Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2018 February 15

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February 15

History of Adoption from South Korea

I am looking for information about the history of adoption from South Korea, particularly on children who were adopted by families in the United States. I am hoping to find books or scholarly articles rather than websites.75.167.68.153 (talk) 02:14, 15 February 2018 (UTC)

This search from Google Scholar (a hidden but VERY useful resource for things like this) seems to have a number of promising hits. --Jayron32 04:32, 15 February 2018 (UTC)

Doubting hand never yet struck firm blow

Lloyd George, speaking at Conway on 6th May 1916 on the subject of conscription, used the phrase "Doubting hand never yet struck firm blow". The phrase sounds awfully familiar, but I am unable to find any other use of it. Is it perhaps an adaptation of a Biblical phrase, or of another phrase or quotation? DuncanHill (talk) 02:26, 15 February 2018 (UTC)

It appears to have been he that coined the phrase. I can't find anything about it outside of that specific speech. --Jayron32 02:49, 15 February 2018 (UTC)

It's reminiscent of the proverb 'faint heart never won fair lady'. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 10:19, 15 February 2018 (UTC)

Boulogne gun conference, 1915

Do we know the name of the hotel in which the Boulogne gun conference (see here) was held? According to Lloyd George it was a second-rate hotel, and later in the war was "completely demolished down to the cellars by a bomb". As well as LlG, the conference was attended by General Du Cane, M. Albert Thomas (the French munitions minister), General Gossot (of the French War Office), and a Colonel Walch (French HQ staff). DuncanHill (talk) 13:52, 15 February 2018 (UTC)

I found this: "Le 21 juin, se tient à Boulogne l’importante conférence interalliée qui réunit à la villa « Belle », propriété du sénateur-maire Roger Farjon, Lloyd George et Alexandre Millerand, ainsi que les maréchaux Foch et Wilson" in this source [1]. It seems to have been held in a private residence (which the French called hôtel particulier at the time). And here's more on the location of the building itself, which was bombed to the ground during World War II [2]. Note that there is a small hôtel near Boulogne called "La villa belle" which exists today, but it seems to have no link to the historic location. --Xuxl (talk) 14:44, 15 February 2018 (UTC)

If this helps, a couple of pages later, his memoirs also note that the hotel was across from the English Episcopal Church and also close to the Scottish Presbyterian Church. "Merridew's Visitor's guide to Boulogne-sur-Mer and its environs" from 1864 say that this church was on Rue St-Martin. Google Maps does not seem to show any churches on Rue St-Martin at the moment, so maybe they were destroyed along with the hotel. Adam Bishop (talk) 14:49, 15 February 2018 (UTC)

The second link I added above does give the hotel's location; it is now a park. It seems to correspond to the crescent-shaped park on the west side of the Liane River on Boulevard Montesquieu, if you look up Boulogne sur Mer in Google maps or some equivalent site. Rue Saint-Martin is in the old city, on the other side of the river, however. --Xuxl (talk) 17:59, 15 February 2018 (UTC)

That was a different conference though - both pages mention that it was a post-war conference in 1920, not the "gun conference" in 1915. Adam Bishop (talk) 18:49, 15 February 2018 (UTC)

You're right. It's surprising how many high-level conferences took place in that small city during a short period! --Xuxl (talk) 20:16, 15 February 2018 (UTC)

Gotcha! "Three conferences took place at the Hotel Dervaux, Boulogne ; the first on the evening of the 19th June [1915] and the others in the morning and afternoon of the 20th June, all presided over by Mr. Lloyd George, then Minister of Munitions". Military Operations France And Belgium 1915: Vol. III (p. 115, Note 1) by Brig. Gen. Sir James Edward Edmonds, 1935. Alansplodge (talk) 20:35, 15 February 2018 (UTC)

Splendid work Alansplodge! And thanks also to Xux1 for an interesting sideline. I have now found this picture by Jean Cocteau, and this postcard confirming its destruction. DuncanHill (talk) 20:55, 15 February 2018 (UTC)

"Certes, le 1er août 1918, les bombes allemandes écrasent, dans la Grande Rue, l’hôtel Dervaux, où est installé l’état-major de la base anglaise, et causent au musée, situé en face, des pertes irréparables". HISTOIRE DE BOULOGNE-SUR-MER - Chapitre XIV. Boulogne face à la guerre et à la crise (1914-1939). According to Chapitre XIII. L’art monumental it was rebuilt in 1923 and still stands in Grand Rue in the Lower Town. Alansplodge (talk) 21:54, 15 February 2018 (UTC)

