The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-06-05
ULTAN'S SKULL AND CALIPH'S
 KORAN PART OF PEACE DEMANDS

The ghosts ofAa Moslem Caliph and m East African Sultan dead these hundreds of years. haunt the corri- dors of the Royal Palace at Nersail- les. seat of the Peace Conference.
 What Is more, their wonderings af- feet the ponderous deliberations of that body and reuSrrSable this!-are actually embodied in the Peace Treaty itself
 It Is not said in jest. It is an actual fact. writtenHin cold black and white by the Allied powers into the most momeutous document that ever n humfliated GermaTrs. found himself forced to sign.
 Reading the treaty itself, all Is clear at the beginning. The reader skins lightly over t'~e clauses re1at- ing 10 the League of Nations, the German navy aud Frances demands for the restoration of coal.
 Enter Arabian Nights.
 But then comes VI paragraph seem ingly transplanted direct from the Arabian Nights:
 "Germany is to restore within six months the Koran of tNs Ca liph. formerly at Medina, to the King of Kedjaz and the skull of the Sultan OIEva, formerly in German East Africa, to his, Brf- tannIc Majesty's Government.
 Why in the name of all the djinns should the Allied powers concern themselves with quersome relics of such highly Oriental flavor?
 And here is another odd stipula- ton:
 "In addition to the above, Germany is to hand over to Bel siun1 wings now at Berlin be-. longing to the aEar-piece of the Alteration of the tLasnb (by Hu-
 -1raN no centre of which isAin the church of St. Bavon at.Ghent; and the wings now at Berlin and Munich of the altar-piece of the Last Supper) (by Dirk Bouts). the centre of which belongs to the Church of St. Peter at Louvain. Germany Is 10 restore 10 France certain documents and cores pondence stolen and carried off to Berlin by Prince Bismarck in the war of 1s70."D
 Inc Holy Koran.
 Now to the reasons for these queer demands which are not so'queer after all. once one knows why.
 The Koran of the Caliph' Othmari is one of the hottest of holy things to the MosIen world. Think of a manu- script copy of St. Johns gospel in St. Johns own handwriting and you have some idea of the reverence in which this copy of the Koran is held.
 The Caliph of Othman was Moham- mets son-in-'1aw. He wrote his fa- nous version in the Koran soon after the death of the prophet. and 1t was accepted as the authentic version. Three copies of if were made Tho original now remains at Medina. This was done in 664, and all other copies of the Koran were burned.
 For more than 1900 years the Ko
 
 Holy City and then, when the Arabs and British under General Allenby advanced upon Medina Enver Pasha and n body If Turkish troops in his command removed the sacred docu- ment from the city.
 Before the end of the war the al lies recognized the King of the Hod- jas as political successor to Mahonlet and head of the Moslem people. Pos session of the Othman Koran will confirm his right to this office.
 Sacred Skull.
 Thus is more than mere sentiment fin this stipulation, of the treaty. We find a similar situation with regard to Inc skull of the black Sultan Okwawa. This skull was to the ignorant natives of the Dark Continent what the king 8 seal was to subjects of medieval European monarch symbol of power and authority. During the war. by some means or other. the Germans secured t. and with it the allegiance of q multitude of natives But now German East Africa is to be made a British mandatory, and Britain is to hold the skull as a sym bot of her authority.
 Now who were Hubert and Jan Van Eyck. and why is Belgium so anxious to get back her altar-p piece of Dirk Bouts?
 Five hundred years ago nobody would have dreamed of asking such a question as Who are Hubert and Jan Van Eyck 2" Ii would have been like saying: Who ia Woodrow Will son, and what is Central Park?' For 800 years the world rang with the praise of Hubert and Jan van Eyc<. They were three of greatest painters in tho Flemish school and they lived in the days when people were just as interested in painting as we of today are in baseball.
 Invented Painting.
 Jan Van Eyck, in fact. was the in ventor of modern oil painting. Before his time painters worked in a sort of distemper that had to be dried in the sun at the risk of cracking. Painters used to get tired of having good work spoiled before it was dry. but until Jan Van Eysk's day nobody thought of lfnseed oil ard varnish that would dry in the shade.
 As for the greater ai.ar-piece that is mentioned in the peace treaty. it is the most important work in history of the early Flemish school. It was completed in 1S43, and an inscription on the frame, discovered under the pain when the frame was scraped in 1924, explains how the work was done.
 The Painter Hubert Van Eyck. than whom no greater has been found began his work, which Jan, his fn- fcrior in art, gladly finished at the prayer of Jadocus Vydt. By this verse the 9th of May invites you to see which has been done. 1882"
 Jan thus attempted to exalt the fame of his dead brother, Hubert. above his own, but posterity ruled otherwise, Jan's name is greater than Hubcrt's.
 Hubert Van Eyck was born in 1906 died in 1926 Jan born in