LONDON LETTER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 56, 7 March 1934, Page 14

LONDON LETTER.

POLICE SANDHURST.

A THAMES TORPEDO.

COLLARS AND EFFICIENCY.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

LONDON, January 25,

It is anticipated that students will be admitted to the. new police college, housed in what was formerly the fine premises of a country club at Hcndon, early in April. Colonel lialland, the commandant, is now engaged with itj preliminary organisation. By all accounts it is to be a most ambitious and up-to-date one. The training of recruits will be in the most modern methods of crime detection; but the emphasis of the training will bo on crime prevention. Students will learn to regulate and organise crimeprevention patrols and beats; how to vary beats, so that the criminal will never know where and when the policeman is going to turn up next; how to work at cross beats, so as to make household guarding plans still more difficult to anticipate. Students will be taught to drive a car and ride a horse.

The accommodation at Peel House includes classrooms, a lecture hall and a common room where work can bo done in the evening. There are well appointed bedrooms, a library and a guest room. One of the college's aims is to send out men who are fitted physically for the hardships of policc duty. So there will be plenty of sport, a football ground, tennis courts, swimming pool and gymnasium. THE ARMED TAXI BOAT. In about ten days there will start plying on the Thames, between Putney and Greenwich, taxi boats, designed to carry 100 passengers each. The fare will be sixpence all the way. There will be dancing on the upper deck and cocktails in the saloon cabin. The average speed will be IS knots, and tlio propulsion will he hy two 100 li.p. engines. The first of these boats, the "London River," has been launched, and, if London is only as hot this coming summer as it was last, there should bo a large number of passengers to enjoy this very cheap trip, organised by a private company. But these, taxi boats arc not all innocent merriment. They have a secondary and somewhat sinister import. The "London River" carries a gun platform and two ISin torpedo tubes. She is Btrong enough to carry two 750 li.p. engines, giving a speed of 50 knots. In addition, there are facilities for depth charge chutes. One cannot avoid a suggestion that these sixpenny taxis might have to he taken into account at some future Disarmament Conference. In light of these facts it is easy to imagine an international commission of inspection turning the buses upside down to see what might drop out. FASHIONS FOR POSTMEN - . The War Office has shown some recent signs of being merciful to the private soldier in the matter of clothes. It is true that the fully fledged Byron collar will not bo seen on parade, but the new military regulation is certainly on the side of ventilation and in relief of rigidity.

The Postmaster General, while not being less obliging than the War Office, has announced himself as jealous to maintain a proper sartorial decorum even in the summer. He has declared against tho absolutely open neck, but there may be a "reasonably low cuff." Bej - ond that, something like propriety steps in. There must be a collar to match the shirt and a tie.

These restrictions, or precautions, are in the interest of efficiency, which is associated with smartness. Whatever may be the standard at Wimbledon, an open neck shirt would not be smart on a perspiring postman. But the post office woman may wear a low neck and dispense with sleeves altogether. Postmen will probably hate post office women in a heat wave, but even their hatred will be efficient. AN UNANSWERABLE VOICE. There is one class of post office woman who is bein£ gradually but surely eliminated by the efficient machine; and that is the telephone operator. The .automatic exchange has loft little for her to do, but now and then the subscriber hears her voice, repeating invariable and irritating formulae. But soon, if certain experiments arc successful, the voice one hears may not be hers. The tone signals, which to many cars arc incomprehensible, will be superseded by a strip of talkie film on a wheel 12in in diameter. On appropriate occasions the voice will say, "Number engaged" or "Number unobtainable," and repeat these indicative words until the subscriber is sufficiently discouraged.

A post office engineer has recently admitted that it will be difficult to prevent subscribers talking to tho voice and saying what they think of it. There will also be difficulty with susceptible or undesirable telephone users who will try to make arrangements to take the voice out to tea. THE COMMONS PAY A PENNY. Tho Kitchen Committee of the House of Commons has had many distinguished members, and their function is by no means undistinguished. Thev look after the food in the "first club" in England. Headed by its chairman, Sir John Ganzoni, the committee has decidcd upon ■what cannot be described as less than a minor.revolution within the staid walls of St. Stephen's.

In order to provide a pensions fund for the stall' of the refreshment department, there will be a levy of one penny on every meal served except teas. This is expected to bring in about £300 a year —not a very large sum to provide for a stall" of more than 100. But it seems to be the best that can be done, for the Treasury, when approached for a contribution, was unable, or unwilling, to oblige. The kitchen staff of the Commons is especially unfortunate and especially deserving. Out of a total of 109, only 34 are permanent, and these 34 receive only half wages during rccesscs, which may amount to as much as one-third of (lie year. The remainder have no wages at all during recess. The Mother of Parliaments does not seem to be very generous towards those who minister to her material appetites. THE WEIGHT OF A FOG. Dr. John S. Owen, who makes a scientific daily record of London's atmospheric impurities, reported that last Wednesday's fog suspended 150 tons of soot over the city. Nowadays we do not get the obnoxious yellow variety of fog well known as the "Loudon Particular." So in a degree we are better off than we were thirty years ago.