TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14832, 25 November 1913, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The choosing of cerePresents monial presents for

for savage or Oriental Potentates, potentates must cause

tbe King and the Government some worry. Tho "Spectator" says that what most pleased a Sultan of Morocco amopg his playthings from Europe was a perpetually perspiring Polar bear, and that a paramount chief in South Africa, when asked what he would value best as a token of the Government's appreciation of his loyalty, replied, "An admiral's uniform, and two streets two hundred yards long and a hundred yards apart, lit by electric light. Tike those at Johannesburg." It is an astonishing combination until one reflects how pleased the chief would have been at walking up and down those lit streets in an admiral's uniform. King George and Queen Mary recently received from the Dalai Lama of Tibet some valuable presents, including a Tibetan suit of armour and sword, saddle, and the dress of a Tibetan lady. The King and the Queen have chosen as a present to be sent in return, a large collection of things, some very beautiful, and all valuable. They include an embossed scimitar with a gold-wire sword-knot, a pair of sporting guns inlaid with gold, a modern English saddle, a writing case, a telescope, a set of the "EDcyclopoedia Britannica," and a teak-wood case containing some gold vessels, portraits of their Majesties, and a sequence of English coinage. An English lady's dress was not 6ent, but instead, rolls of fine table linen and Scottish tweed. A hobble skirt would havo puzzled the official world at Lhassa. A carriage and three horses are to be sent from India, but what the carriage will be like when it arrives at the capital probably no one would care to say. The "Spectator"- thinks the gifts have been chosen excellently and comprehensively, "with a view to avoiding all the possible chances of not giving pleasure." Certainly something in that collection ought to hit tho Dalai Lama's taste. It may evoa be the "Encyclop_dia Britannica."

The calming effect of "oil Oil on troubled waters" has on the long been known; it is, in Waters, fact, proverbial. A recent

instance of its use at sea was when at the burning of the Volturno, the timely arrival on the scene of the oil-tanker Narragansett enabled lifeboats to be launched on angry waters. Sir Ray Lankester, writing in the "Daily Telegraph," traces the history of the use of oil for the purpose of smoothing a breaking sea. Benjamin Franklin, he tells us, was the first" man of note to draw attention to the matter in modern times. In 1757 he was at sea in a small fleet, and noted the effect on the waves of the oily "cook's waste," which poured from one of the ships. A Dutch Commission, appointed in 18-14, did not do much towards solving the problem. After "pouring a few gallons of oil into the storm-tossed Northern Sea" without much result, it put the whole thing down to the imagination of previous observers. 1883 the American Board of Admiralty collected evidence on the subject, and forty or fifty _hips' captains testified to the instant effect of the pouring of a pint or two of oil on great breakers driven over the stern by a following wind. Two years later one Captain Kenneth Doyle said that he found one gallon of oil an hour enough to calm the breakers when he had to lie to in a breakingsea. A memorandum circulated by the Admiralty in 1888 confirmed these statements, and proceeded to indicate the best kinds of oil to use, the heavy viscous sorts being the most valuable. Sir Ray Lankester, in his article, blames the British. Government for its

indifference in allowing great liners owned by British companies, as well as emigrant ships like the Volturuo. sailing under the British flag, to embark without a supply of oil for this purpose. "The case in regard to the absoluto neglect of duty on the part of British officials and responsible Ministers is worse than that which caused the terrible disaster of the Titanic." The "Shipping Gazette," on the other hand, attacks Sir Ray Lankester for what it terms his "hysterics," pointing to the difficulties in the way of ordinary vessels carrying such supplies, and the increasing number of oil-tankers, most of them fitted with wireless, which are sailing the seas, ready to come to tho aid of endangered vessels. The accepted explanation of tho effect of oil on the water is that the thin film which is formed prevents the formation of those smaller secondary waves which, increasing in size by a cumulative process, are worked up into "breaking crests."