The Guardian AND EVENING STAR, With which is incorporated “ The West Coast Times.” SATURDAY, JULY 23rd., 1921. THE WEEK.

Hokitika Guardian, 23 July 1921, Page 2

The Guardian AND EVENING STAR, With which is incorporated “ The West Coast Times.” SATURDAY, JULY 23rd., 1921. THE WEEK.

Tub past week has been a very stormy oiiV, and exceptional weather on Sunday and Monday caused an interruption of the overland traffic on Tuesday be-

sides, doing damage to a greater or less

extent in various parts of the district. The hold-up on the overland route, caused by a heavy slip near the top of Otira Gorge, served to illustrate once again the necessity for the completion of tho Arthur’s Pass tunnel as speedily as possible, so as to enable traffic to pass through uninterruptedly, instead of being delayed as was the case this week by flood damage As it was the 1 utility of the tunnel was emphasised, be cause though incornpleted it was iltilisi P d for tho purpose of enabling passen- ; rrovp. who were unable to make their ' ivny by means of the con eh road, to

puss from East to West through iis portals. That the mails were unable to bo sent through by this means also at the same time, appears to bo a cause for regret, and it is to hoped that on any future occasion that the roadway is blocked that this means will he available for the speedy despatch of the mails. There is surely no reason why in the event of a similar emergency asexisted that the mails should not be sent through the tunnel, even though jt is not yet open for regular traffic. There 1 arc no practical difficulties in the way for men engaged in the work of construction are constantly passin through.

Tim Springboks have continued their tour through portion of the North Island and have played three matches of their tour, with the result that they lutve won two games and played a pointless draw. The visitors are meeting; the Wellington team today, and a better idea of the strength of the visiting combination will ho gathered from the result, as the Wellington team includes in its ranks a goodly proportion of the team selected to represent New Zealand in the first test against the visitors. Next Wednesday the West Coast is to have the honor of a visit from the South Africans and the game at Greymouth should prove a memorable one, and attract a very large attendance. At the other end of the world the Australian cricketers are comnencing the fourth test match against England, and though the “Ashes” have been retained the interest will still be well maintained in the hope that the successful combination will be enabled to continue their triumphant career which so far lias not had a loss played against them during their present tour.

As though the events of the last low years had pot given the world a surfeit of war and its following disasters the conflict between Greece and Turkey which has been ill progress for some months lias again broken out into open flame and the two nations are testing their strength against each other by the force of arms. The peace twenty signed by Turkey after the Great War, known as the Treaty of Sevres, confirmed Greece in her occupation of Thrace, formerly part of Turkey in Europe, which she had just conquered by force of arms. It also gfrafuted Greece a mandatory sphere in the wide area around the city of Smyrna, in Asia Minor. Unfortunately for Greek territorial aspiration the Turkish Government which signed the Treaty of Sevres did not represent all Turkey. The Nationalists, led bv Kemal Pasha, with a strong army in the field held firm views concerning the undesirability of allowing Greece to obtain a footing in Asia Minor, and they gave Greece a warning that she. would have to fight for what the Allies had given .her With the return of Constantine to the Greek throne the fight began hut in the meantime the Allies had undertaken the revision of the Treaty of Sevres. There were conferences at which ’both of the Turkbdi parties and the most important of the Allies were represented, and an arrangement was tentatively arrived at whereunder the terms of the Treaty of Sevres were greatly modified. Tn particular it was proposed that tho vilayet of Smyrna should remain under Turkish sovereign tv. but that a Greek garrison should be maintained in the town. The Greeks rejected the proposed modifications in to to, while the Turks accepted everything save the quartering of a Greek garrison in Smyrna.

StNCK then there has been a good deal of international intriguing during the negotiations, and both France ' and Italy signed secret treaties with the l Turkish Nationalsts, in which in exchange’ ■ for valuable’ commercial concessions France agreed to cease hostilities against the Turk in Syria, and Italy promised to support the Turkish demand for the" restitution of Thracand Smyrna, Kemal Pasha had previously made a Treaty with tlie Bolshevik Government at .Moscow, but after taking on with his new friends, France and Italy he has given it to be nnder-st-ood that he is off with the old friend Russia. As the position stands at present. Greece single-handed, is. attempting to enforce by arms the rights granted to her by tlie Treaty of Sevres, which still stands. So far as can

bo judged by steering a middle (our.-v between the undoubtedly mendacious claims of both sides in their official communique, Greece is finding the enmpaiign 'a, difficult one. She has been in arms since 1919 with but short respites, and the nation is said to be getting heartily tired of warfare. Th ( > cynioff of initernatiomift ptoliticjs say she should have forestalled Russia. France and Italy by making a pact of her own with Kemal Pasha, 's matters stand she has few friends in Europe. The retulrn of Constantine all minted Britain; France and Italy arc, now pledged to the enemies of Greece, and the Balkan Slates, new and old, arc in too precarious a condition themselves to weigh much either as friends or enemies. Greece ought to he able to town to the Supreme Council, whose Treaty she i seeking to enforce, pr to the League of Nn..

tions, formed to eliminate H'-' necessity for warfare, but neither of these . s tribunals appear to be anxious to in- j terViene. It may be that, eventually the influence of KeinaPs new friends ; will he used to stop the conflict, but that is hardly the way things were c*k- , peqtecl to go in the new world so hopefully mapped out at Versailles. \ scientific correspondent writing to a London paper recently stated the new electric force discovered by the Danish engineers Jolmsen and Knud, is just a milestone in the new road which is being traversed by science today. The war forced every country concerned to concentrate its scientific energies on discoverng news ways and means of providing raw materials and fighting appliances. The great impetus has borne fruit, and to-day the services of the chemist, the physicist and the engineer are fully recognised, and with every laboratory agog with experimental work we shall see the progress during the next few years made at a. rate never known before in the history of the world. Some of the unsolved problems on which the best brains of the world are now at work include; Secrets of the uppyr Atmosphere; Evdryday wireless telephony ; Flying straight up (helicopter) ; the cause and cure of cancer anil other malignant diseases; the world’s fuel and power supply; Structure of the atom; Television—seeing over the telegraph wire; the mystery of sunspots. The great wireless problem, on the verge of solution, is that of really practical telephony, where the household or office telephone can be directly connected to the wireless station, and by the two systems we shall lie able to talk to anyone, whether at sea or abroad on land. The solution of this problem is Hearer than many of us realise, but it is entailing a | vast amount of research work nm’

hundreds of men are engaged on it. We are on the verge of finding out many of the most intimate secrets of nature. The wonder microscope gives its a liew power—photographing with the ultra violet-rays through modern microscopic apparatus caii reveal such structures as those of the minutest bacteria never sene before. The new X-ravs, oil the other hand, will penetrate and lay to view the minutest flaw in the heavy ease of a large shell. Work now going on with the X-rays is giving wonderful information abort the structure of matter—it has only rcecntlv shown that all substances are

composed of the mother substance i which hydrogen is .formed —negative ejeoflilomi “oemonted”. together by

charged of positive' electricity. This

means that the transmutation of one element into another may be found ultimately to be as feasible the old alrjcfhemisjts dreamed it hundreds of years ago. Fuel is one of the pressing questions of the day. Chemists are perking busily on the problem of extracting tb ( > sulphur from shale an ’ once done, this would give* us enormous supplies of shale oil for fuel purposes—oil which has been computed to be of more value than all the gold in the Rand. Fuel of every description is being sought, from the alcohol ob-

tained b.V distilling wod pulp to the

new motor oils recently extracted from flowers in India and to palm oil in Africa.