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"THE GUARDIAN-

Pub ..hed every ivssk-day morning at 13C Prince street. Chat lnttelown. P.E.I.. by The Thomson Company umlied "Conn Prlnas Ilvsrd Island Llla Ila Dsw" Editor. Frank Walker General Manager. Ian A. Burnett srlinch I)lfIl'EA at Iummonide. Montana and Albarlnn. Auihu ized as second Class Hall by Lha Post Olfles Department. Ottawa. 8) ldl'l'IQl't Charlottetown. Suniinenide IISJXI per annum;

El; share in P,E.I. 88.00. other Provinces and U4. lI2.0fl per annnm

"The strongest. memory is weaker than the weakest ink."

FRIDAY, ran. iifisss

small. Alonis are no less real bccrvse theyl ale inv.si'uie to tile tliitixueti eye. iii psi... of a rcirigeraior, ac.-u..icy in the order of thousandtlis is essential. A publication of General Motors Employee Relations Staff in 1952 pointed out that a carburetor jet a thousandth of an inch too big could re- duce a car-owner's gasoline mileage by a mile or more to the gallon. The plunger is fitted to the cylinder of a Diesel engine injector witii an accuracy of twenty-five millionths of an" inch-U120 the thickness of a human hair.

When we turn our thoughts from ac-

Lord Kussellis Views

Lord Bertrand Russell, wno just the other day gave it as his opinion that, un- less some way is found to resolve the pies- Ont Formosan crisis, and that speedily, the human race may have ceased to exist be- fore the year is out, has added anotiier book to his long list of political and pliil- osophical works. It is called ”l-lumaii So- ciety in Ethics and Politics.” His ethics, in- cidentally, are the traoiti'oiial oneslof the Christian religion, despite his well known scepticism regarding some of the basic Christian doctrines which gave these same ethics life and meaning. The book itself is, in part, an eloquent plea for love of truth and tolerance, and for dissipation of fear and hate, and, in part, an expression of non- confidence in the foreign policy of either major side in the present world struggle. In short, Lord Russell appears to believe that the free nations are almost as much to blame as is the Communist bloc for the tensions which threaten the survival of mankind. Added to all this is an almost childish assumption that military force, no matterhow formidable, is of very little use against the aggressive temperament of warmakers. Hitler, if he were alive, could put him right on that; that tyrant, like all other tyrants of history, yielded to force and to nothing else.

Surely the whole purpose of free-world foreign policy, about which Lord Russell does not appear to think too highly, is to help the Communist states to a realization of the folly as well as the wickedness of ag- gression while there is yet time to forestall the world-shaking conflict which Lord Rus- sell, quite justifiablygfears may be im- minent. Even the most pronounced pacifist must admit that it was only when persuas- ion proved to be ineffective that the West decided to build up its armed strength as a further inducement to reasonableness on in part of die Communist Governments. Doubtlaas, I all human beings were as kind and loving and tolerant as Lord Russelle borrowing from a Hebraic-Christian ethos, Hie doctrinal basis of which he has not al- ways treated with due respect-would like item to be. armies and fleets and bombs would be unnecessary. But, since that ideal condition has not yet been attained, free rnon can do no other than look to their de- fences and, if necessaryewhich Heaven for- bid-throw all the strength of which they an capable against the aggressor.

From Noah To Einstein

The cubit of Noah's time was the length of a man's forearm, the distance from his elbow to the end of his middle finger. The yard of later years (still used for rough esllmatesl was the distance from finger Ups to the tip of one's nose. This and much other curious information is contained in the current monthly letter of the Royal Bank of Canada, dealing with the import- ance of standards of mcastirements, some of which have come down to us from antiquity and still serve us well, while in

other cases we have added new devices fo'

match otir needs. The moral of the Bank letter is that accuracy is as much needed in business and private life as it has been since the very beginning of engineering. Accuracy is a measure of the tolerance allowed between parts of a machine, or in the actions of a man. To be accurate is to conform to a standard, to be correct, to be truthful and precise. Nearly all grand dis- Ooveries of science and nearly all great de- velopments in business have been the re- wards of accurate measurement and patient labour in the gathering and sifting of nu- merical results. In our everyday activities it is far better to make some rough meas- urement than no measurement at all. . The sciences of astronomy, physics and chemistry, and the art of architecture. are , built on a foundation of careful measure- ments made with ingenious instruments and related to known principles. So are the automobile, the factory machine, the cigar- ette lighter and all big and little mechanical things we use daily. A thousandth of an Inch is so small it can hardly be seen, yet it is one of the most important things in modern living.

