RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 83, 2 January 1935, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on, Current Events

(By

Kickshaws.)

Whisky, declares an explorer, is an excellent antidote to snake bite. This effort to popularise the jungle is most deplorable.

According to one expert the worldmust find some way of preventing its money going East in the coming year. The previous year, one recalls, was spent preventing it going West.

This is the time of the year, says a writer, for jolly party games. Yes, those elections arc not so very far away now.

Regarding eight-letter words with 'only one vowel the following throws light on the matter: —“If to count “y” a consonant is strictly too stretchy then phylareh and a scratchy, splotchy collection must be shrewdly and brightly excluded while spriugth and sprlghth are hardly admissable though both might go well with strength or with Yours truly. Schnapps.”

Several readers have written to ask for further particulars of the Pollock family, recently mentioned In these columns.- One reader in fact writes to say that this family has never produced anybody of standing. The simplest way is to give a brief outline of the family. David Pollock was strand saddler in Georgian days. Of his sons, David, the eldest, became Chief Justice of Bombay, the second, Sir Jonathan, graduated as Chief Baron of the Exchequer; George, the third son, died a Meld Marshal, a baronet and a G.C.B. In the next generation one Pollock became a Baron of Exchequer. Another. Sir William, was a senior Master of the Supreme Court. The third generation includes Sir Frederick Pollock, one of the greatest jurists in Europe. One must also include Walter Hefriee Pollock the lawyer and man of letters. In addition there are to-day no fewer than 19 notable Pollocks including eight clever lawyers, three clergymen, two soldiers, and four authors. The modest old saddler if he were to come alive to-day would surely be impressed with his descendants.

The thieves who have stolen the tips off the lightning rods of the Washington monument, some 555 feet above the ground, set no particular standard for unique thefts. In fact it is far easier to steal the platinum tips of a lightning rod, one would think, than to steal a whole orchard, trees and all. Yet the last-named has occurred before now. The unfortunate owner, an American farmer in Utah,-never recovered his stolen fruit trees. This theft indeed is as neat a one as the enterprising burglar who stole a potato field. Admittedly he left the field and the tops of the potato plants in place but he carefully removed every “spud.” One garage proprietor who had had his premises broken into on several occasions installed a special '’syren alarm that could be heard for five miles. Thieves thereupon stole the syren. Perhaps the most surprising theft of all occurred in France where some mechanically-minded burglar stole 100 tanks. Not the water sort but the vehicle type. Just what a civilian wanted with 100 tanks has never been revealed.

Some thieves, of course, make a specialty of’ a certain line of goods. The tips of lightning rods may be one special line, but a far more popular line is Adams mantelpieces. Since 1929 the “Adam Gang” have actually stolen 30 Adam Mantelpieces. The remarkable fact is that not one has been recovered. Another ’ special . line is wrought iron gates. These are removed intact, lock, bolts and hinges. Three pairs of these gates were reported to have been stolen in England in as many days. When skill and audacity are combined with such artistic discrimination, the ’next objective of criminals with aesthetic tastes is a matter of some little concern. It would be somewhat sensational to wake up and find a city church had been stolen or a War Memorial. It may seem impossible for such a thing to happen. Yet only recently a man was arrested in France for stealing no less than six miles of railway track, and another man in Russia stole a railway locomotive.

The million or two involved in insurance in the case of L’Atlantique is not sufficiently large to make much difference. Naturally, a sum of this nature means a serious loss to the underwriters. Yet only the sinking of the world’s Atlantic fleets, or some disaster on an unprecedented scale, could cause alarm and dismay among the insurance companies. A major porition of the two million or so involved in the loss of L’Atlantique will fall on Llyod’s. In a comparatively brief period of a few years or so, this company has paid out a million for the loss of M.S. Bermuda, and nearly a million for the Bremen. The loss of the Paris and the Georges Philippar added a further two million, all within the space of a few years. Today there can never be any serious question of ability to pay. There have, however, been times when it was a matter of touch and go whether tne insurance companies could stand the strain. But for State insurances during the war, few shipping insurance companies would have survived that period.

The last war was not the first time that disaster appeared to face maritime insurance companies. The first bad knock came with tile Napoleonic wars. In those days Britain possessed a merchant fleet without peer among the nations. AU those ships were insured in England, usually at -Lloyd’s. When war broke out between France and England, each ship was a rich prize, not only for the French, but for every privateer that sailed the high seas. Some idea of what happened may be had from the fact that on one occasion 63 merchantmen- sailed out of the Port of London. Only eight escaped capture in the channel. When the Dutch became involved, further shipping disasters occurred. The virtual result of the Napoleonic wars, so far as maritime insurance companies were concerned, was that they were faced with the fact that they had to find the money to rebuild almost the enl/.'e British fleet of merchantmen. A few years later American ships were included in the loss. Moreover, the Emperor Paul seized all British ships in Russian ports. It never rains but it pours. •

“Would it be too much trouble to ask any of your readers to put into French the following: ‘She was a good eook as good cooks go, and. as good cooks go, she went,’ ” asks “Hamurana.” “If I can get this information, it will settle a long and hostile argument. The season’s greetings to you.”