however, a few and, I ani told, unimportant discovered cases of es- pionage by persons who developed the practice, or came into this coun- try for the purpose during the war. This story concerns one of the latter. In August, 1914, there was living in America a business pian of German birth and American citizenship, called —let us say, for it was not his name—. Lichtfelder, who had once been an officer in the German Army, a man of about fifty, of square and still mili- tary appearance, with rather short stiff hair, a straight back to his head, and a patriotic conscience too strong for his American citizenship. It was not long then before an American called Lichtfelder at the German headquarters of his old regiment, of- fering his services. "No,' they said to him, "you are no longer a young and active man, and you are an American citizen. We are very disappointed with our Secret Service in England; something seems to have gonewrong. You can be of much greater service to the Father- land if, having learned our codes, you will go to England as an American citizen, and send us all the informa- tion you can acquire." Lichtfeid's soul was with bis old regiment; but, being a patriot, he con- sented. During the next two months he made himself acquainted with all the tricks of his new trade, took ship again at Genoa, and reappeared as Iightfield in the United States. Soon after this he sailed for Liverpool, well stocked with business addresses and samples, and supplied with his legiti- mate American passport in his own American name. He spent the first day of his "Sec- ret Service" -wandering about the docks of a town which, in his view - if not in that of other people—was a naval station of `importance; he also noted carefully the half.? militarized appearance of the khaki figures in Cold Power For New Ship A STEAM DRIVEN DIRIGIBLE Capt. Thomas .B. Slate, designer and builder, with, model of "City of Glen: dale," Note peculiar propelleFevhich sacks air in and thus overcomes air resistance in travel. The hands o fine American citizen went to his sides, and his figure. stif- fened. For hours he had been telling the Court how entirely concerned he was with business, giving his refer- ences, showing his samples, explain- ing that—as for the lines in invisible ink in that letter, which he admitted• sending—well, it was simply- that` he had met a Dutch journalist on board the ship . coming out, who had said to him: "You know; we can get no news at all, we neutrals ---do send us something -not, of course, harmful to England, but something we can say" And he had sent it, Was it harmful? it was nothing but trifles he had.sent. And now, at that first question, he was standing suddenly a little more erect, and silent. And• the great Ad- vocate said: "I won't press you now,.Mr.. Licht- felder; we will go. on to other mat- ters. But I should like you to think that question over, because it is not only the first question that I ask you -it will also be the last." And the Court adjourned, the cross- examination not yet over, with that question not yet asked again; • . In the early morning of the follow- ing day, when the warder went to the cell of Lichtfelder, there, by his muf- fler dangled his body from the grat- ing. Beneath the dead feet the cell Bible had been kicked away: but • ni. u'e, ,he accumulations of dirt can penned a business letter .to a gentle - not pe 7ibly be kept concealed. Their states in regard to comfort, even of Health, is much lower than it was in 101:1. ::anybody can see that. "In 1927 there were 2,000,000 unem- played in lamesia out. of a total in- dust -del population of nearly 13,000; Briton Pictures Next War's Horrors 'General Swinton, Inventor of Tank, Prophesies Scrap- ` ping of All Peace Treaties man in Rotterdam, between the lines of which, devoted to the more enlight- ened forms of -shall we say? plumb, ing, he wrote down in invisible ink all he had seen—such and such ships arrived or about to sail; such and such "khaki" drilling or wandering about the streets; all of which had importance in his view, ii not in fact. He ended with the words: `Morgens Dublin Lichtfelder," and posted the letter. Now, unfortunately for this poor but simple patriot, there was a young lady in the General Post Office who was spending her days in opening all letters with suspected foreign ad- dresses, and submitting them to the test of invisible ink, To her joy— for she was weary at the dearth of that useful commodity -between the lines of this commercial screed, which purported to be concerned with the refinements of plumbing, out sprang the guilty ink. To a certain Depart- ment were. telephoned