PERSONAL NOTES FROM LONDON.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 75, 29 March 1928, Page 22

PERSONAL NOTES FROM LONDON.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, February 21. Mr. and Mrs. Amery last week were involved in a round of welcomes. On Wednesday they lunched with the King and Queen at Buckingham Palace, and Mrs. Amery went on later in the afternoon to Claridges, where Lady Harcourt, president of the Society for Overseas Settlement of British Women, had a, recepiton in her honour. The Empire Parliamentary Association dined them, and the British Empire Producers' Organisation lunched tliem, and to-day they will be entertained at the South African Luncheon Club by the High Commissioner of the Union.

Among the New Zealandevs present it the 8.E.P.0. luncheon were: Captain T. E. Donne, formerly Secretary to the New Zealand Government; Mr. H. E. Davis, New Zealand Dairy Control; Mr. R. S. Forsyth, New Zealand Meat Producers Board; Mrs. H. E. Stephens, Major Helv Pounds, of the Brotherhood Migration Scheme, and Mr. C. J. Wray; Major King, of the Australian Dairy Board, and Colonel Manning, Director }f Australian Migration. Others known to the Dominion who attended were Lord Clifford of Chudleigh, Commissioner Lamb, of the Salvation Army, and the High Commissioners and Agents-General of various Dominions.

Among the newer forms of art are some rather extraordinary productions now being shown. The Seven and Five Society is composed of artists who display pretty colour patterns to which one is expected to react in such a way that their freely invented geometric patterns infringe on the mind of the looker-on as the image of concrete objects. And among these Mr. Len Lye, a New Zealander, figures. Mr. Rutter, the well-known critic, says of the leader of his group, Mr. Sidney Hunt: 'He is as much and as unsuccessfully at pains to express visual experience in abstract rhythm as Mr. Ben Lye, the designer of the Batik 'Shawl' and Wall Decoration,' is to avoid any connection with visual experience in freely invented geometric forms," and goes on to say: "The mental gymnastics required to estbalish any connection between these titles—'Mirage Diver,' 'Boys and Waves,' 'Mirape: Newspaper Boy'—are quite beyond the capacity of the ordinary person's brain." 'Mr. Lye is a versatile youth, and he is now busily engaged on a film intended to convey an idea of the abstract —if that, in fact, is not to be its actual title—which necessitates the making of 12,000 drawings. Mr. Lye has already done 1500 of these drawings, and the caption writer will have his work cut out. The Seven and Five Society was formed in 1920, the original members consisting of seven artists and five sculptors. Now, however, the irtists greatly predominate.

The statement which recently appeared in some New Zealand newspapers that Miss Agnes Scully, a retired post office official, had become secretary to Sir James Parr, is unfounded. Mr. Charles Knowles, who was with Sir Thomas Mackenzie and Sir James Allen, is private secretary to Sir James Parr.

The many friends of Mrs. F. G. B. Waldegrave will be deeply grieved to learn of her sudden death in Ceylon on February 11. Mrs. Waldegrave, who had not been in good health for some time, went for the voyage in January with Mr. and Mrs. Duncan Paterson to Colombo. Mrs. Waldegrave, who was Alice Lucy Atkinson, daughter of Sir Harry Atkinson, had a most vivid personality. Her kindness and hospitality were unfailing to her large circle of friends, both New Zealanders and English. Her interests were wide, and especially keen in politics. Her death will be mourned by many both here and in the Dominion.

Miss E. Simpson, of Auckland, is spending the winter in Cannes, and will probably return to London in April. Miss Simpson, who has toured North Africa from Tunis to Algiers, spending some time at Biskra, will return to New Zealand by the Cathay, leaving London Jn August 10.

Mr. Hector Bolitho gave an entertaining address at King's Lynn, where at the King Edward VII. Grammar School Prince Chavchavadzi gave a piano recital. In the interval Mr. Bolitho spoke of his life in New Zealand, of "salted Anglicans," and the extraordinary wealth of English literary issociaitons with New Zealand, and told bis audience that a higher percentage if the people of New Zealand went to the University than in England or Germany. "When you read of New Zealand in your newspapers," concluded Mr. BoliVx>, "I want you to pause and rememly/ these things and to think of New Zealand as she really is, and not as a barbaric country where neoDle still eat each other." Miss K. V. Edgerley, of Auckland, who is here on a pleasure trip, came by the Port Fremantle via Panama. Miss Edgerley, who is on the staff of the Auckland Girls' Grammar School," will of course, take this opportunity of seeing what she can of educational matters! For -b* moment she is remaining for some months in London. She will then visit relations in Hampshire, and tour _ Cevon," Cornwall, Scotland, and the Coni tinea*. _