LONDON LETTER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 308, 29 December 1937, Page 14

LONDON LETTER.

RULES FOR AIRMEN.

GEORGE VI. STORIES.

IRISH PRESIDENT'S £15,000.

(Prom Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, December 10. The way in which completely untrue anecdotes about members of the Royal Family may get into circulation is amusingly illustrated by two stories which newspaper men are telling about the King's recent ''tour in Cornwall. Journalists following him naturally had some difficulty in finding out everything he did and said at the various places he visited. After the King had watched a demonstration of milking by electricity on an up-to-date farm, one of the London correspondents remarked jokingly to hie colleagues, "Did you hear what the King said about the milking machines? He said they were more efficient than milkmaids, but not so pretty!" King and the "Pretty Milkmaids." When they opened their papers next day no one was more surprised than the joker to find that his fellow journalists had taken the bluff seriously. "King Misses Pretty Milkmaids" said the headlines. And so a spurious Royal "mot" finds its way into history. The same tour produced, another equally harmless and equally untrue anecdote about the King. One of the correspondents, who had to telephone his "story" at breakfast time before the day's journey began, had no news to report. So he described how the King had gone for a lonely tramp across Dartmoor at dawn. Although the King was sound asleep in bed at that hour, no one thought it worth while to spoil the story by denying it. Air Record Rules. Mrs. Betty Kirby-Green's protest against not being allowed to share with Clone ton the official credit for the record flights they made together to the Cape and back calls attention once more to the maze of rules which surround air records. Even experienced pilots are often ignorant of these rules. Failure to comply with them has meant that many splendid flights have passed unmentioned in official annals.

The rule applying to Mrs. KirbyGreen's case is quite a simple one: that the record must always stand in the name of the senior pilot. Most of the complications arise over routes. To rank as a record a flight must be between one capital city and another. Hence Broadbent's fine solo flight from Australia to England, though the fastest made, was not a record—because he started from Darwin and not from one of the State capitals. Apart from capital-to-capital flights, there are about 20 special routes recognised for record purposes. So the would-be recordbreaker has plenty to study before he sets out. Ireland's £i5,000-a-year President. Ireland's first President, who takes office with the coming into force of the r.ew Constitution, is to get a salary which most Governors, High Commissioners, Ministers and ambassadors will envy. He will receive £5000 a year as pay, plus £5000 for entertaining, and another £5000 for the upkeep of his residence—making a total of £15,000. Following the recent example of the British Cabinet. Irish Ministers are also to have a ' rise" in the Xew Year. But their salaries will still be on a lower scale than those at Westminster. The Irish Premier will get £3000 a year, as compared with Mr. Neville Chamberlain's £10.000. Other 'Ministers receive £2250. or loss than half the £5000 pay-packets of the British Cabinet. But" the Irish have 7nore to look forward to than their London colleagues; they are promised pensions of £300-£SOO according to the number of years they have been in office. An Expensive Giant. The American liner Leviathan, after losing money steadily ever since the war, has celebrated her "death sentence" by losing another £40,000. She has just been sold as scrap to a British firm for £1(50,000; a few months ago, when the scrap metal market was at its height, she would bave fetched £260,000.

The Leviathan, formerly the German liner Vaterland, wa« interned at New York when war broke out in 1914. When the United States intervened in 1917 she helped to win the war against her former Fatherland by carrying 100,000 American soldiers to fight in France. After the war she was put back on the Atlantic passenger service, but she proved so costly to rnn that each trip resulted in a hefivy loss. During the past six years she has not made more than half a dozen crossings. Hor history helps to back the arguments of shipping experts who believe that medium -sized vessels are a much better proposition than giant liners like the Queen Mmy and her sister ship now on the stocks. When is Sculpture Art? When is a piece of sculpture not a work "of art? Many people—including the fraducers of Epstein—would be ready to answer that question. But the responsibility of answering it on behalf of the British Government has just been laid upon Mr. J. B. Manson, director of the Galhery in Londtm. As head of England's principal gallery of modern art. he will be art-critic-in-chief to the Customs authorities.

For the Government has decided to admit free of duty all sculptures which are genuine "works of art." Mr. Manson is the man who must decide that point every time anyone wants to import a statue. The dutv on sculpture was really imposed to check the "dumping" of cheap foreign tombstones, but it covered everything from a weeping angel to the Venus of Milo. Art-lovers and dealers have now succeeded in getting the duty removed from anything Mr. Manson can be persuaded to classify as "genuine art." Tombstones will continue to pay. Britain's £285,000,000 Sickness Bill. Sickness costs Britain the staggering sum of £285.000.000 a year. This calculation is made by a group of experts who have just completed a three years' inquiry into the nation's health services. They point out that although perfect health would save this huge wastage every year, only just over £ 13,000.000 is being spent on medical and welfare services to prevent sickness. I It is reckoned that industry loses £100,000,000 a year through 'workers being on the sick list. The other £185,000,000 represents what 'the sick themselves spend in doctors' bills, hospitals, insurance, etc. One particularly interesting fact brought out in the report is that doctors' fees total £50,000.000. This means that ort an [average every doctor in the country has >an income of £1200.