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Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16796, 30 March 1920, Page 6

A curious story told bv the Rotterdam correspondent of "The Times" is referred to in our cable news to-day. In a village in the Caucasus, near Batoum, he says, there have been found descendants of Scotch people who came to Trehizond in the fifteenth century — which is to say, shortly after Tamerlane's death. These people are described as blue-eyed and red-haired, wearing kilts and sporrans, playing bagpipes, and speaking "a mixture of Gaelic. Georgian, and Tartar." Tho Scots are a tough race, but although' the correspondent of "The Times" offers to escort ethnologists to the village, thus pledging himself to the authenticity of the story, we are doubtful whether even the Scot could survive, bagpipes and red hair and all, through all tho centuries sinco the time of Tamerlane. l The-story looks very like an adaptation of Kipling's story of Namgay Doola—the story of a lonely native hill-village in India, in which the visitor heard a strange native song sung to the tune of "The Wearin' of the Green." Some long-dead Doolan, it appeared, had once sojourned there. What makes the Caucasus story incredible is the fact that if Scots of so ondtiring a sort had gone to investigate the realms of Tamerlane, Europe and Asia would have become a Scottish Empire three centuries ago.

The Canterbury College Board of Governors acted wisely yesterday in accepting a proposal that there should be a conference between the Board and the Professorial Board to consider what further means can be adopted for securing greater efficiency in the carrying on of higher education in Canterbury. Tt has sometimes appeared as if the Professors and the Governors have suspected each other of occupying, or wishing to occupy, ground not properly their own. The Professors, in particular, have seemed to feel that their rightful authority has .been unduly curtailed. The real efficiency of the College, depends, in the end, upon the Professors more than upon anyone else, and the best results cannot be expected if Professorial opinion is not allow-; ed its due weight in the internal affairs of the College. The decision to hold a conference is f. welcome sign that the Board of Governors realises this.