OBITER DICTA.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19268, 24 March 1928, Page 14

OBITER DICTA.

[By K.] Like everybody else I have wanted to know who this Amanullah is whose holiday in England has been the subject of long cable messages every day this week. All I can find out is this, in a " Spectator" article: " King Amanullah is not the Amir who remained loyal to Britain during the war in spite of all the hues of Turkey and Germany, for Habibullah was murdered in 1939. The present King succeeded Habibullah by a coup d'etat." He did not go straight to England. He went to India first, and delivered a sermon in a mosque, and then he passed through Italy and Germany. After leaving England ho will go to Russia. His purpose is to discover the Power which it will be best

for him to make friends with, and I cannot help thinking that Britain has chosen the right way. He lias seen great airplane displays, and was much impressed by the skill of the bombers. He was taken for a cruise in a submarine, and while Queen Souriva gasped and fluttered to see him sink beneath the waves, he was allowed to fire two torpedoes and was presented with the monthly medal for doing it in bogey. Later he was given a good place on Salisbury Plain while droves of tanks and armoured cars rushed past him. It can be assumed that when he gets home again and thinks it all over he will resolve that the very safest thing he can do is to enter the British Commonwealth of Nations, like Samoa. ,

That there is a British Commonwealth is no longer quite so far beyond question as the truths of Euclid, which are the truest things there are. This, at any rate, is the natural conclusion to be drawn from the ferocity with which English and Scottish and New Zealand correspondents have been attacking each other in the local papers. The Irish and the Welsh, kept out of the discussion, but. this was not because they could not have added some boiling oil to the waters had they chosen to do so. Especially the Welsh. Even the most rancorous Sinn Feiner could not surpass the best efforts of Wales. Now I believe in being helpful, like " Second Golfer " in,the letterpress under a picture in " Punch ": —

First Golfer: 1 I**+l ?I* # . Second Golfer (prompting): 1[? * * •jjJ i * t . First" Golfer: Thanks! ![?***!? It*.

So also, by way of providing these contending subjects of his Majesty with material for further brickbats, I quote some of the old Welsh "triads":

"Three things will penetrate to the ends of the earth—sunlight, the praise of a fine fellow, ■ and an Englishman's boasting." "Three things the farther they are the better —mad dogs, God's curse, and an Englishman." "Three things difficult to get—gold from a miser, love from the devil, and courtesy from an Englishman." "Three things necessary in a song for, the devil—the dying squeal of a sow, a cursing priest, and English." "Three things my heart loves to see —honey on my bread, the face of the girl I love, ancl a halter round an Englishman's neck."

These triads, which can be adapted to 'taste, ought to .fill a want long felt by ■Englishmen, Scotsmen, and New Zealanders.

Science, however, goes on regardless of the cursings of human beings, as a Washington cable message has made clear. Prom Pasadena, it seems, comes the news that Professor Millikan, of California, has published a paper upon some experiments he made, which tend to show that " the process of

creation is now going on n, t I '' U»t the Earth* Wmtol, i, , to „i toM ,T k »«l» a and evolving one" A* « Professor Million, people might not „ pon J tlon further cnqL 0 "^ us not to accept lii s n l qmry ':**n>, a fact "until proved by The warning i s vise 1,,?! ' ,<s^ be heeded by the op\i^ ts J [ake it as proved that * erc t0 and that fuwl ** liave endless time for 2 868 ments. The N.Z. Alli»ll * Xp ® i * Liberal Party willCS* pleased than anybody bo« f«ss„r MiIKW. taife are actually sound there ST these people to turn tho Dom.V -7 a land flowing with cocoa Alto# i dXtn 1 "* s«bslan CM , I « h „ u | d lih l»vc » nm for tl»i, Without wishing to distune ». lessor Millikan's mic rajs, I say Science should o practical problems. Tho heal scientist on Canterbury College proW studied the metatarsal the lesser well-shrimp effect that he upset a cipal loan poll. ScienUsts however, discover only ■mWW* that " ether is the substantiiw M and matter a milky, phenomenon"—a sort Science's dream, as it and I nothing more than spots wZ how to harness their day we shall learn that.iJM* ent methods of producing heat will shrink into. compared with tho vast «.rg, stem] i„ ter. . . The amount of tW« u be found out in tho tJmvetWft mLU i mously greater than weMiSJhSrti ' yet. We li\>e in a most i tenous Universe. It is I to discover these secrets ahri to'sS < them for tho benefit of ' •. . -V ,<(ifv jj'j • j But when you ask Science ! how to abolish the j Science goes deaf. 1 ■*£ i I 1 1 £ I With the cosmeas and .tM ' eatly chrysanthemums comes golf., "Jigger" mentioned yesttodaytolithi players, of (or at) Uia "ats," they tell me, ut\ more numerous ' thftn, ■ (K& i'« ») have enormously on all tho courses, crowds of oompe^tersj| them will need some them will not ,know doing. "Rubbish,", "it is perfectly back, straight left walk to the' buqkej? Admiral Collard Royal Oak." that; the it. I had ' the psycho^teWHl6tiilA > bl& ft is from a Golf," by Certain G.H.Q. L i brain issue ated by executive bmcW the "men," or* - work. Where the ron come into other—a junction like* a switch making tMonwJttjW electric circuit—there; ance. And nervous- thfiMW|4fi® low the line of least v; this reason, etc. , r If the placers on the to-day will remind j when addressing the-ball| t astonished at their scorMr