NAMES AND PLACES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 38, 15 March 1940, Page 2

NAMES AND PLACES

A Gift for Goering The story of a rabbit is being told in the Royal Air Force messes in France. This rabbit, which would cost 1/6d in England (and much less in New Zealand), was killed by bombs from a German Heinkel ’plane which raided the Shetland Islands. The cost of that raid, in "planes. and ammunition, has been assessed at £100,000. The rabbit was the only casualty, so it was returned to Field-Marshal Goering. An R.A.F. *plane was about to leave on a reconnaissance flight over Germany. The rabbit was put in the cockpit, with a message of regret tied to the tail. "We regret that after the most magnificently organised shoot in history, the bag should be so small,’ ran the message. " The tabbits round Shetland way are very much on the alert this year." When the "plane flew over German territory, the rabbit was dropped overboard addressed to Field-Marshal Goering, Chief of the Nazi Air Force and Grand Master of the Chase. ' Egypt's Climate Egypt’s climate is considered to be one of the healthiest in the world. It is easy to understand why the ancient Egyptians worshipped Ra, their sun-god, for the general health and great bodily strength of the people of Egypt is attributed to the long hours of sunlight and the warmth they enjoy. Oddly enough, messages from the New Zealanders now in Egypt state that heavy rain has fallen. Apparently the weather there is as unseasonable as it is in New Zealand this year. The coldest time of the Egyptian year is the latter end of January, when the temperature closely re-

sembles that of our own at the end of March, It is seldom hot at night, even in summer, and is coldest just before the dawn, as many New Zealanders who camped on the desert during the last war will remember. So dry is the air in winter that dew is rarely seen, even when the thermometer falls to freezing point; rain, condensed in the upper air, is often dissipated in mist before it can reach the ground. The extreme dryness of the Egyptian atmosphere makes the cold more keenly felt than in Europe. Along the Mediterranean coast rain falls much more frequently than it

does round Cairo, but Egypt’s rainfall is very small. The Romans, in 30 B.C., made famous the climate of Egypt, for they found that the dry winter climate helped those suffering from many ailments, In later years the peculiar qualities of the desert air have been found to benefit people of a neurotic or mentally depressed disposition. Through the centuries, European peoples have flocked to Egypt during the winter months. The Turkish-Soviet Border If trouble should break on the Turk-ish-Soviet border, where Turkey already has an army mobilised, Iran may be involved. The Soviet frontier, between

the Black and Caspian Seas, is faced by both Turkey and Iran (formerly Persia), with Armenia and Georgia just over the Soviet border. Rome has already announced that Reza Shah Pahlavi, ruler of Iran, has mobilised 70,000 of his crack troops on this border because of fears that a break there might involve a foreign force trying to get to the Persian Gulf and the rich oilfields of Persia. Reza Shah is determined to uphold the independence which gives additional prestige to the £10,000,000 Peacock Throne of the Imperial Palace in Teheran, capital of Iran. He has shaken off all foreign influence, and Britain now pays heavily for her oil concessions in his territory. With much

of this money the Shah has increased his army and air force, the latter consisting mainly of 100 German war *planes. Now he is trying to put arterial roads through his vast empire of mountains and desert. He has already built a macadam road from his palace in Teheran to his summer resort on the Caspian Sea. Reza Shah’s most ambitious plan is to build a strategic railway from the Caspian Sea coast to the Persian Gulf, a distance of 865 miles, at an estimated cost of £32,000,000. By this means he would be able to transport troops quickly to attack the Russians on his northern frontier and employ them to prevent

invasion from the Persian Gulf, Mountains rising to over 18,000ft. lie between Teheran and the Caspian, and another chain, high and heavily wooded, protects the Soviet frontier. The Caspian Sea is the world’s largest sheet of inland water, outlet for many great rivers but without an outlet to any ocean. Iran occupies a large part of the coastline. Economist's Career Sir George Paish, who spoke at Dover recently on the Five fronts — naval, military, economic, diplomatic, and fin-ancial-has published many books on economics and on railways. He is Governor of the London School of Economics and Adviser to the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the British Treasury on financial and economic questionsa position he held early in the last war. In November, 1914, Sir George was a member of the official British Mission to the American Government, and until 1916 he was joint editor of the " Statist." Included among his publications are "The Way Out," written in 1937; "The Way to Recovery," "World Economic Suicide," "The Way to Prosperity," "A Permanent League of Nations," and several others dealing with the British and American railways. He has made several trips to parts of the British Empire. Doctor’s Hobbies Colonel A. C. McKillop, who has been selected to command the Ist New Zealand Qverseas Base Hospital, is well known in both Christchurch and Dunedin. He served in the last war in Samoa, Egypt and France, and has since been closely associated with the Territorial Forces. Colonel McKillop is an ardent gardener, and has _ produced several new yarieties of gladioli. He is an expert in cross-pollinisation, and’ has written many interesting articles on gardening. Colonel McKillop is also a doglover and a pigeon fancier. New Zealanders on the Air New Zealanders in camp in England have been providing radio concerts, Some idea of their success can be gathered from the following report by a critic in one of the London dailies: "What a grand show the New Zealanders put up. If they can fight as well as they can play and sing, something will have to move when they get going, Didn’t you like the compére, with his aleasant, confident manner, and his rather saucy remarks. And what about Gunner Vaughan? I should place him in the star class as a pianist, with Arthur and his ‘squeeze-box’ and Gunner Kennedy, the tenor, as runners-up. Did you notice how English the voices were? New Zealand, of course, is reckoned to be more English than any other part of the Empire. Well, thank you, New Zealanders, for a jolly good show." Gunner Terence Vaughan, formerly of Christchurch, has been studying at the Roval College of Music for some vears. While attending Canterbury College, he staged the annual extravaganza, writing the music and lyrics, and arranging the dances. P