LONDON LETTER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 230, 28 September 1935, Page 15

LONDON LETTER.

ITALY'S WAR CHEST.

BEAUTY A GOOD " STUNT."

S.O.S. BY PIGEON POST,

(From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON", September G. Where will Mussolini find the money for his Abyssinian campaign? The fiaastion is being keenly debated liere, for'ltaly's national we&ilth is small compared with that of Britain, France or Germany, and her gold reserves are believed to have been severely depleted. Part of the answer may, perhaps, be found in the recent decreo by which Mussolini compelled all Italians with foreign investments to exchange them for Italian securities. Well informed financiers believe that this deciee has brought a very largo sum into the Italian State coffeis. This substantial fund, it is suggested, will be enough to finance the beginning of the Abyssinian campaign. Afterwards, if success attends his armies, the Duce may float a big war loan. In one valuable commodity Italy is far richer than any other country in the world. She has magniftccnt public collections of naintings by Old Masters, and other works of art. It is being suggested in some quarters here that Mussolini may sell or pledge these national treasures if he cannot find other means of raising money. A Long Job. Every now and then, when things are lull in politics, somebody thinks up a. „ eW joke about tlio Select Committee on income tax law. Ever since 1927 this committee of learned men, under the chairmanship of Lord Macmillan, has been trying to find means not of altering income tax law, but merely of simplifying it, so that the unfortunate taxpayer nmv calculate more easily what he owes his country. But soon there will be 110 more iokes about the committee members growing old and "dying,in harness. Thov are actually near the end of their bmk What their report will advise o one can guess-and it is still more roblematical whether the Government will adopt it. Meanwhile, taxpayers must -vn on wrestling with innumerable complicated pages of instructions and questions.

Beauty Contest Costs. w ve rv year, in various parts of the world/some scores of "Beauty Queens Hre crowned. How many people, when they see pictures of the smiling winners, realise that these competitions are strictly business affairs, with balancesheets and profit and week or two ago a new Miss Europe was proclaimed in an international contest at Torquay. It was just a stunt to popularise the town as a holiday resort.

Now the local council has been going over the accounts, and many members are not satisfied with the results. --The slun of £1500 had been set aside to boost the town in this way, but the organisers were accused of being too lavish. There was a deficit of nearly £000 on the beauty contest. One councillor described the competition as a "frame up, because the winner had been decided on beforehand; others said it was a "cheap show which had ruined Torquay s dignity. But in the end a majority voted that the contest had been "a good 3 «int. What the Beauty Queen herself thinks of it all has not been ietfealed.

Pigeona to the Rescue. With the expansion of the Air Force lias come a suggestion that the authorises should revive the pigeon service which was attached to the R.A.F. during the war. It is proposed that pigeons should always be carried by land planes patrolling the coasts. There is always a danger that these machines may be forced down in the sea, and carrier pigeon* might then bring help to the crews. -By carrying an fe.O.S. back to land the birds would perform the functions of a radio set. I Pigeons proved remarkably useful lluring the war. Once when a seaplane Was forced down carrier pigeons brought lid to the crew of six after the disabled iiachine had been drifting for three lavs. Each war 'plane carried two ligeons. When there was an important i\essagc it was duplicated, and the slcond bird released ten minutes after tie first. Thus one was sure to reach lilme. But as a matter of fact this jnceaution proved hardly necessary, foi t'voughout the war only three or four pigeons out of every hundred collapsed fVflm exhaustion or were shot by enemy snipers. Back to "Wooden Walls." People rubbed their eyes in astonishment when they read this week that the Admiralty is building a new ship with >o steel in it. It sounded like a return |o Nelson's Day, and the "wooden walls If England." The Admiralty is thus foing back a century or so in order to iktild a vessel which will be non-mag-letic. It is wanted for survey work, and must therefore contain no iron or 4eel to interfere with the compass. The Mil will be mainly of wood and the eiWines of bronze. For one purpose iron cainot be substituted —it will have to ha used for the linings of the engine cylinders. Ages of Indiscretion. Having discovered that certain motorist) are "accident-prone," the authorities are now trying to find out just who thoke rash (or unlucky), drivers are. iicmg liable to accidents would seem to '>0. ft matter of nervous temperament, 1 ''it; the Ministry of Transport suspects tlmi age may also have something to do witlj it, so an "age census" of all accidents is being taken. l'lie investigation is not yet complete, hUt results so far suggest that drivers under 23 and over GO are the most dangerous people on the road. If this can be proved, drivers who have the bad luck to be in these two age categories nrny lave to pay higher insurance premiums. It is interesting to note, by the way, that the drivers of London's buses (wiio aro famed all over the world for their carefulness and road sense) are not engaged until they are-at least 27, "lul liave to retire when they are Co. , How to Double Your Money. A man whom the London police Relieve they have caught 11 it on a new V'Jiy of doubling his money. He was ?ctually able to split a £1 note in two, so that the two halves, when folded iivcr, each looked like a complete note. ' Hincc an English banknote is onethousandth of an inch in thickness, the criminal almost deserves to "get away with it," tor his remarkable skill. Incidentally, there may be a pretty legal •u'j'unicnt when the case conies oil. '1 he "M-i ect is to be charged with forgery. But is this forgery? The criminal has not counterfeited a note, but split a (nMuiue one in two.