Page:EB1922 - Volume 30.djvu/862

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814
DEBUSSY—DELAGOA BAY

years in the penitentiary. The sentence was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court March 10 1919, and he entered prison April 13. In 1920, although still imprisoned, he was again nominated presidential candidate by the Socialists and received 915,302 votes, ranging from 25 in Vermont to 203,400 in New York. He was released on Christmas Day 1921, his sentence having been commuted by President Harding, but his forfeiture of rights of citizenship was not affected. He is the author of Unionism and Socialism: a Plea for Both (1904); Liberty; and Industrial Unionism (1911).

DEBUSSY, CLAUDE ACHILLE (1862–1918), French composer (see 7.906), died in Paris March 26 1918.

DE FILIPPI, FILIPPO (1860–), Italian scientist and explorer, was born at Turin April 6 1869. He studied medicine at the university of Turin, and became an assistant in the surgical clinic of the university of Bologna, occupying later the same position at Genoa. He subsequently became reader in operative surgery at Bologna, and pursued researches of great value in physiological and biological chemistry. In 1897 he joined the expedition of the Duke of the Abruzzi to Alaska as scientific observer, and took part in the ascent of Mount St. Elias. In 1906 Signer de Filippi again accompanied the Duke of the Abruzzi on an expedition to the Ruwenzori range of central Africa. The first detailed map of the higher part of this mountain region was a result of this journey, together with many valuable geo- logical and other observations. In 1909 de Filippi went with the Duke's expedition to the western Himalaya and Karakoram mountains, when a peak 24,600 ft. in height, close to Mount Godwin-Austen, or K2, was ascended. He later (1913–4) organized and led an important scientific expedition to the Karakoram mountains and central Asia, under the auspices of the Indian and Italian Governments, and for his valuable investigations received in 1916 an hon. K.C.I.E. from the Indian Government. He has also received many honours from British and foreign scientific societies, and is a gold medallist of the English and Italian Royal Geographical Societies. During the World War he served in the Italian army medical service, and also lectured in England on subjects connected with the war.

He has published The Ascent of Mount St. Elias (1900); Ruwenzori (1909) and Karakoram and Western Himalaya (2 vols. 1912); besides many papers in scientific journals.


DEGAS, HILAIRE GERMAIN EDGARD (1834–1917), French painter (see 7.931). The Impressionist years, in which such typical canvases as "Women in a Cafe" and "Danseuses à la Barre" (sold in 1912 for 119,100 francs) showed Degas's complete break with the academic painters, his realistic outlook, and his mastery of matériel, notably pastel, ended with the eighth Impressionist Exhibition 1886, where he continued his realistic studies of modern life, showing drawings of the nude, of workwomen, and of jockeys. This marked his withdrawal from all public exhibitions. In the following years, until his death in 1917, Degas mainly concentrated on drawings and pastels of the nude, chiefly women at their toilets or in the bath, interspersed with returns to his favourite ballet subjects. At one time he almost abandoned the use of colour but returned thereto later. In his last years, ill-health and a forced removal from his studio prevented his working. Besides pastel and oil colour Degas also handled his favourite subjects in etching, aquatint and lithography. His work is to be seen in the Luxembourg (Caillebotte collection), the Louvre (Camondo collection), the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Tate Gallery, the British Museum, Boston (U.S.A.) Museum, the National Gallery, Berlin, and many private collections. Though closely associated with the impressionists and showing their sensitiveness to atmospheric colour, Degas was never one of them. An admirer of Ingres, and the great classical draughtsmen, he was himself a classic in his impersonal outlook. The increasing preoccupation of his art was the expression of form, chiefly by line, and to this must be ascribed his later concentration on the nude and temporary abandonment of colour. His figures are never impressions, but an elaborate synthesis of many sketches and much observation. An uncompromising realist in his subjects, Degas found in the art of the Far East a starting-point for combining the most ordinary and ungraceful attitudes of everyday life into an original, intricate and harmonious design.