the incautious "Morgens Dublin Lichtfelder," Now, no alien in those days was suffered to leave for Ireland, save through a bot- tle -neck at Holyhead, To the bottle neckthen went the message: "Did man called Lichtfelder travel yester- day to Dublin?" The answer came quickly: "Aineeican called Iightfield went Dublin yesterday, returned last nightt, is now on train for Huston." At Euston our patriot, after precisely three days of secret -service,. was ar- rested, andlodged wherever they were then lodged. "I am," he said, "an American citi- zen called Lightfield." • That,' said the British Cabinet, not without disagreement, "makes a dif- ference. Yon shall be tried by or- dinary process of Law, and defended by Counsel chosen by the American Embassy, at our expense, instead of. by Court-martial." ' Speedily --tor in 'those days the Law's delays were short—the .A.meri- can citizen called .Lightfieid, alias. Lichtfolder, was put on his trial, for supplying information to the enemy; and for three days at the Govern- ment's expense, a certain eminent Counsel gave the utmost of his wits to preparing. his defense.. But a cer- tain great Advocate, wheat) business It was to prosecute, had given. the ut- most of his wits to considering with, what question lee should open his cross-examination, since it is well known how important is the first question; and there had cotne to him an inspiration, "Mr, Lichtfelder," he said, fixedly regarding that 'upright figttrein the (leek, "toll mai: Slave yeti not been an Oxford --Despite the Washington conference, poisonous gases will be used in the next great war, accord- ing to the prediction of General E. D. Swinton, inventor of the tank, made in a recent address. The whole pic- ture of future wars, drawn by the man who invented the new horror of the last one, was such as to make his audience shudder. "When the next great struggle comes," he said, 'the belligerent na- tions will not have any scruples re- garding treaties, They will consid- er them mere scraps of paper and cuter the war without even a formal declaration of hostilities, In so far as the last war was to end war, it was a failure, and the attitude of the world to -day is not in favor of world peace." slide circumstances General Swinton did not feel that England should acquiesce in any further dis- armament. The war of the future would be between people and people, not army and army, and it would ac - Wally be safer for the 'fighting men than civilians, he said. There would be Ito mercy to women and children, but this would help to ;shorten the. period of oanflict. Prom this view- point he considered the protests against the sinning of the Lusitania which brought the United States into the wear and he bombing of London from the air were. illogical. Tile next war ;would mean the 'em- ployment of disease germs, airplances without aviatorsr sowing pestilence, told chstnieais to destroy Crops, Field warfare would be carried on in ma- chines impervious to gas and ma- chine-gun bullets. I7ot;sewffe--•"Don't bring mo any more or that horrid milk. it's posi- Lively bluer" 11Tillcrostn.--"rt :a.u't our fault, lady. • it's these long dull oven - Defends . Britain s Submarine Policy Rt. Hon. W. C. Bridgeman Discusses Naval Program of England • HAS , CUT ARMAMENTS Asserts Britain Has Done Her Share Toward Dis- armament London.—Right Hon. W. C. Bridge- man, First Lord of the Admiralty, speaking before the Constituttional Club, declared that Great Britain's submarine policy is 'exactly the same League's Covenant Only Path to Peace Lord Cecil Warns as that stated at Washington in 1!121. Day for Action Dawns as the World Tires of Talk, He De- clares; e-clares; Sees War Pacts in Defense Alliances - London --A blunt warning that the world is getting impatient and that the time has come for deeds and not words was issued in "The. Observer" recently by Viscount Cecil or Chel- wood, in an article 'soberly estimating the possible .results of Monday's meet- ing at Geneva of the Committee on Arbitration 'end Security of the Lea- gue of Nations Preparatory Commis- sion for a disarmament conference, Admitting that nothing like a general agreement for security beyond that Contained in the Covenant of the League is very practicable. Viscount Cecil, who formerly was among the moat prominent among the British delegates in the League's disarmament work, now limits his hopes to "clarify- ing the terms Of tae Covenant."' : "Already a kind of catalogue has been drawn, up,'." he writes, "of the measures for the prevention of war suggestedunder Article XI, ranging from the withdrawal of diplomatic re- presentatives liey