LONDON LETTER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 21, 26 January 1939, Page 17

LONDON LETTER.

THE R.AJV H SAFER. THE CHAMBERLAIN BANQUET. BIIOADCASTXXG COOTS BQtt. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, December 31. The Royal Air Force, most popolar of the Services, is asking for 10,000 men. It is sure to gat them easily. Hijrh pay and rapid promotion combine with the thrill of the air to male* the R.A.F. attractive to the average mechanically-minded youth. It is the only one of the three Services which is able to draw recruits in any number from the Dominions. When the present Air Force expansion started there were long queues outside the Air Ministry at the very time when ♦)»+ Army, by all sorts of publicity devices, was trying vainly to get sufficient recruits. Joining the R.A.F. to-day appear, to be leas risky than it was a year or so ago There w 4 s then a big crop of fatal accidents, due largely to ths rapidity of the expansion. Hundreds of new officers had recenly been commissioned, and there were allegations (strongly denied by the Ministry) that these young men were taking machines up before they were sufficiently experienced. Certainly some of th« accidents were due to the fact that fast new aircraft were being delivered in quantity to a Service which had hitherto been flying slower and safer types. One factor which should make the R.A.F. a safer career is that next year only two types of fighter, tha Hurricane and the Spitfire, will be in use. There will probably be about six types of bomber. This will make ft much easier for a pilot to become fully exMM to *" "• '• wm "• 13/ "Km" For Loyalty. German newspaper correspondent* in London paid in hard cash for their loyalty to their country on the night of the banquet to Mr. Chamberlain. For themselves and their guesU they had bought nearly 50 tickets at 15/ apiece. So w hen the Ambassador! ordered them to boycott the banquet, the German party forfeited over £30. Incidentally, thia mass-absenteeism Of Nasi journalists from an important function revealed how extraordinarily numerous are German correspondents in Irfmdofl. There are 25 on the lists of Foreign Press Association. No Other nation has anything like this number of Press representatives living here. Wl>y a nation whoso Press is almost aa standardised as Russia's should need 96 different correspondents is a question which many people are asking. It is suspected that some of the Germans we Journalism as a cloak for other activities, such as propaganda and keeping an eye on refugees. 8.8.C.'s Honey Worries. Rumours that the 8.8.C. is on the verge of insolvency aro sharply denied by Broadeaatlng House. The 8.8.C. ia now almost a Government Department, and its work will go on expanding even If one day it has to be subsidised. But for tha present there 1a no question of •nbsidy, The 8.8.C. still earns more than It spends. Not far short of nine aillioa listeners pay 10/ • year for radio licenses, and a tenth' of this huge eum goes to the State. But tha 8.8. G. may not long sontinue to make ends meet on the 90 per cent of license fees which it now receives. The great rebuilding scheme, which wUI almost doable the diss of Broadcasting House, and the extended Empire proSammee are eating up money. Soon e 8.8.C. may demand the whole of the license fee. Later it may even need grant* from the State; but these would really be repayments out of the large anms the Treasury has taken from broadcasting income in past years. Hint te Gold-Hoardera. Many comparatively small investors are now swelling tho total of hoarded gold in tha vaults of London banks and Mte deposits. Big international financiers are converting their securities into geld from a pannieky fear of slump* and {olitieal upeeta. But many of the small Carders are merely buying for a rise. People with a few thousand pounds to "play with" are buying bullion in the expectation tfeat they will be able to sell it at a higher figure a few months hence. Hint* are mm being dropped, however, that, gold-boarding may not be Suite Such a safe gamble after aIL It i pointed out that tho British Government ia empowered by law to call in all gold holdings of more than £10,000. What la more, the Treasury need only pny the old price of 85/ an ounce for It. This would be a tore blow to investors who have paid up to 150/ an ounce for their ' boarded bullion. London boards, estimated this week at £330,000000 might one day be a great temptation to a financially embarrassed Government. ■ "Colonies" Britain Might Claim. Claims to colontet baaed on historical grounds ware reduced to absurdity In • cpeech recently by the witty historian Philip Guedalla. Italy is now demanding Tunis from France; but, as Ife. Guedalla pointed out; Tunis itself has quite a good "historical" claim to a part of Italy. Tunis is practically on the same site as ancient Carthage, which OUce owned Sicily. As- for Corsica, also claimed by Italy, Britain had control of that island long before the Kingdom of Italy came Into existence, Britain's own "historical" claims might be disconcerting. Mr. Guedalla reminded us that Henry. ll.'s empire embraced a large slice of France. And if we cam* down to comparatively modern times, George 111. was King of Hanover as well as of Britain. His descendant, King George VI, - might therefore lay claim to a part of Hitler's Reich. Britain's HQUea "Ffa-TaMn,*. Two eourt caeca iuggaet Hat the polio* are about to at art a drive against gambling msahlnwi. They will have their work cut out. There ire believed te be about a million nuch machines In Britain—chiefly "pin-tables," on which player* lose pennies, or win ! prima. Hundreds of different kinds of | pin-tables are in use, and there Is room for n Isgal battle over each. Illegality depends upon whether there is a "substantial element of chance" ia winning a prise. The pin-tablas cams to England from America eight years ago, and swept the country at once. About 800 tables are now imported from the United States every week. They cost £15 to <18 apiece, hut they are a good investment. At a fun fair one table may yield a profit of H a day—all in pennies.