FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 319, 2 April 1928, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By

“THE LOOK-OUT MAN.”

I U N SINK A BLE WAR s HIP S ! Germany’s new 10,000 ton cruiser is ; declared to be unsinkable. All we , require now is airships that cannot fall, shells that cannot explode, and guns that cannot lire to make war a perfectly safe business. ALL FOOLS’ DAY “All Fools’ Day” this year falling on a Sunday, there were far fewer attempts than usual to make the other fellow look foolish. Sunday is not a day on which the spirit of prank can be given full liberty. Many people yesterday smiled knowingly when they were excitedly informed there was a big fire in town; but the huge smokeclouds that gathered over Freeman’s Bay soon demonstrated the genuineness of the alarm. The First of April was once greatly availed of for fooling; of late years comparatively few i folk regard it in any way out of the ! ordinary. We are becoming a staid | people. j A POPULAR GOVERNOR I Never was there a more popular Governor-General of South Africa than j the Earl of Athlone, and there is said ; to have been much rejoicing there at the news that the Athlones were to stay on for another year. Following this announcement it would not be surprising if Princess Mary Viscountess Lascelles realises one of her most cherished dreams, which is to visit South Africa. Princess Mary, as has already been remarked, is the least travelled of the younger members of the royal family, and it is more than likely that when her Royal Highness has succumbed to the glamour of the East, after her visit to Kgypt, she will include South Africa in her travel holidays at no very distant date, and certainly before Lord Athlone’s term of office expires. BEFORE THE MAST The story of the well-educated Christchurch man who is serving before the mast in the Aorangi may be of mild local interest, but there are thousands of well-educated young men in thousands of ships’ fo’c’stles. Indeed the examinations of the Board of Trade for masters' and officers’ certificates are now set to such a high standard that one needs to have a very good general education to pass them. And, it is as unfortunate as it is true, things have been so bad with the British Mercantile Marine since the shipping slump that thousands of certificated men are now serving before the mast. May they see better days; for apart from their qualifications, many of them rendered great service in the Navy during the war, service which has too easily been forgotten! GEO THEY INC W.l /,* Preliminary to teaching the Young Idea to shoot, the Young Idea is taught how glorious it is to shoot. In a “History of Great Britain and Ireland” used in British schools a London newspaper points out, more than a quarter of the letterpress is given up to wars and army organisation. English teachers are said to be objecting to this form of “instruction” as “knocking down with both hands what the League of Nations is working to set up.” Has it ever struck you, sir or madam, that the teachers have it in their hands to mould the world as they would, if they chose to exercise their power?

THE DUKE OF GLOUCESTER

Prince Henry is now a peer of England, Ireland and Scotland, having been made Duke of Gloucester, Earl of Ulster and Baron Culloden, and he will sit in the House of Lords in his own right. Undoubtedly the most historical title is that of Gloucester, a very ancient dukedom, and one. by the way, that has had both glorious and inglorious holders. Members of the Royal Family held the title mostly between 1355 and 1534, when it became extinct. A famous holder was “the good Duke Humphrey/’ who was wounded at Agincourt and who gave Oxford its first library; and there was the infamous Richard the Third, -who came to the throne by cowardly murder; another, Thomas, the seventh and youngest son of Edward the Third, who was enticed away from his palace by his nephew, Richard the Second, and by his orders murdered by smothering at Calais. The body of this duke was later brought with great pomp to England and buried at Westminster. One of the holders of the Earldom of Ulster was the Duke of Edinburgh, son of Queen Victoria, who one time visited New Zealand: and the Duke of Cambridge, heir to the Throne, held the title of Baron Oulloderu which became extinct at his death. Prince Henry will be known as the Duke of Gloucester.