all the members of the League from the capital of a pow- er threatening a breach of the peace to a League of Nations naval and aerial demonstration against the same power." • Viscount Cecil thinks that there is prospect of an agreement on the financial assistance to be offered by League members to a country threat- ened with aggression. He warns, however, that, while mutual non- aggression treaties. on the Locarno model strengthen and forty the cov- enant, other treaties' prpviding for mutual defense in ease of attach by a badrd party are apt to drift into mu- tual treaties. of alliance on the old model. The chief hope, however, Lord Cecil no -w seems to find in the oompusiry establishment of arbitration agree ments--somewhat reminiscent in basic theory at least of the Bryan treaties'. He insists• that if all dis- putes between nations were submit- ted to arbitration security against war would be reasonably complete. "We should be very glad," he said, "if submarines could be abolished al- together, but the weak and smaller countries regard submarines as their only weapon, and we have to take them into consideration as well." The First Lord attacked his politi- cal opponents for what he termed "the large mass of misrepresentation about British naval and disarmament policies which is being propagatfed about the country to make party,capi- since, with the stretching of the muf- tal and ,discredit the Government" fier, those feet had still been able to He asserted that Great Britain had rest on the ground, the patriot had done )her share toward *disarmament, drawn them up, until he was choked to death. He had waited until the dawn, for on the cell slate was . writ- ten this: "I am a soldier with rank I do not desire to mention... I have had a fair trial of the United Kingdom: I am not dying as a spy, but axes -sol- dier My fate I stood as a man; but I can't be a liar and perjure myself. , ... What I have done I have done for my country I shall express my thanks, and may the Lord bless you all." And from the ten lawyers—eight English and two . American -who,. with me, heard the story told, there came, as it were, one murmur: "Jolly fineel" And so it was! Mr, Galsworthy )fax anngnnced that his compensation for this article will be contributed to the Save the Child- ren Fund in London. N.Y. Herald - Tribune. Dear Old Soul (visiting her very sick brother)"I've `had a very nice letter from Emily. 'She says she's so sorry she ain't able to.some and see you, but she hopes to be able to come to the funeral;" u tnalzes the rows cicproased," officer in the German Army1 and added: "We are prepared to go further, if the other countries will do the same. I do not, however, think that a weak . British navy would con- tributeto the peace of the world." "I want to explode the suggestion," said Mr..Bridgeman, "that we started the new competition in building large cruisers. The 'accusation is false. It was other countries who started to build large battleships. • "Sir Herbert Samuel (formerly Home Secretary) has been telling the country that the Conservative party mishandled , . the Geneva conference. Any fool can say•tliat" • Dept of Health Issues Timely Boo_ Co»operating With Canadiat ' Social klygii ne Council to Stamp Qut Serious Menace Canada's Stand of Douglas Fir A recent survey of the forest re- sources of British Columbia showed a total stand of approximately 76,000,- 000,000 feet board Measure of Douglas fir. While all of this is not at pres- ent commercially accessible,. a 'large' proportion is within. reasonable dis- tance of water and rail` transporta- tion. About 80 per cent. of it is situated on ancouver island and the adjacent mainiVand. NEW DEPARTURE Ottawa, Ont, --Between 'two three 'rearm:' study is represented D. new publication dealing with th diagnosis and treatment of yeller diseases, which is being issued by th Federal Department of Health a will be sent to every doctor In the Dominion, Compiled by the Clanadian Socieif� Hygiene; Council under the Super vision of its national medical coma mittee, it Is a compendium of tho; most .recent scientific information on the subject and, since it is generally considered, as the most up-to-date treatise available dealing with this type of disease, is expected to attract almost world-wide attention among members of the medical • ,profession.