Strewth! That tiger’s got bite
QUESTION Was the Tasmanian tiger a real animal?
The Tasmanian tiger or thylacine ( Thylacinus cynocephalus) was a marsupial predator that looked like a wolf with stripes. It became extinct thousands of years ago on the Australian mainland, but survived into the 20th century in Tasmania.
It was hunted relentlessly for killing sheep and officially became extinct in 1936, when the last known specimen died in hobart Zoo.
however, sightings have been reported in recent years. In 1982, national park ranger hans Naarding was asleep in his field car when he woke up at 2am. he switched on his torch and saw a Tasmanian tiger less than ten yards away.
he watched it for three minutes before it disappeared into the darkness. Sceptics said he must have dreamt it, but it is possible the creature is not extinct.
The Tasmanian tiger should not be confused with the Queensland tiger, which has never been recognised by science. It is supposed to be the size of a big dog but built like a cat. It was first reported in 1871, when Brinsley Sheridan wrote to the Zoological Society of London to report a sighting by his 13-year-old son.
In the next 70 years, there were so many reported sightings of the Queensland tiger that it was provisionally listed in two zoology textbooks published in 1926 and 1941. however, no specimen was ever obtained, so zoologists came to the conclusion the animal was a myth.
Roderick Moore, Liverpool.
QUESTION Who coined the term red tape?
Red tape is a phrase meaning to stick rigidly to regulations and be bound by the rules. This is an accusation often directed at bureaucracies.
One possible origin is the Spanish court of Charles V in the 16th century. Red tape or probably ribbon was used to bind the most important legal documents.
The practice caught on and many countries bound legal documents with red ribbon or tape. It is known to have migrated to the American colonies by the late 17th century and is mentioned in the Maryland Laws: ‘The Map upon the Backside thereof sealed with his excellency’s Seal at Arms on a Red Cross with Red Tape.’ his excellency would most likely have been the British governor of the colony.
Charles dickens refers to red tape in david Copperfield: ‘Britannia, that unfortunate female, is always before me, like a trussed fowl: skewered through and through with office pens, and bound hand and foot with red tape.’ So by 1850, red tape had become synonymous with overly officious bureaucracy.
British barristers use pink tape, rather than red, to bind legal documents, known as briefs. This custom goes back to the 16th century, when red tape faded to pink through constant re-use.
Bob Cubitt, Northampton.
QUESTION Ukraine declared January 1 as a national day of commemoration for Stepan Bandera. Who was he?
ON New Year’s day, Ukrainian institutions, including the parliament, officially commemorated the birth of Stepan Bandera, a world war II nationalist.
This caused great controversy and earned an official rebuke from Poland, a close ally of Ukraine. It views Bandera as a perpetrator of mass violence against ethnic Poles. his legacy is complex and there is a lack of consensus among historians, writers and polemicists. he has been depicted as a nationalist hero of an oppressed nation, a terrorist and a Nazi collaborator.
Bandera was born on January 1, 1909, in Staryi Uhryniv, Galicia, a region now spanning parts of Poland and Ukraine. It was then part of Austria-hungary, having once been in the Kingdom of Poland, and after world war II was taken over by the Soviet Union, before Ukraine finally achieved independence in 1991.
Bandera was a branch leader of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). In 1934, he was arrested in Lviv for ordering the assassination of Bronisaw Pieracki, the Polish minister of internal affairs. he was convicted of terrorism and sentenced to death, which was commuted to life imprisonment. he was released in 1939.
when the Germans invaded the USSR in June 1941, the Nazi occupation forces needed agents who were conversant with conditions in Poland. OUN collaborated with the Nazis during the German occupation of western Ukraine.
It promised to work closely with hitler and helped to launch a pogrom that killed 4,000 Jews in Lviv. ‘we will lay your heads at hitler’s feet,’ an OUN pamphlet proclaimed to Ukrainian Jews.
however, Bandera had angered hitler by declaring Ukrainian independence. days after the German invasion of Lviv, he was imprisoned. his modern supporters were thus able to dissociate him from atrocities carried out in his name.
his followers founded the paramilitary Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which was responsible for the massacre of up to 100,000 Poles and tens of thousands of Jews during the war. Bandera was released in 1944, when it appeared that his popularity with Ukrainians might help stem the Soviet advance.
The Soviet secret police repeatedly tried to assassinate Bandera. On October 15, 1959, he collapsed and died in Munich. The cause of death was poison by cyanide gas.
Postwar Soviet history portrayed Bandera, OUN and UPA as fascist collaborators and xenophobes. But with the rise of nationalism in Ukraine, his memory has been glorified.