TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Waikato Times, Volume 119, Issue 19896, 27 May 1936, Page 8

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Glory Departed Alas! for Constantinople. The glory is departed, writes the correspondent‘ of a London journal. If you dream of a famous city of colour, of beauty, of wickedness, 11nd of romance, I beg you to disnlmse your mind of Such ideas. Of the wickedness I can say nothing. But of colour and romance it would seem that modern ideas have been their enemies.

Nothing can alter the beauty of her mosques. nothing can spoil the marvellous Situation of this famous city. But in giving up the national dress. the picturesque headgear of the men, and the veils of the women, Turkey has lost in charm. No one need write to point out that modern ideas and customs are worth more than the picturesque. I van only say that I mourn to see Turkish girls in berets or school cups with badges, and men in Cheap European clothes.

Istanbul is memorable in the minds of those who see it for the first time and recover from the shock of the European clothes, for those mosques like the blue mosque, the mellow old mosque of the mosaics, the other Where a pigeon fluttered high above our heads in dim light, for its old walls, from which a wonderful View is obtained. But the vrowdnd, once famous baznars have lost their chm-m—----wliorv (lurk young men in \\'hitechupol clothes offer bargains as you pace the cobbled floors, and sill; stockings, high-heeled shoes, and the oddmonts one secs in the sixpenuy stores of other lands are dis—played in proximity to brass, to emln'oiderics, and to carpets.

Collerliz'e Gossip and Security “There is n great deal to be said for and about collective security, but (“011001in gossip about security, even that superior gossip which might _L;u by the name of good conversation, is apt unless it is hvhl in chm‘k tn her-nine a. little morbid. The fact is that during the past tun years \\'o. have not always, served the cause of Pvill’l‘ inn “1‘” hy brooding uvcr it. Many a man has talked the night away in nu :ijziiuliun ni‘ poziw- um] brotherhood when he would hm'i- boon hotter omplnyi‘d talking the dog for :1 walk and going early to lwd with :l light hook.

“I".vvn now we might do worse than to loam peace to the angels 11nd to enjoy what. we have of it. And oddly enough, that is an 11>p(‘('l nf national defence. If this muntry has ever again to fight in defence of agreements to which it is committed it will come tn the ordeal the hatter prepared in proportion to the refusal of ihe community to ngunise m'r‘r the emm‘gnncy in advance. Thom is no ownping roarinnnwnt. but for all but the expert: the 195:. said abuub it the: beller."—Ulusguw Herald. ‘