In the early days of the automobile there were at least 800 different, kinds of lock washers and 1,600 sizes of steel tubing; todaythomaI'a10kindsoflockwashers IfItI.1TQtCKQlllIHl)(..N0tolllytI'le

If-"an suppniolllo, but the

ctiracy in the infinitely small to accuracy in the infinitely big, we catch a glimpse of ,equal marvels. It is shown in geometry that if the ratio of the circumference of a.

circle to its diameter be written to 35 placesl I

of decimals, the result will give the wholel circumference of the visible universe with- lout an error as great as the minutest :length visible in the most powerful micro- scope.

To deal accurately with any information demands a wealth of background knowl- edge: to know why something came about is as important as to know what happened. Measurement and. standards and mathe- matics are not to be unduly worshipped, though they cannot be neglected by even the person in private life. St. Thomas Aquinas said it neatly: ”An angel per- ceives the truth by simple apprehension, whereas man becomes acquainted with a simple truth by a process from manifold data." And worldly-wise Plato made the point that one must be able to see the truth accurately in order to judge his distance from it if he is practising deception.

Sailing The Sky

A new lost-cost process for stepping up rainfall by literally salting the sky has suc- cessfully passed initial tests in West Pak- istan, where it was developed by Pakistan meteorologists and a young scientist from Unesco.

Two test regions, each covering 1,500 square miles in the semi-arid province of Punjab were the scene of experiments dur- ing .luly, August and September last year. Readings of rain gauges in the area show- ed they received 60 per cent more rain than adjoining regions.

During the experiments, eight tons of salt were wafted into the sky by two ground ”generators", consisting basically of an ordinary silversmith's blower-similar to those used by craftsmen in any Pakistani bazaareand manufactured locally at a total cost of 80 rupees (3525).

These experiments were described re- ;cently in Paris by Dr. Michael Fournier d'Albe, a 33-yearold British physicist who grecently completed a three and a half year jassignment in Pakistan as a member of a ;Unesco team of geophysicists sent out un- 'der the United Nations technical assistance programme.

A cautious scientist, Dr. Fournier d'Albe refused to be trapped into extravagant claims of rain-making. He believes, how- ever, that the Punjab experiments are pre- liminary proof that "sky-sailing? can in-

lcrease the amount of rain produced by-

lclouds. The method holds the most prom- lise for tropical countries-usually the very lcountries unable to afford expensive large- iscale cloud-seeding experiments with air- craft. Thirty-nine days of ”salting" in the lPunjab added tip to a total cost of only 951,000.

EDITORIAL NOTES

Thomas A. Edison. "the Wizard of Men- lo Park", born this date 1847. In all, 1,097 were issued to Edison, the greatest number ever issued to one inventor.

Now that Northern Affairs Minister Lesage has reasserted this country's claim to all territory within 500 miles of the North Pole, ownership of the Pole itself can await further negotiations with other interested Governments. Anyway, it would seem to be a purely hypothetical question.

A mass flight of about 1,000 British Boy Scouts from the U. K. to Canada will take place next August, it was announced re-

will be going to the Scouts Eighth World Jamboree, to be held at Niagara-on-the- Lake, Ontario. Negotiations are being conducted for 30 South African, 12 Gold cm: and two Malta Scouts to joln'the party.

0

O O 0 They are having potato trouble in Al- berta. Nausea and illness have been re- ported from many parts of the Province where persons have eaten bitter-tasting po- tatoes grown during the wet summer. The Division of Horticulture, University of Al- berta, has reported the existence of large amounts of solsnine in many samples and has llisued a warning to Aliertsiu to avoid

cenfly. The boys, aged between 15 and 18 l

utingisttm-mtiligiilliuu.saiininoi.."

hm")-

ddifion To

s.

Late in 1952, the world was lstarllcd by the news that lisiiei'- men of the Comoro Islands had caught a strange fish. apparent- ly the last survivor of a species which had d- cared some fifty million years . ,,.i. The Coelacanth, which thus leapt into fame, prov- ed to be closely related. to 8 species which formed the link be- tween fish and bactracians - the transition, that is to Sliyr between sea life and life on land.

The discovery of this creature from far-off prehistoric days 11' vives another question which is still shrouded in mystery: the origin of that part of the globe which, under the name of the Indian Ocean. may cover the lost continent of Gondwana. Of which the great island of Madallascah together with India and Malaya- would seem to represent the last vestiges. ,

In India. tile Jungle ,s,lI11, "- veiils relics of dead civilizations. In Central Africa, the Rhodesian hush displays in the silent ruins of Zimbabwe. the remains 0', ” powerful Negro Empire which was, perhaps. the fabulous King- dom of Ophir. But Madagascar, the Red Island, still holds close- ly locked the secrets of pts P835-

On this island 980 miles long and 360 miles wide. no traces of man of the fossil-bearing strata have hitherto been discovered and the quaternary strata reveal no evidence of human existence. Palaeontologists suggest that anticyclonic winds would have prevented prehistoric man from navigating in the Mozambique channel and that MadalZ8SC8l'. isolated from human contact. developed its fauna and flora in a vacuum". thus accounting for the fact that the species fcii"'l there today are unique.

sot

Yet a study of the present population of Madagascar. of the various types. their names. their language, customs and traditions sheds some light upon the K5931 lSlaIld.S past.