$ The .policy of the Federal Depart-, 'went in supplying 1t to every prac- tising physician throughout the Do- minion also marks a new departure in 'health methods. It not only means that every doctor will be put in possession of the most modern and accurate information regarding the means of coping withthis scourge but the announcement is also made that further information on- methods of treatment may be expected from time to time, as these are brought to light, • These diseases; as a •class, axe by far the most deadly with which science has to battle. Directly and indirectly, they are the cause of more death and s,lffering than tuberculosis or any single tyre of disease. To some extent, this Lai been due, in the peat, to a general tendency to avoid mention of them and, from a peculiar sense of false modesty, to let them run theircourse without drawing public attention to their highly fatal results and the terrific injury they have been doing to tate raee as a whole. As a result, for instance, they have been allowed to continue from genera- tion to generation causing blindness, deafness and feeble:mindedness un• til they bad imposed a huge eoon- onil) burden on the world. It was discovered, for example, that 80 pet jCent. of blindness among infanta could be traced directly to the prase enee of these hitherto hidden die eases. Of recent years, 'however, Canada has been setting an example to the rest of the world in its methods of striking at this worst of all disease - killers. When the. Fede 'al GovernYhent, for the flsrt time, co-operated with the provinces in public health efforts, it was in a campaign to control venereal diseases. Since that. tithe, •clinics have been established from coast to coast and Canadian public health au•. ( thorities have made enormous strides. There has been a very noticeable and . very natable reduction in the ravages of this .disease throughout the Do- minion. Coupled with the clinical mebliods of combatting it, there has been an. intensive campaign, carried on by the Canadian Social Hygiene Council. Now this- further effort, by which medical men throughout Canada are being supplied with the most scienti- fic data known is a furtdi'er-'example of the progressive methods by which Canada has been. endeavoring 'to sup- press the venereal disease menace. Yukon's Healthful 'Climate The climate of the Yukon Territory, Canada, is characterized by extremes in. temperature and a very moderate "precipitation; There is no more de lightful climate than that -which pre- vails from May 1 to October 1. The continuous light ;for the whole twenty- four lours,during the period from the. middle of May to the first week in August, although anticipated, • is a source of delight and wonder to the visitor. , While the winters are long and cold, on account of the absence of high• winds and thedryness of the atmosphere, the low temperatures are borne with less discomfort than in other parte not so favored. • Canadian Rockies The Canadian Rocky mountains consist geologically of the upturned edges oY the strata underlying the Central Plain of North' America, "Nurse:' "He mines to .be wander- ing in his mind.' Patient's 'Wife: "Oh, well, he .can't stray far!" "What do the three balls • in front of a Palau 'shop mean?"' "Two to one you won't get it back." 4 "ADAMSON'S ADVENTURES" ---By O. Jacobson. r y,• •ten,. _ �- �- i Removing An Obstacle. The Electric Rat Electrical rat racing for terrier dogs is London't newest sport, and it is to be started at the Stadium Club, High Holborn, shortly. , The following letter, sera to mem- bers by Mr- Fred Howard;i managing director of the club, explains how the sport is to be carried on: "This is a preliminary notice of saiy new and very • interesting feature of the club's activities which will be in- troduced to members in February, "1-lavir4 remit to 1`111 u*irlesn ^�i interest eirincea� rn greyhound r dein the management have perfected ar i rangem'ents for providing terrier dog - racing in the club itself. "Tjzo dogs will race after an elecx trically controlled rat on a track which will, bo removable and will, therefore, not interfere in any way with the normal business of the club. "There will be three days' racing each week, and iiix nacos on each even- ing, with first and second prises for the owners of the dogs placedin that order.` "A British electrical Pari -M 'will be used in conjunction with ;. races, this being the first machine of its hind to be seen in Europe." !The master of the house was hun- gry at breakfast, and swallowed a good part of his bacon before ho had lasted, it, 'i,hen lie took time to pro - Violently to his wife against the flavor of the foots, Ilio wife offered ito a'liology, but rang for .the maid. When the latter appeared, the mis- tress massed a question that was little caloulatcd` to Boothe her husband, ."Maggier' she inquired, set7enely, 'what did you do with the bacon we poisotted for the 'rata?"