A knotty problem (legal cases involving Japanese knotweed)

A report in Saturday's Daily Telegraph says that a 74 year-old woman has to pay tens of thousands of pounds after Japanese knotweed spread to a neighbour's garden. The report says that the judgment in Truro County Court "set a legal precedent". The "legal precedent" in this case is Rylands v Fletcher, which decided:

the person who for his own purposes brings on his lands and collects and keeps there anything likely to do mischief if it escapes, must keep it in at his peril, and, if he does not do so, is prima facie answerable for all the damage which is the natural consequence of its escape.

(my emphasis)

It's unlikely that this pensioner deliberately planted this weed in her garden. County Court judgments do not set "legal precedent" and I get the impression that their judges sometimes allow themselves to be bamboozled by smart lawyers acting for plaintiffs. In an earlier case [3] knotweed spread from the railway to a garden, Network Rail refused to pay and were taken to the county court where they were ordered to compensate the property owner. They appealed the judgment, and from the reference to setting a legal precedent in Saturday's report it looks as if they won. Can anyone confirm this? 86.169.57.217 (talk) 16:28, 15 February 2018 (UTC)

Not sure if it answers your question, but I found Japanese Knotweed and Network Rail (Oct 2017) from the University of Reading. Alansplodge (talk) 18:02, 15 February 2018 (UTC)

To me it looks like the meat of that is "once an undesirable element establishes itself on land there is a clear duty to do something about it else one is deemed to have adopted the nuisance: see Leakey v National Trust [1980] QB 485. In this respect an element of fault is inserted into the equation and nuisance operates rather more like negligence than a tort of strict liability" [we have another redlink to that case in Green v Lord Somerleyton if anyone wants to start an article on it; I'm afraid I won't, sorry] Wnt (talk) 15:18, 17 February 2018 (UTC)

The appeal may not have been heard yet. "A lawyer ... said they hoped to have the case transferred to the Court of Appeal by early 2018", from the BBC in August 2017. 70.67.222.124 (talk) 18:06, 15 February 2018 (UTC)

• I grew up being told that it was illegal to let poison ivy grow on your land, which my father would repeat when he saw it. I haven't been able to find documentation of this in state law in New Jersey (perhaps he was remembering the law of another location) but google does show that this as well as other invasives like kudzu, bamboo and crabgrass as well as poison ivy and poison sumac are required to be removed by the landowner in various municipalities. It is also the law in NYC: Q. May I grow poison ivy in my yard? A. No. It is illegal to let poison ivy grow on a property in NYC. In NYC, you can report the offender, who will be given a summons. μηδείς (talk) 02:47, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
  • What does the law say about dandelions? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 03:02, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
    • The New Jersey laws seemed to be based on physical (root) damage to property and health. Given Round-Up works well on most non-grasses like dandelions, and dandelions are not dangerous or destructive per se, they sem not to have been included. I only read the headlines on the Jersey articles, not the statutes. I do know that you can be fined in my Father's municipality for an unkempt yard (three-foot lawn, e.g.) that is an eyesore, and that the officials will fine you and bill you or have a lien placed against you if a judge orders the property to be maintained by a yard-service company. It's a matter of the property value effects on the neighbors, and seems to arise when either there is a divorce, mental illness, or delinquent children inherit from dead parents--at least in three anecdotal cases I know of over the last few decades. You do see poison ivy in NYC parks, but I can't recall seeing any on private property in Manhattan or The Bronx. μηδείς (talk) 16:22, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

Be careful. Round-Up is banned in many countries. It's a glyphosate. 82.15.199.219 (talk) 11:32, 20 February 2018 (UTC)

How do they manage their weeds? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 11:43, 20 February 2018 (UTC)

"Be careful. Round-Up is banned in many countries. It's a glyphosate." There is an ongoing political debate in the European Union on whether to ban glyphosates or not. Different "experts" have claimed both that they are carcinogens, and that they are not. Politicians are divided on whether they are health hazzards or not. Dimadick (talk) 15:35, 22 February 2018 (UTC)