News of the day

September 2, 1910 Science notes – the curiosities of the banana There is no plant known to man which gives such a quantity of food to the acre as the banana. It yields 44 times more by weight than the potato, and 133 times more than wheat. Another peculiar fact about the banana is that no insect will attack it, and another that it is absolutely immune from the diseases to which fruits are subject. September 2, 1910 ‘Newlands’, and final test between Britain and South Africa The charm of every game is enhanced by its surroundings. Even players feel this, and to a far greater extent do the spectators. The football fields of British public schools and colleges are often picturesquely situated, but the average ground is apt to be both desolate and drearily prosaic. It would should refuse to adopt an attitude of neutrality in this conflict. The Union should carry out the obligations to which it has agreed (Simon’s Town and the rest) and continue its co-operation with its friends and associates in the British Commonwealth of Nations. The Union should take all necessary measures for the defence of its territory and South African interests, and the Government should not send forces overseas as in the last war. This House is profoundly convinced that the freedom and independence of the Union are at stake in this conflict, and that it is therefore in our true interests to oppose the use of arms as an instrument of national policy.” September 4, 1939 Operations in the west – the first communique A message from Paris phoned up this afternoon read: The first war communique has just been issued. It simply states that operations have been begun by the whole land, sea and air forces.

‘We who live in

September 7, 1966 Rebels in search of a cause Hard-core teenage drugtakers in Britain are the unfortunate successors of the beatniks of 10 years ago, a psychiatrist has suggested. One of their main troubles is that they are no longer protesting against anything and are allowing themselves to be exploited. Dr. Hyla Hoden, a consultant psychiatrist at London’s Tavistock Clinic, said that beatniks were genuine rebels who passionately rejected false values and commercialisation, and were violently anti-war and anti-bomb. The irony of all this was that within a few years the beatniks movement itself was commercialised. “We now have synthetic professional ‘pop’ beatniks making thousands of pounds a week.”