Nineteen tribes inhabit the ter- ritory. Of these, the Merina are undoubtedly the most interesting. because their history provides the fullest data for investigation and comparison.

The Merina, who number sonic 950.000 nilt of a total pnpuliitlmil of over 4 millions, are the 'pco- pic of the country of broad

vistas"; they inhabit the Hl,",ll Plaleaux and in particular the country round Tanararivo, the

capital. They are usually lis!hl- skimmed. with finely-drawn fea- tures. smooth black hair and slightly slit eyes. This definitely Malayan type is also found with a Negroid admixture, while other individuals are purely African in aspect.

The written history of the Men, in A which is that of Madagas- car - begins around 1500. in 1496 navigators had opened the route to the East round the Cape of Good Hope and the Portuguese Diego Dlaz discovered the great island which he called "St. Law- rence". In 1500 the Merlna were ruled by Queen Rafnhy, with whom the genealogy of Madagas- can sovereigns really begins. Rafohy was the '5"? at the Mer- :a; her sncesto are said to have belonged to ii tribe of Negro stock. the Vazlmba who were wor- shipped as divinltles. The Vazlmba belonged to a tribe inhabiting the left bank of the Zambeal. Al: A result of defeat in battle the? were. it seems, driven Into the sea. and a few survivor: reach- ed the Madagascsn coast.

According to, legend these African elements mingled in the Xlth or Xilth century with emi- grants from the East who land- ed in Madagascar from canoes of a Malayo-Polynesian type. These elements of Malayan stock appear to have merged g. d " with the Vazlmba. their later- marrlage resultlnglln the Marina dun

- Madagascar's Secret Pasi

(Unesco)

fourth caste, the ”Slaves”.

Andevo or

cos

According to local tradition a third group. the Betsileo, origin. ally inhabited Madagascar along with the.Vazunha and the Merina. This "1Hl'le. "the unconquerablc horde . lived on tile High Plat- eaux to the south of the Merina Cnlmlryz they seem to have been of African origin. although be- tween Negroid and Malayan in type.

Today. the Great Island can be likened to an enormous jigsaw puzzle. of which the various pieces have been thoroughly mixed" up in the course of the centuries, Certain elements came from Mal- aya and Polynesia, others from Africa. Arabia. and Europe, quite apartgfrom the Indian and Chin- eses 'luences since the end of the Xlxth Century.

One important point, however. remains in doubt. The Malagas, languag is indisputably of Mal- ayan origin, and only a few ex- pressions bear traces of African. Arabic and European influence. Could it he, therefore, that this language was unknown in the Great Island before the landing of the Malayan immigrants, not more titan nine or ten centuries ago, and that there was previous- ly another language which the Madagascans of today have for- gotten?

Certain very ancient legends speak of a people of "little men" - Pygmies - whom the Mada- gascans regard as foreign to them- selves (the -J cendants of im- migrants from the East) and a- gainst whom their ancestors had to fight; these little men are called ”kimosy" and this word does not belong to the Mada- gascan tongue.

The same legends recount that the Vazimba, when they landed on the West coast of M - car, found themselves in the pres- ciice olltiny men, whom in Swa- liili. their language. may iron- ically called twa mbili klmo". ”double-sizcu people”.

The Vazlmba drove the Kimosy oelore them and the latter fled L0 the plateaux; then. in face of the Malayan advance from uie ..als., they began a tragic exodus itll...!'db the South. Their course l-mi be tuiiliwed thanks to iiie .....n,.o Klnilisy ceiiicteries. which i'll'C laid out in the manner of lgizriy biirial-gi'uuii(ts. Present- (ill) ....ltiiigascans, when question- tioncu as to these ceuieteries, say that tile people buried there were of a race different in in their own, connected with the i4CiilllI'llIflS. Antanosy folk liil'e still tells of a great battle in w.i..-ii their aiitcstors fought the "little men” in the plain of Mahlalain,;.i.

A glance at the map of the world will show that Negrltos are still to be found today in Malaya. the Philippines and New Guinea "sister-territories" of Mada- gascar. and the last vestiges of the great Aux-alaslan continent which disappeared thousands of years ago. The Negr'ltos' langu- age was Malayo-Polynesian, which remained the basic language of Madagascar after the continent'- dlsappearance. And the Ifaliiysn lmmigrwt. of the Xlth Century simply renewed. In their new home, this tongue from whltchhe

spoken today. - n

Thus Madagsscai-'s folklore. and the small Klmosy tombs marking the man to the South. seemtosendnsfhslastmer stages from the dawn of tbs Red island's history.

