WITHOUT PREJUDIS

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 53, 26 November 1926, Page 10

WITHOUT PREJUDIS

NOTES AT RANDOM

(By

T.D.H.)

If it is true that the late M. Kraaa, the Bolshevik financial expert, hasdt a private fortune of £3,000,000, ae . would appear to have managed his rivate affairs with unusual skill. l?t ( people had an idea that under Gimunism if you had half-a-crown in your pocket you shared it with le next comrade, but apparently somof the experts in Russia manage to Ire private banking accounts. M. Krain was born in 1870 in Siberia, and cis not appear to have started life 'th any especial fortune. He was nisd up' in revolutionary plots while it ,i* student years, and returned from ae Technological Institute of St. Pcesburg to spend a year under policesxveillance in Siberia. His original vatence had been more severe, but hews able to secure a favourable review f it by the detested bourgeois Govrment.

By the time be was twenty-seveih: was' travelling abroad and runniugth< finances of the Russian Social Dnoeratie Party as Lenin’s organisiou was then called. He was arrested t a meeting of this organisation in oscow but cunningly secured his relse. In 1908 he was back in Geneva ruing th; finances of the Russian revohitioits, and then he secured employment inermany as an engineer. He rented there until 1918, when the ruler: of Germany, who had previously slped Lenin across into Russia in orcle to upset the Russian apple-cart, sent Kisin after him “in order in some moire to restrain the terrorist methodsand excessive revolutionary zeal.” of nin and his friends.

When M. Krassin arrived back :!ns native land he placed himself at thh’sposal of the new Bolshevik Goverpnt, and ran five huge Departments, ituding transport and food supply, a in managing them he did not liesita to employ terroristic methods. As assin became more and more pound, Trotsky, Zinovieff, Litvinoff, and iers became hostile to him, but Lenitiupported him with all his authority, a in Germany he had powerful support; m men like the late Hugo Stinncthe multi-millionaire trust king, and elix Deutsch. It was, therefore, to hssin that Lenin confided the negotiationvith the “Imperialist Governments,” andore particularly with the “greatest ene-.of all,” England. It might be inte.ting to learn how M. Krassin amass- the millions he is said to have left nnd him.

Llovds in London has just add to its collection of curios the oldesnarine insurance policy in existen It is that of the St. Hary, whe»n a vovage from Marseilles to Syria u-x . In those days the hazards of tlseas were plentiful. Even the moi frequented channels were barely tfted, and a pirate might appear on tlhonzon at any moment. Yet theruere insurance agents eager to assu tne risks. The first known marmpohcics, even though they wercaken out in England, were written Italian, and it is probable that It: was the instigator of the first msura*-. A Pisan ordinance of the early focentli century mentions marine insune as an established factor of businesife.

One of the first policies wrm in the Englisgh language conceruei certain Sancta Crux which sailed : seas in the sixteenth century. Noiecific dangers were mentioned, but : ship was to be insured against theiugcrs of a voyage “from any portef the Isles of Indea of Calicut un' Ltxborne.” The underwriters werontent to state simply: “We will thatns assurans shall be so strong and >od as the most ample writinge ( Of strans which is used to be maid in tl -trete of London or in the burse < Antwerp.” . . Yet another of these early nc historic policies refers to the Tier, that verv Tiger of which Sliakcspe.-e vrotc, in Macbeth: “Her husband’s to Aleppo /ie, master of the Tiger."

The astronomers have be telling us appalling things of late jts about the size of the universe, id now thej’ are planning to look 11 deeper into it. The American yspapers to hand report that Mount Ison Observatory, California, which eddy has the biggest telescope in theirld, has a project on hand . for one three times bigger. Th present giant has a great reflectingirror.loo inches in diameter, a littleer eight feet. It would serve well augh for a double bed, or, if its curure were but a little deeper, as a -al bathtub. The mirror of thpropoied larger one will be 300 inG across, just twenty-five feet.

The observers at Mount '.son will not be able to see any me through tills telescope than they cawitli the present ones —that is, witlseir own eyes. When lenses exceei certain moderate size the eye seeittle further detail through them, akes and quivers due to tlie air c>ur earth prevent it. But modern stronomy depends very little on the •„ Photographic plates and the ctroscope are its instruments. Thesepend on the light-gathering power oie instrument rto which they are nthed. The larger the opening of tluelescopic eye the more the plate t record. There are some very big piems involved in building the nerelescope, as everything must be exact a millimeter, and enormous weighmust be moved precisely so that thelescope follows the stars in their nons. It is not certain that all theroblems ran be solved, but Dr. F. Pease, who has the job in hand, Hopeful.

A fanner was told by his ctor to count sheep jumping over ance, in an effort to cure insomnia. ie next dav the farmer came back t<ie doctor's office and said: “It did work, doc. I counted enough Uay off tlie mortgage, and got so ma,ecause they were not real that I stayawake all night.”

Newly-married Young Afan:t only costs me half as much to livince I got married.” Hard-boiled Benedict: “Takeiother wife, and you will be livings nothing!” A GOOD REPORTER. Was Helen then so starry-eye Was Troy so ven’ tall?. And were the windy plains svide? Was there a Horse at all? Perhaps they told old Home. Things were of different size Perhaps a returning roamer Told tales for blinded eyes. But the blind man heard tbeirearnhig, So he raised his lyre and sai . And the topless towers were ning, And the plains with battle rar And Helen’s face went tailing ships, The voung died, and the hoar And Troy is down in dust andips —And liomer got the story, —Rollifl Kirby, is the “New Yer.”