OPINIONS ABOUT PEOPLE.

Bush Advocate, Volume XXIV, Issue 24, 18 April 1912, Page 6

OPINIONS ABOUT PEOPLE.

KING GEORGE KNOWS

"King George/' says the Spectator, 1 'knows more of India than any one of his present Ministers, and in addition to the careful discharge of every, public function lie has made a point of conversing privately with princes and high officials and leaders of Indian opinion. He' has learnt their views at Jirst hand, and thus has been able to acquire in a very brief period an extensive knowledge of Indian problems. If the King can do this in one part of liis dominions may not he do the same thing with excellent results in another part?" "We hope that after this auspieious beginning," says the Mail, "visits to other Dominions may follow in due course, and that in time to come King George V. may fulfil the noble vision of Adam Smith, and hold a Canadian Court on the St. Lawrence." QUEEN ALEXANDRA.

"Queen Alexandra," says the Telegraph, "appeared in public on Tuesday for the first time since the sorrowing morning nearly two years ago when King Edward's body was borne to its last resting-place, and the deep and universal sympathy which the nation felt on that occasion for her grief is now linked with respectful admiration of the courage with which she has met the blow of a cruel and unexpected separation, and a genuine pleasure at the presence amongst us once hiore of an august lady whose life is synonymous with one of the happiest periods of the country's history.

"Her Majesty will remember, across the space of the intervening years, another February morning when she landed in the Thames, the bride-elect of the future King of England, happy in her choice of a husband, and happy in the manifest delight with which England welcomed such an alliance with a country closely bound to it throughout the long history of two kindred races. The fair Danish Princess took tlie hearts of the English people oil that occasion by storm, and all their knowledge of her since has deepened their loyal respect and affection."

REV. R. J. CAMPBELL AND THE U.S.A.-

The Rev. R. J. Campbell, of the City Temple, has been to the United States, and has returned invigorated, despite much public speaking. "Of which did you see most evidence—God or Mammon?" asked a Daily News interviewer.

"Well, I saw most of the religious aspect. -That was because the ministers in every town met first and arranged my programme. But I made my own inquiries and tried to get beneath the surface. Then I came to the conclusion that the religious sentiment is deeper in this country than in America, and we have a truer democratic opinion."

"How would you criticise their religious feeling?"

"You see in America very plainly that tendency which is observable everywhere— a kind of concentration on the objective—a reckoning of everything by the material. When they are showing you their parks and scenery, they wi(l say, 'This cost so many dollars,' until, really, I had to amuse myself by inquiring of some landscape how many dollars it had cost, llien they would laugh, quite admitting the point of the jest.

"I think that after seeing what I have seen X sfiould not be quite so keen to adopt a secular solution in our schools as an" alternative to denominational' instruction."

"Does not America want arbitration ?"

"I tried it on every platform, and everywhere the mention .of it evoked immense applause. Think of. it—three thousand miles of frontier between the United States and Canada, yet not one fort—not one gunboat. '

"My linal message to America was*. Put your energies in, your Universities. Think of it~-eight thousand students at Columbia—thousands'and thousands elsewhere .at Universities all over the country—east, west, north, s^uth."

MR. CONRAD'S FIRST ENGLISH. Mr. Joseph, Coarad, the novelist, in his new book, of "Reminiscences" (Nash) tells an amusing story of the first 'English ever addressed to him; He. was a Pole,, and longed to go to sea, and one of the earliest tasks was to row a pilot out. to a ship. "A few strokes brought.'us alongside, and it was. then," says Mr. Conrad, "that for the very first time in my life, I heard myself addressed in English—the speech of my secret choice, of my future of long friendships,: of the deepest affections, of hours of toil and hoursc of ease, and of solitary hours, too, of books read,' of thoughts of remembered emotions—of my very dreams! "Too short for eloquence and der void of all charm of tone, it consisted of the three words, 'Look out, there!' growled out huskily above my head. "The grotesque and massive aspect of that deck hand surprised me very much. My course of reading, of dreaming, and longing for the sea had not prepared me for a sea-brother of that sort."

