t i l mid iewshmis James 0. Henry, M.A., Editor, Chairman of the Department of History, Biola College f
of all, since the Government wished to avoid new problems of divided fam ilies. Exit permits were issued to the entire group. The main factor in the sudden shift of policy is thought to be the pressure of international humanitarian organ izations and chancelleries to permit the reunion of families broken by the abrupt ban on immigration in 1952. Electric Ears Restore Hearing French surgeons have enabled a deaf man to hear by embedding an electric coil in the muscles of his skull bones. It is considered that this revolu tionary experiment in the manufac ture of artificial senses will lead to devices that will eventually replace the use of the artificial lung in cases of a small built-in diaphragm-stimula tor. A more tolerable life for victims of glandular disorders is also expected by the use of similar mechanisms. The basis for this new technique is the excitement of nerves by means of an electric current, the well-known Galvanic reaction. Until Professor Djoumo conceived the idea of em bedding small plastic-covered induc tion coils inside living tissue it was found that flesh tended to reject in serted wires. But miniature induction coils, it was found, remained func tional alongside the nerves of rabbits and frogs and initiated definite move ments of an involuntary kind, like a reflex action, when current from an external battery was applied to them. An “ electronic ear” was built into a human being for the first time last year. The patient had had an opera tion for sholestearoma (a kind of cyst) performed on both ears and was unable to accustom himself to the resulting total deafness. An operation was performed under a binocular microscope. A tiny coil was placed behind the temporatl bone alongside the temporal muscle (which can be felt during the action of eating). It was a coil of fine silver wire insulat ed by polythene and wound on an iron core about an inch long. The whole coil was embedded in plastic.
Sense of Tim ing Found in Ants Ants carry watches. Rather precise time detectors, built somehow into their nervous systems, give the signal for peaks of activity at certain hours, which differ with each species. These “ watches” apparently make the in sects independent of the natural com ing of light and dark, according to a report by Dr. Elwood S. McCluskey of Stanford University. Dr. McClus key cited as an example the leaf cutter ants of the American tropics. The workers forage all day, starting at dawn. An hour before each day they are at the nest entry, ready to start their labors. But they cannot be brought out by artificial light simu lating dawn. Setting of the “ watches,” Dr. Mc Cluskey said, may be tied up with the nuptial flights of the insects, but in some way the time mechanism is re tained even when these flights no longer take place. Dr. McCluskey could easily account for the setting of the “ watches” in these insects if he would only consult the Bible. They are set by the Creator of the ants. Most of Rumania’s 250,000 Jews want to go to Israel, according to information from Tel Aviv. Eighty per cent of the 400,000 Jews who sur vived the Nazi occupation applied for immigration to Israel in 1948 after the new state was set up. About 150,- 000 reached there by 1952, when Bu charest abruptly halted the exodus, leaving husbands separated from wives and parents' from children. Thereafter not a single Rumanian lew reached Israel until May, 1955, when a plane from Vienna brought four elderly women who joined their children, and a man who was united with his wife and son. During the next three years a few Rumanian Jews came occasionally. The recent reversal of policy was illustrated by the case of a 26-year- old radio technician from Ploseti. When he applied for an exit permit, officials asked him what relatives he had in Rumania. He said he had par ents, a grandmother, and other kin. He was advised to bring the passports Rumania Relents on Jewish Exodus Word comes from Tel Aviv, Israel, that without announcement, Rumania apparently has eased her ban on mi gration to Israel to let some Jews rejoin their families.
the impact of Communist China’s “ Big Leap Forward” campaign, which has been extended to include religion. Specifically, this means p u r g i n g Christian organizations of what the Communists call “imperialist running dogs” who “ hide under the cloak of religion.” Reports of purges already under taken among Protestants in Heilung- kaing, Kirin, Kweichow and Fukien provinces and at Darien in Manchuria are contained in copies of mainland newspapers received in Hong Kong. In each area the Communists have sponsored discussions and debates to speed up the movement for setting up “ self-administering” chur ches stripped of all “ imperialist” or for eign ties. The Heilungkiang conference took place at Harbin and lasted fifty days. Pro t estant “ representatives” were quoted as pledging to “ speed up the ideological remolding, .accept Com munist party leadership and follow the road of socialism.” The Heilung- kaing Daily News said the meeting meanwhile “ unmasked” a group of “ rightists” among local Protestant leaders. The newspaper said the Protestant leaders denounced at the various conferences “ admitted their guilt.” They did not say what hap pened to these Christian leaders. Operation Hub Cap The theft of hub caps from auto mobiles has become such a serious problem in Milwaukee that repre sentatives of the police department, sheriff’s office, auto and gasoline deal ers and insurance companies have formed “ Operation Hub Cap.” The group plans to work out an identi fication system for engraving numbers on hub caps to thwart thefts. Police said the loss of hub caps cost motor ists $58,000 in Milwaukee last year.
Red China Purges Christian Groups
From Hong Kong comes a report that Protestant as well as Roman Catholic “ reactionaries” are feeling
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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