See also P. Lafond, Degas (1918); A. J. Meier-Graefe, Degas (1920).


DELAGE, MARIE YVES (1854–1920), French zoologist, was born at Avignon May 13 1854. He became a member of the French Academies of Science and Medicine, professor of zoology at the Sorbonne, Paris, and a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. He was one of the first authorities on animal reproduction and questions of hybridism and heredity (see 23.116, 14.27, 22.478). For his exploit in keeping alive in 1886, in a tank at Roscoff, a specimen of Leptocephali until it developed into a conger, see 9.9. He died in Paris Oct. 8 1920.


DELAGOA BAY, Portuguese East Africa (see 7.942).—Improvements in port accommodation during 1910–21 were mainly in connexion with the transit trade with the Transvaal and the development of the coal trade. Coaling plant was erected in 1914–15 and other plant added in 1921, so that altogether 1,400 tons per hour could be loaded direct into ships' holds. A new ferro-concrete wharf, 1,614 yd. long, was completed in 1916. The wharf was amply provided with electric and steam cranes. In 1920 the building of a dry-dock was begun. Dredging vessels maintain a minimum depth of 211/2 ft. over the bar. Lourenco Marques drained, given a good water supply, and largely rebuilt, had become by 1920 one of the finest cities in South Africa. Considerable sums had been spent in making marine drives and golf links, in erecting hotels and on other measures to convert the suburbs, notably Polana, into health and holiday resorts in the winter months (May-Sept., average temp. 64° F.). Pop. of Lourenco Marques (1912 census) 13,353—of whom 5,324 were whites, including 668 British. Pop., city and suburbs (1920 estimate) 20,000.

The convention of April 2 1909 between the Transvaal and Mozambique provided (for a period of 10 years) for free trade in the products of the two provinces and for facilities for the recruitment of natives of Mozambique for labour in the Rand mines (from 80,000 to 100,000 Portuguese natives are normally employed in the mines). In return Delagoa Bay was to be given 50 to 55% of the railway traffic in the areas of the Transvaal in which it competed with Union ports, i.e. Durban. This was an effort to adjust conflicting political and economic factors. Had Delagoa Bay been a British port it would have had nearly all the trade of the so-called competitive area, the route from it to Johannesburg being not only some 100 m. shorter than the route to the Rand, but having easier gradients. During 1910–12 the division of traffic favoured Delagoa Bay. Rate adjustments followed and the share of Delagoa Bay in 1916 fell to 31% and thereafter showed no marked recovery. A proposal made by Senhor Freire d'Andrade (sometime governor of Mozambique) that the part of the province S. of the Sabi river—including Delagoa Bay—should join the South African Customs Union found supporters but was not adopted, and pending a new settlement the Mozambique Convention continued in force.

The following table shows the value of imports into and exports from the Union of South Africa via Delagoa Bay in the years named:—

  Imports. Exports.



1909 £4,826,000 £253,000
1913 4,551,000 740,000
1918 2,308,000 1,100,000

Coal bunkered at Delagoa Bay was 136,000 tons in 1912; rose to 426,000 tons in 1917–8 and fell to 251,000 tons the succeeding year. In the same period (1912–9) the coal exported rose steadily from 179,000 to 589,000 tons. Most of the coal exported goes to Indian ports. The coal comes almost entirely from the Witbank mines, Transvaal. Besides coal Delagoa Bay receives from the Transvaal for export copper, tin, asbestos and maize. The export of copper on a considerable scale dates from 1913. It quickly attained the first place in regard to value (£573,000 in 1916 compared with £199,000, the value of the coal exports the same year). Exports of commodities produced in the province developed slowly. In 1913 they were worth £162,000, the chief item being sugar (£62,000); they fell during the period of the World War. Imports for consumption in the province reached the value of 1,083,000 in 1912.