GORKY AND THE ENGLISH RACE

On the occasion of the production of Maximo Gorky's play, "The Lower Depths," by Madame Yavorska recently, a number of well-known English men of letters sent a message of congratulation to the author at Capri. The following letter has just been received from him:— "I am extremely flattered .. and touched by the telegram sent me by such representative Englishmen, most of whom I know by name and for whose work I have a sincere respect. I am the more proud of this witness to the interest created by my play in London because I survey the work done throughout the world by Englishmen I say to myself,-,' This is the race , which has devoted itself and still does to the propagation of fruitful ideas i and to Lhe spread of the culture common to i\ryan peoples with the great. . esu cncLgy- and the most conspicuous success;---These >aro no empty words . used, in mJying a compliment, but

express a conviction that has long been mine.

"I am happy to have succeeded in arousing the interest of English people in a Russian play, in Russian life, and I hope that this interest is more than passing—that it will not die, but that it will live and help in the wider growth of good feeling. ' The world knows itself little. I think it is richer than it seems to us. Men know each other imperfectly. That is one reason why life seems to them so hard. Gentlemen, life is difficult, but nevertheless men will learn to live more easily, more joyously, more happily. This is the aim of our work, is it not?—Maxime Gorky."

A GREAT PLAYWRIGHT. The Paris correspondent of the Observer highly, praises M. Bernstein's new play 'L'Assaut." "It is overwhelming. It is gripping, it is vivid, it is irresistible, especially when the chief exponent is Lu- 1 cient Guitry, the greatest actor in the world. To Ibsenism is added intuition and a certain subtle understanding of psychic situations, which is peculiarly French, and is as distinct from the spirit of the North as chalk from cheese.

"There is the same sense of impending catastrophe in Ibsen and Bernstein, tho same dramatic intensity ; but hero is poetry added. 'The Assault' marks tho new manner of Bernstein, as if his wanderings in the desert of persecution had led to the discovery of new springs of power and inspiration and a new fount of sweet water.

"There is no word to shock in 'L'Assaut,' no brutal 'situation. Tho figures of the girls introduced are charming. Alexandre Merital, the political hero, as played by Guitry, is masterful, but lovable. And the political allusions are handled with great delicacy. The Leap Year proposal of his daughter's young friend to Merital is touched with real sentiment. No j Bernstein has emerged from the disagreeable incidents of 'Apres Moi,' and the duelling which resulted, with «nh;uiced talent and reputation."

A GREAT DANISH AUTHOR, "The world-renowned Danish author and literary critic-, Dr. Georges Brandos, an houorary member of the most prominent British and other societies of literature- and science, has just celebrated his seventieth birthday," says the Telegraph's Copenhagen correspondent. "Amongst his many literary works may be particularly mentioned his great book on Shakespeare. The author's birthday is being celebrated by his friends and admirers all over the world.. Amongst many letters and telegrams from Great Britain there is one from representatives of literature, science, and art, signed by about four hundred well-known people, including Lord Rosebcry and, the Rectors of Edinburgh and Glasgow Universities, Sir William Turner and Sir Donald McAllister.

A KING'S SERVANT. Captain Sir David Welch, who has just- died at the age of ninety-two, served on the Royal yachts for over thirty years—in the Fairy and the Alberta. The Fairy took Queen Victoria and Prince Consort to Ireland in 1845. "After his retirement Captain Welch was made keeper of the establishment at Virginia w'ater, where, in the Royal Cottage, he resided. In this post he had much to do with the trim little brig on Virginia Water in which the present Prince of Wales andhis brothers learnt the first rudiments of seamanship and acquired their first experience of nautical ife," says the Times. HONG KONG UNIVERSITY. Sir Charles Eliot has been nominated Principal of Hong Kong University after a considerable diplmatic career. He was appointed Vico-Chan-cellor of the Univorsity of Sheffield iri 1905.