British Did Not Expect Much From Talks

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 237, 6 October 1945, Page 4

British Did Not Expect Much From Talks

Belsen Marathon

LONDON ROUND-UP

Special to the Auckland Star

LONDON, October 4. The only obvious thing about the Foreign Ministers' Cof a s ttwtjt down on tlJmost vital issues The funny thing an d impressed - tor depressed. The conference got much D age DisiUus i O ned Britons did not probably Australia and New Zealand, too — than in tfiitam. expect much and were not disappointed,

By DOUGLAS WILKIE

Ottawa agreements will be reviewed and there is strong support in Britain for the replacement of Imperial preference by a system of reciprocal bulk sales within the Empire—the sort of thing pre-war Germany practised in Central Europe.

8.8.C. View THE 8.8.C. renounced its last claims to impartiality when an Oxford-toned commentator described the world trade union conference as a line-up of Russia versus Britain and America, backed up by the -Dominions, the day after Australia s Mr. Ernie Thornton had gone lor Sir Walter Citrine like a mastiff worrying an indignant, rather pompous lion.

The representatives-of the workers of the world are united on nothing except the unsuitability of the Pans black market as a rendezvous. Sir Walter is paying £5 5/ : a night for his hotel suite.

Princess Elizabeth has chosen a modest grey squirrel coat, and it is a fair guess that grey squirrel coats will be the fashionable fur for young West End people this winter. Fashion experts tell us that expensive furs are "coming back" with mink coats "soon to be much cheaper" at £500.

I would like to know how anybody can afford to buy mink after having paid due regard to the income tax and National Savings appeals. Only a few London shop windows have reacted to the Berkeley Hotel's insistence that patrons must revert to evening dress. Experts estimate that a "fish and soup" outfit costs a minimum of £44 and 64 coupons (18 months' supply) and takes six months to make.

Lieutenant-Colonel R. Rowbottom, who commanded 1000 military and civil policemen at Trieste on a salary 'of £15 a week, plus allowances, was demobilised this week and went back to his pre-war job as a police constable at Southport at £5 a week. He said "My wife, who married me as a constable, thinks I am doing the right thing." * * * * After five months of fruitless jobhunting, a 48-year-old demobilised army officer, Major George Stringer, inserted this advertisement in a Kent newspaper: "Man for sale. I auction myself to the highest bidder. I am educated, cheerful and willing, a reliable, firstclass salesman, and expert driver and horseman." There have been no offers yet for the major's body. * * * * The issue of special ration books to expectant mothers entitling them, to go to the top of food queues is. not a success. Tradesmen say the wonien are too shy to assert their priority. * * * * The Royal Institute of British Architects is bringing to the notice of housing authorities a "plus granny" flat. In it, there will be an extra selfcontained adjoining room, with .a separate door, whore the whitehaired old lady can belong to the family but remain independent, except for an emergency bell-push. My, my! They'll soon invent a flat incorporating mothers-in-law and secret trapdoors. Meanwhile, any sort of flat would do to go on with. New Job For Monty? •piELD-MARSHAL Sir Bernard •T Montgomery is tipped to succeed Sir Alan Brooke as Chief of the Imperial General Staff. Sweeping Army reforms are pending, and Monty is the man for the job. He is a stern disciplinarian, but does not believe that this atomic age justifies the G.O.C. Brigade of Guards issuing spit and polish orders this week, which resulted in a drill sergeant dressing down veterans of the Western Desert and Europe with: "There is going to be bags of bull and boloney, and any of you mud and blood-stained heroes who fancies it is as easy as being on the battlefield are going to get a hell of a big surprise." * * * * You have heard of Dante's brother, but maybe you never heard of Tommy Lawton. Twenty-five-year-old Soccer star Lawton has just been "valued" by the Everton Soccer Club for the record sum of £17,500. On a leg for leg basis, this compares with the 28,000 guineas for a colt bought by an Indian Maharajah.

Incidentally, it takes some four weeks to get a collar laundered. If hotelkeepers worried more about catering for the inner man and less about the outer man, London would be a better place. * * * *

Tubular steel heels are the British boot and shoe manufacturers' latest solution of the leather shortage. They are "lighter" and more springy than the orthodox wood or leather," the designers , say. The Food Ministry has just completed a deal by which there will be 800.000 Irish turkeys for Britain's Christmas dinners.

DESCRIBING the long-drawn-out Belsen trial, with its panoply of pomp and legal procedure, as offending her sense of decency and propriety, Mrs. Mavis Tate, M.P., says that summary court-martial would be more decent, fairer, less costly, and more likely to enhance British prestige. Ninety per cent of Britons agree. Others are asking when we are going to start trying or releasing iO,OOO Greek "mutineers," mostly bluejackets, who have, been kept in prison camps in the Middle East since 1944."

Like Dante's brother, Lawton will not see any of the cash if he is sold to another club.

Music Boom

CONDUCTOR Malcolm Sa rgent C back from Australia Pri vate enterprise can no longer cope they do public libraries and baths. Thirtv-five London theatres are all this V™ ves J^} iir> ta«stp is improving, or whether it hSSSEmss biggest money. Author, composer, actor Ivor Novello pays tax on over £1000 a week income from his producuon "Perchance to Dream," and the sales of its sheet music. If he goes on much longer the British Government will be able to afford an atom bomb of its own. Dashing blonde soprano Cora O'Farrell just arrived in London from Melbourne, tells me, she is engaged "by Stoli Theatres to play

principal boy in "Dick Whittington" for a pantomime season. The Bow Bells need not tell us to turn again when Cora is around. The New Zealand actress, Marie Ney, has heard that her husband, Thomas Menzies, a rubber estate agent in Malaya, survived a Japanese prison camp. She will make her first London appearance for six years jn a new modern-dress version of Euripedeis' "Trojan Women." * * * * Princess Elizabeth has been invited to act as god-parent to the infant Crown Prince of Yugoslavia, the son of King Peter and Queen Alexandra, when he is christened in London on October 24. * * * * William Joyce (Lord Haw Haw) is writing his autobiography in the condemned cell and expects it will be a best seller. Probably it will, but Joyce won't get the royalties.