' The Age Old Story I

T V ily

'W4fy 7he&f(3wum

FEBRUARY

Oaks that held their leaves

long Are weathered now and thinning: Snows have melted, waters rise. This is sprlng's beginnina.

Red is on the maple buds,

Gold is on the willow;

A blackblrd from the cedarls top Whistles to his fellow.

Rain and frost have been at work Feeding grass and clover; February. fickle month.

But the soonest over.

-Katherine Van Der Veer in the New York Herald Tribune.

BU

Reforming The Senate

(Sarnia Observer)

Like a hardly perennial. there is talk of Senate reform in the air at Ottawa. this time in the form of suggestions that sena- tors retire at the age of 75-in

ll lvledically Speaking Ilennan N. Bnndesea. MD.

WHEN BABY'S EAR ACHB

If your baby pulls at his ear. or screamii and turns his head from side to side. he may have an sar- ache. These signs are even more indicative of an earaclle if he has a cold and a fever.

Cause of Earsche

The most common on of an earache is an infection o the mid- dle part of the car which may oc- cur in the so-called "catching" diseases. especially in colds or in cases of sore throat.

These disease germs might be carried to the car through a tube which leads from the baby's throat to the middle part 0.. .lis ear. In this way. the ear might L infected. -

If your baby has an earache, don't get excited. There's a lot you can do to help him.

First of all, call your doctor. He'll be able to give him penicil- lin. streptomycin or one of the other antibiotics, or one of the sulfonamide drugs. He may also advise you to put three or four drops of warm glycerin or miner- al oil in the ear every few hours.

Applying Warmth

Warmth usually has a soothing affect. There are numerous ways of applying it. Probably the easi- est is to place a hot water bag: or 'eating pad against the baby's ear. Make sure either is well wrapped in a towel or some other cloth, so it will not burn his sen- sitive skin.

You can also use a cloth soaked in hot water and wrung nearly dry, or even a bag of salt warm- ed in the oven, and remember a partially filled water bottle or bag of salt will feel more comfortable to your baby than well-filled bags.

Sometimes the warmth of the palm of your hand placed against the baby's car will help relieve the pain.

You can also give him aspirin. Half a tablet is enough for chil- dren under six years of age.

If there in a discharge from the car, you can wipe it clean with dry, sterile cotton. Of course you must he very gentle.

One more thing. Don't put warm oil or anything in an ear that is discharging unless your doctor advises it.

QUESTION AND ANSWER

M. R,: I recently had an exami- nation and was told I have aub- cutaneous nodules. What would cause them?

Answer: Swelling under the skin might be due to a variety of causes. A condition known as von Retidnghausen produces swelling: of this type. Multiple tumors of other types might also occur.

You should have a biopsy done of these dwellings; that is. a bit of tissue should be removed and examined under the microscope to help determine their cause.

the case of , s. with full pay and allowances for the rest of their livus.

The rumor is that during the present union of Parliament a resolution will be brought down in the Senate to effect this reform, and that it will secure ready sup- port in the House of Commons.

It is significant that the Prime Minister has been so chary of filling Senate vacancies that now M of them exist.-one fifth of the whole number. Certainly it would seem an apt time to deal with reform, when there are relative- ly fewer to be reformed.

We do not share the cynical view that we would be better off and more efficiently govcrned- and more democratlca" at that -with no Senate. It is true that almost all the provinces are gov- erned by a single chamber. Yet the value is great of a second chamber at Ottawa made up of those more experienced on the whole they Commoners, and drawn in some instances from circles that are free of party politics. We could wish, indeed. that the Prime Minister would consider, it greater pcicentage of non-political appoliitulun that would be free of the inference of a reward for services render- ed to the party in power.

Over the years since Confedera- tion the usefulness of the Sen- ate has been considerable. even though there are periods in which tlwt augu-t body has appeared ll? the,man-in-the-street as largely '.i1IllCL'('SS"l'y. But certainly (and we are aware that the very word "senator" implies an old man) rn'-"h would be gained by remov- llr-zz the reproach that the Red l..iambei' is an Old Man's Home filled with political veterans at a use of rlnrfderlng sensllity. We cn""l do with vniinger senators: a few more women senators: and more senator. drawn from the arts and science and education as well as from ordinary non- political circle:

"Petrified Lightning"

(Margaret Rome-r, in Natural History Magazine)

Tfyou walk among thesand

you may find a piece of ”petrifled lightning." .