The Brecon County Times Neath Gazette and General Advertiser for the Counties of Brecon Carmarthen Radnor Monmouth Glamorgan Cardigan Montgomery Hereford

TOPICS OF THE HOUR. Those who cannot bring then-selves to believe that the children of Kings and Queens are very similar to those of other people will be interested in the following story, the 'truth of which is vouched for by A correspondent. The Royal party was sight-seeing some years ago in Scotland, and on the battlements of a certain castle Princess Mary was deputed by the Queen to curb the ardour of little Prince John for climbing into dangerous places. She was perhaps over-officious in her charge; at any rate, she appeared so to the child, who was overheard to say: Oh, shut up, Mary; you fuss as much as mother." It was remarked at the time of the I Prince's christening that this was the first 1 occasion since the days of John Lackland ( that a King of England had bestowed the I nam.e of John on one of his sons, and the hope was expressed that the bad luck sup- posed to be attaching to the name would be dissipated. It is unfortunate, says the Daily News, that this hope has not been j realised. I General satisfaction will be felt at Mr. I Prothero's retention of the office of Pre- sident of the Board of Agriculture, re- i marks the Estates Gazette. He had himself J announced his retirement, but better counsels have prevailed, and we trust that I as Lord Ernie he will have fewer diffi- culties to contend with than he had as Mr. Prothero. If the Government plan for the strengthening of the Board is carried out it will undoubtedly be able t-o render much greater service to the land than has hitherto been possible, especially in face of the divided control set up during the war. A Minister who has faced the problem of extracting a maximum of servico from the network of railways, roads, and canals in this and other countries, may be allowed, ¡ says the Observer, to speak with some I authority on co-ordination. No other word 1 has quite the san-e amount of virtue 11" re- lation to the times :0re us. ar2. as Sir Erie Geddes says, very critical," and 'f crisis could become catastrophe, it I would be through every interest seramb- ling for its own goal in reliance on its own exertions and in disregard of the common I. good. Mutual help, mutual tolerance, mutual effort "—those are tiif? watchwords which alone can make the transformation from war to peace r." d from old to new tranquil in the passing and fruitful in the result. s The state of k.wsia is a vivid Illustration of the outcome of instigating' one class to pursue its ow.i ends in a ruthless spirit, of self-absorption. But no section of the community is exempt from similar temp- tations, and i- is not always Labour which < is defic-^ 1: the right kind of social < idealism. The new L -ge of Commons will be ari extremely interesting study, says the I Times. No or than 2&0 of its members f served in tl — war, and virtually every f other Britk'; member has been returned on the bcit o all war records. All ranks in the Army re represented, from general to sergeant. At one end of the -cg,3e stands n. al Sir Archibald Hunter (Lancaster); at the other Sergeant Tre- ( velyai> Thon on (Middlesbrough). Expert military knowledge of a special kind can j be supplied by Brigadier-General G. K. Cocker ill (Reigate), who recently issued a striking1 report on methods of detecting espionage, by Major-General Sir J. H. Davidson (Fareham), Sir Douglas Haig's Director of Operations, and by Lieut.- GcneTal Sir Aylmer Hunter-Weston (Bute), the distinguished corps commander. The new House will be rich in decora- tions. There arc scores of D.S.O.'s and M.C.'s-in the list, and one Victoria Cross. The supreme award for valour was con- ferred on Lieut.-Commander P. Dean (Blackburn) for gall-ant work in the Zee- brugge raid. He will be welcomed to St. Stephen's by two old members who had a liaud in that business, Commander Hamil- ton Benn (Greenwich) and Lieut.-Com- piander Hilton Young (Norwich), who lost an arm in the attack on the inole. Other Parliamentary recruits frdmthe Navy are Viscount Curzon (Battersea), who took the cinematograph film of ihc surrerder of the German fleet, and Commander Douglas King (Norfolk), who after much fighting wa-s placed in charge of the North Atlantic section of the convoy system. An officer with H.M.S. Temeraire in the Black Sea sends to the Observer an inter- esting correction to a paragraph which ap- peared several weeks ago, recording the recovery from the sea of a diary supposed to be the only relic of the Vanguard, which was blown up in Scapa Flow with a loss of 800 lives. "I should like to add," says the correspondent, that at the time of the disaster the Vanguard held the cup for the regatta of her squadron. Some time later the plinth was found on the beach and sent to the proper authorities. It is only slightly battered. It was won by H.M.S. Temeraire after an exciting1 two days' regatta last August." Most interesting is the evolution of the great spruce, which grows in the forests of British Columbia, to the finished aero- planes plunging through the clouds, the very quintessence of swiftness and grace. The full grown tree is from 150 to 200 feet high and from 5 to 15 feet in diameter. Although the trees rise to a great height and are of huge girth they taper almost imperceptibly. Therein lies their value for the peculiar, varied, and exacting de- mands of aeroplane construction, For the wing beams of the aeroplane straight lengths of timber from 16 feet to 35 feet long are required, and tins tree, witn so little taper to make the grain run cross- ways, supplies the very best of wing beams. It is also very tough and very light, two very important factors in aeroplane timber. "ubic foot of the wood weic-ho 25 lbs. r — —^ f- Only about 20 per cent. of the whole log is cut up, but the timber realises the enor- mous price of £ 25 a thousand board feet, although as recently as a year ago it sold for ordinary commercial purposes for about 92. Only about 350 out of every 2,500, it is said, pass the final tests at the aeroplane factories. About 125 feet are used in making the average machine.