ABOUT NOTABILITIES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 174, 22 July 1916, Page 14

ABOUT NOTABILITIES.

Lord Joicey, who has lost a second eon in the war, is probably the greatest coalowner in the United Kingdom. His father worked in the pits, and that fact lends an added appropriateness to the family coat of arms, in which two miners' picks and two Shetland ponie3 stand out prominently.

Whilst the audience awaited the arr'val of Mr. Lloyd George at the recent meeting at Gonway, in Wales, they sang a song of welcome to the Minister. Partof the song ran:

We hail tnee, Cambria's uncrowned king, He saved his country more than once With ammunition and nuance, And he will have saved us ouue again, We'll follow him with might and main.

Sir Douglas Haig, British Commander-in-Chief in France, has a keen sense of humour and a gift of repartee. A big blustering sergeant was cursing two men for being carelass with ammunition, and shouted, "You'll send us all up to ■Heaven like a rocket." Sir Douglas chipped in: "Unless you improve your language, sergeant, I'm afraid you may go in an opposite direction."

Earl Cadogan's political career promised at one time to be quite distinguished, and, seeing that he became LordLieutenant of Ireland in Lord Salisbury's last Administration, perhaps one may say that it was distinguished. But probably the Earl, who died the other day, is best remembered in connection with the controversy that raged over •his Chelsea properties. According to one estimate, the improvement of this estate involved the disappearance from Chels a of more than twenty thousand families. Less than thirty acres were turned over to a public company at a total price of £332,000, and this was only a modest poTtion of the London property. Telegrams from the Italian Headquarters state that the third day of the Prince of Wales' stay in the war zone was spent in visiting the Carso front. Although bad weather to some extent interfered with the visit, it was, on the whole, made under favourable conditions. King Victor Emanuel and the Prince left the 'Royal residence at 10 o'clock in the morning in a motor car, followed by two other cars. They had several timee to alight and proceed on foot to higher points from which they could get better views. The King and the Prince were loudly cheered in the course of their journey through the principal centres, and the chief villages through which they passed were gaily decorated with the national colours of Italy and Great Britain.

The many friends in England of Count Benckendorff, the Russian Ambassador, have been delighted to notice that his Excellency has again teen honoured with a special rescript from the Czar expressing warm appreciation of his services at the Court of St. Jamee , ; and no one acquainted with the facts will fail to agree that the distinction has been well earned. There wae a time even when his pronounced Anglophile sentiments were believed to have stood in his way at Petrograd, .but to-day both.nations are reaping the benefit of his never-ceasing efforts to promote a good understanding between them. The last De Benckendorff who came to London in a diplomatic capacity arrived in 1812 in the person, not of an Ambassador, , but of an Ambassador's wife. This was the famous Princess de Lieven, whose cleverness procured her the hearty dislike of Lord Palmerston. Count Benckendorff is her great-great-nephew. The value of physique in a Prime Minister has never been more strikingly si town than in the last few years (says the "Yorkshire Evening Post"). Even Mr. Gladstone could not have sustained the burden which has been laid upon Mr. Asquith: In all his long period of office the Prime Minister has had only two slight breakdowns. After the coal strike a touch of influenza and nervous worry compelled him to take a short holiday, and earlier this year an attack of bronchial catarrh kept him away from the House for about a fortnight. He has a splendid constitution, but he owes his immunity from serious ailment to the same cause as did Mr. Gladstone. Like Mr. Gladstone, he has the power of dividing his mind into water-tight compartments, and when once a subject has been temporarily disposed of it ceases to worry him.

Three times h»s Admiral Jellicoe escaped death by little short of a miracle. The first exciting epieode in his career occurred in 1880, when he was serving as lieutenant on H.M.s. Monarch near Gibraltar. The weather was thick and stormy, and early one mornine a Glasgow steamer, the Ettrickdale, was stranded off Europa Point, on the Spanish coast. Seeing the almost hopeless position of the steamer, the commander of the Monarch called for volunteers, and Lieutenant Jellicoe and seven seamen got into the small boat and' pulled for all they were worth. The boat, however, could not live in, snch a mountainous sea, and was quickly capsized. Fortunately, each man had donned a cork jacket before starting, and after a terrible struggle in the waves all of them were washed ashore more dead' than alive. Finally the crew of the steamer were rescued by a Spanish fishing boat, Lieutenant Jellicoe and his gallant comrades being rewarded by the Board of Trade with medals. The story of how he lost the medal is the story of Admiral Jellicoe's second escape from death. This occurred on June 22nd, 1893, when he was in command of Admiral Tryon's flagship Victoria, which was run into and sunk by the Camperdown in the Mediterranean, resulting in the loss of 300 lives. Too weak with fever to do much to save himself, he would undoubtedly have perished - had it not been for a young midshipman who helped him to struggle away from the sinking ship. Admiral Jellicpe's medal went down with the rest of his property, and when the Board of Trade was informed of the loss the hero was told' that he could have another medal by paying for it. Admiral Jellicoe's third brush with death occurred on land, when he accompanied Admiral Seymour on his unsuccessful attempt to relieve the Poking Legations during the Boxer Rebellion. Finding themselves in a hopeless position, they decided to retreat to Tientsin. On the way they sighted a large body of cavalry, and, mistaking them for a relieving force of Cossacks, signalled them. To° their surprise the cavalry opened fire, and in the struggle that followed Captain Jellicoe, as he then was, charging at the .head of .his men, was shot through the Jung. This wound was dangerous enough, but it was made much worse by the .next five days' retreat to Tientsin, harassed by the enemy most of the time. But even through this, perhaps the worst of his adventarea, the Admiral managed to eon* ocfc alia* and kicking.