GOSSIP FROM LONDON.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 80, 4 April 1925, Page 7

GOSSIP FROM LONDON.

INGE ON DECAY.

FASCISM AND LOGIC

THE MONEY-LENDING SCANDAL.

(From Our Special Correspondent.)

LONDON, February 19.

The Gloomy Dean is becoming, every _ a y in every way. gloomier and eloomier. Discussing "National decay and regeneration.'' a few days ago. he pointed out thai disruption from within, violence from without, and disease—malaria, for instance —might all play their part in ruining nations, but that economic factors like new trade routes and new means of production, were most important of all. "In the future,*' he said, "the Pacific trade will be as important as the Atlantic trade, and for this reason nothing can prevent North America from being the centre of the world's wealth and commerce." This change in world trade, like the Yellow Peril and the giving out of Britain's coal supply, is too far distant to excite much alarm. The average man is concerned only with what is happening here and now. But that Dean Inge's prophecy will be borne out some day is practically certain. More than half the population of the world lies around the Pacific, and backward though the 900,000,000 coloured people are at present, their day will surely come. The white countries—the Uni~ted States, Canada, Australia, and NeAV Zealand —must also undergo rapid development, and with every decade the relative importance of the Pacific in international politics and trade must become greater.

When this comes, America, lying as it does midway betAveen Europe and Asia, will be in a position to cultivate the markets of the East, while retaining her hold on Europe. It is hard, therefore to escape the logic of Dean Inge's conclusion that America will eventually dominate the commercial world. Good Medicine —But Not For Us! • Some people in England, and a section of the press, are showing quite remarkable affection for Mussolini and the Fascist system. One wonders whether their enthusiasm would be as great if they lived under it themselves.

This doubt, together with a certain amount of A-ery pardonable irritation, may be seen in a letter written by an Italian to "The Times." "A section of the English press," he points out, seems inclined to accept the idea that what might be neither reasonable nor useful for England may yet be useful and reasonable for Italy—i.e., the suppression of the independence of the press, and the limitation of ciAic and political rights. Such an idea would seem to imply that 77 years of constitutional liberty (since 1S48), and 05 years of national life (since 1860) have worked in Italy in a sense opposite that of •-' experience elsewhere, and that the Italians of to-day have ceased to have any moral claim to those liberties for which they believed themselves (and have been believed) to be fit and ripe in the fateful years of our Risorgimento. Such an assertion sounds intolerable to us, even amid the sharp, est disputes to which Latins and Germans are more easily prone than Anglo-Saxons; and it seems to mc unfair that it should find acceptance in a press such as the English, -which is wont to study world affairs objectively and dispassionately. . . There are some in England who believe that only an autocratic Government can overcome in Italy the Bolshevist danger. Even in England it should be known that there is no Bolshevist danger amongst us; that Italy neither is nor could become Communist; that a country possessing a widespread system of small landownership is not at ail likely to fall a prey to Bolshevism."

To this protest it is difficult to find any convincing answer. The beating and killing or opponents, the suppression of every independent journal, and tfie bludgeoning of eleetprs have disgusted every liberal mind with Fascism. This very day comes the news that troops have not only suppressed a leading journal for a very moderate criticism, but have torn up all the nomination papers in the hands of the opposition in one district, thereby assuring the return of their candidate "unopposed." Shylocks and the Law. When will Britain deal with the scandal of the usurer? Every day brings ! fresh disclosures and heart-rending revelations of the misery that .England's Shylocks are causing amongst the workers, the poorer clerical classes, and civjl servants. In many cases recently before the courts it has been revealed that unregistered money-lenders, themselves of working-class origin, lend small sums to the dwellers of the slums at rates of interest ranging from 400 per cent, to 3000 per cent. In other cases the victim has been trapped through a seductively-worded letter, obligingly offering "any sum, without j •security, simply on note of hand, at very moderate rates of interest." These letters are sent to a civil servant, bank clerk, clergyman, or any other person whom publicity would ruin, and very often he swallows the bait. Once hooked, of course, he is mercilessly played, any protest or resistance on his part being silenced by threats of proceedings and publicity. The whole business has become so unsavoury that public opinion is solidly, behind Colonel Ashton Pownall's bill to place money-lenders under the strictest supervision, and to prevent them using His Majesty's.mails for their extremely dirty trade.

Paderewski Still Supreme. Paderewski is in England again, and enjoying a triumphal procession. By this I do not mean that there has been a repetition of the amazing scenes and nysterical excitement caused by a small m of the name of Coogan; for, after wwi- derewß j? is only a musician, ™£r -!! cry film actor > as he and his publicity man admit, is an artist. Still, paderewski has had his small successes. enee+w ll amon g s * the great audience that packed the Albert Hall the __*+& Lad } c not been and ten thousand people united in showed « « admiratson and affection for one of the greatest musicians of the It was a great occasion, and in spite untoS *£**?<»> Paderewski lived to Jlvn- Plan ° has suffered turlh llln S a nd changes of temperais said M ft* HaU ' with its e <*oes, for a nLVI 5 e ™r st P lace in Europe lor a pianoforte recital; and owing to w^s P ha V rnf Cc ° f *™' there wis IS t a mmUte vhen son *one was not coughing. And yet the great aßsistance ° f *nj other _rot__T d * or , n / arl y ttr <* hours. His programme included many things ofiS

traordinary technical difficulty, including Liszt's arrangement of Schubert's songs and Bach's organ fugue in G minor, and there were times when the sheer muscular effort of pounding the keys must have been tremendous. But from beginning to end he played like the master he is, never fumbling a note or slurring a phrase. As a feat of memory and muscle on the part of a man -who is well up in years, it was remarkable. As an exhibition of fiery genius and perfect technique it was superb, almost miraculous.

And there was something else. Paderewski is giving only one recital in London, and only five in England, and he is devoting the proceeds of them all, between £10,000 and £20,000 to the British Legion, -which has 750.000 exsoldiers out of work. It is a noble gesture worthy of a great-souled man, and puts to shame one or tAvo Avealthy musicians on whom the Empire has a better claim.