Do other EU countries spend a high proportion on foreign aid? - THE SATURDAY BRIEFING
IS there anything you are desperately yearning to know? Are there any pressing factual disputes you would like us to help resolve? This is the page where we shall do our best to answer any questions you throw at us, whatever the subject.
GETTY
Q - Do other European countries spend as high a proportion of their income as us on foreign aid?
R Stych, Walsall, West Midlands
A - In 2015 we spent 0.71 per cent of our gross national income on aid compared with 0.52 per cent by Germany and 0.37 per cent by France.
But Sweden, Norway, Luxembourg, Denmark and the Netherlands spent more than us.
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NC
Q - What is the origin of the Camp Coffee label showing a Sikh and a Scots soldier? This is my favourite coffee and I have always been intrigued by the label.
Michael Cook, Poole, Dorset
A- Camp Coffee began as the world’s first instant coffee in 1876.
Made from coffee-beans, chicory and sugar it was created by Campbell Paterson in response to a request from the Gordon Highlanders for a coffee the Army could drink on field campaigns in India where grinding and brewing beans took too much time for a military field kitchen. Originally the label showed a Sikh carrying a tray of coffee to a seated Scottish soldier.
This was first changed to remove the tray, which was seen as an imperialist depiction of the Sikh as a servant, and later the picture was redrawn to show a Sikh soldier and Gordon Highlander sitting together outside a tent.
In 2010 the Camp Coffee label was included by the BBC as one of the 100 British Museum objects showing the History Of The World.
Q - I read somewhere that Hermann Göring once predicted, “When I see a Mustang over Berlin I shall know we’ve lost the war”. When, where and what were the circumstances that made him say it?
Dennis Moyse, Portsmouth
A - The version I have seen reports Göring saying: “When I saw Mustangs over Berlin I knew the jig was up.”
The P-51 Mustang was a fast and highly manoeuvrable fighter aircraft with a very long range.
It was a US-designed plane enhanced with a British RollsRoyce engine, all of which made it the perfect plane to accompany bombers and stop the Luftwaffe from shooting them down.
The “Mustangs over Berlin” comment must have been made shortly after D-Day in June 1944.
GETTY
Q - I was interested to read in the Daily Express that the play The Mousetrap has been running for 65 years. Are there any estimated or factual figures of the total number of people who have seen the play?
John Watkins, Brynmawr, Gwent
A - The number of tickets sold is close to 11million but I do not think they have precise figures.
There are also no figures for the number of people who have seen it more than once. I’ve heard of people who saw it on their honeymoon and went back for their 50th wedding anniversary.
That figure of more than 10million is the number that may see a play or film on TV in one night now.
GETTY
Q - Much is being made of Brexit negotiations about the Irish border, which leads me to ask what happens with Switzerland. Is it a member of the EU and, if not, do people and vehicles from the Irish Republic and other EU countries travel in and out of Switzerland unimpeded?
Stuart Goodyear, Bedford
A - Switzerland is not a member of the EU but is part of the Schengen area which allows people to travel across borders without passports.
The effect of this is to have no passport checks for travellers between the EU and Switzerland but customs controls may be enforced by frontier guards who can stop cars to search for prohibited merchandise.
Visitors to Switzerland are also obliged to carry governmentissued ID cards, which in the case of countries such as the UK, which do not issue ID cards, means you have to carry a passport anyway.
WIKIPEDIA
Q - Who is the lady holding a flaming torch in the Columbia Pictures logo? Was she somebody special?
William Ashley, Clacton-on-Sea, Essex
A - The logo was designed in 1924 and is supposed to represent Columbia, an 18th-century female personification of America.
The identity of the model for the original Torch Lady of Columbia Pictures was never revealed though in 1936 a fresh image was produced with the actress Amelia Bachelor posing as Columbia.
Since 1993 Torch Lady has been a composite: the body of Louisiana woman Jenny Joseph and the face a computer-generated image made from several sources.
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