QU ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Whole Earth Leapt Forward
In that great year when Peace came back, at the Eleventh hour of the Eleventh day
of the Eleventh month of 1918, the earth itself appears to have leapt for joy, for it is
true that the earth took a sudden step forward.
TT has been made known as a scientific fact that when the war ended
i the old earth received a sudden jolt. It was such a shock that the
lengthening earth's day was shortened by a twenty-five-millionth.
Dr de Sitter, of the University of Leyden, who has disclosed this
strange and sudden alteration of the length of the Earth's day, has
spent many years in examining the reasons why the day seems to
alter. It appears to be lengthening, and the month which the Moon
occupied in going round the Earth appears to be shortening. At
present the length of the Moon's month is lessened by lej^rthan a
thirtieth of a second in a hundred years. The length ol' the day
increases even less in a century.
In that fateful year of 1918 the length of the day changed in a
very short time from more than a six-hundredth of a second longer
to less than a five-hundredth of a second shorter. The day lost a
twenty-fivc-millionth of its length at the same time that the Armistice
was signed. In short, the Earth leapt forward.
Dr de Sitter calculates that if the whole Earth had shrunk by
about five inches all over the surface the result would have quickened
the Earth to about that extent. But, as that evidently did not take
place, the explanation has to be sought in some unknown displace-
ment of the lower strata of the Earth. It may be that the earth-
quakes that have since been experienced are symptoms of it. At any
rate, whatever the cause, it is surely a remarkable thing that this
should have happened on the day when the heart of the whole world
was lifted up with joy. Edwin SJiarpe Grew
We Have Kept Our Heritage
George the Fifth to the representatives of the Empire in St James's Palace
npHERE is a word which gladdens me, more especially when I hear
JL it used by friends from overseas, many of whom say when they
visit this country that they are coming Home, It is in this spirit
that the Queen and I meet you today; we welcome one and all to
our home.
Before I succeeded my father, the Queen and I had the privilege
of studying at first hand the Dominions Overseas and India. We
were fellow-travellers, then as now, comparing notes and sharing
impressions. We treasure these memories and keep them alive;
moreover, what we forget our four sons are now able to recall. Many
years before our happy partnership began I had as a midshipman
sailed the Seven Seas : I realised early that the Empire has many
climes but one spirit.