Why do naval men on the Afric station particularly want to study modern languages? This is one of the many curious queries raised by a study of the Navy's detailed statement of its vocational training given to men about to retire and take up civil life again. Altogether twenty-four men asked for modern language instruction last year, and twenty-one of them were serving in ships on the African station. The other three were in the Mediterranean, states the "Manchester Guardian."
Few of the men seem to show much originality of thought in their choice of a shore job. Out of 969 men who applied for the training courses 344 wanted to go in for motoring, while another hundred sffidied internal combustion engines generally. by The old description of the sailor as Pi a bandyman evidently still applies, for there is a course in this subject, and last year 166 applications to take it were put in, while three more wanted to specialise as "estate handy-men." The essentially modern trades like welding, radio construction, wireless telegraphy, and automatic telephony attracted only a few men; and the idea of retiring to a farm does not seem to be popular, for only seventeen men applied for training in pig-keeping and poultry, twelve of them being Royal Marines.
Uniform regulations issued to the fleet recently show that naval officers in hot climates will appear afloat in white twill shirts with a polo collar and two patch pockets, white drill shorts to within three inches of the knee-cap, white turnover stockings, and white shoes. When ashore with landing parties they will wear blue turnover stockings and black lace-up boots, The headgear will be either white cap or helmet. This new uniform is only to be worn on nonceremonial occasions and when ordered by the senior naval officer, but it will certainly be used a great deal by the Red Sea patrol and on the East Indies station.
It is the most remarkable innovation in naval dress since uniform. became established at the close of the Crimean War. Even then fancy rigs continued for some years, though no one went quite so far as the captain of the Harlequin brig who put h boat's crew in harlequin costumes in 1853. A few years earlier the whole ship's company of the Blazer wore blue and white striped guernseys like a modern football team. The yarn that the captain of the Tulip dressed his ship's company in green, with an imitation flower worn upside down as a cap, originated in a nautical novel of the period and intended as a satire on the freaks in which naval captains indulged. up through a gateway flanked with two large columns. The courtyard which led to the steps was tiled. The similarity between this building anc Minoan buildings is striking. There is also a comparison with the palaces lof Hittite kings. The whole site had been burned down in a violent con-flag ration in the twelfth century B.C., and so violent were the dames that come of the solid basalt blocks of the building had actualy been fused.
The pottery and objects found were of the greatest interest. Mycenaean wares, probably imported, were out covering the period 1400 to 1200.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.