A BOISTEROUS AUTUMN AFTER BEAMING SUMMER

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25955, 8 November 1949, Page 4

A BOISTEROUS AUTUMN AFTER BEAMING SUMMER

LONDON DIARY

[By NEVILE WEBBER, London Correspondent of "The Press"}

London, October 25.—At last the weather has caught up with the calendar. This last week there has been no doubt that summer• nas fled, a beaming summer that the greybeards will be fondly recalling in 1999. and that boisterous autumn has come. Wind and heavy ram have hall stripped the trees about London, leaving paths and gutters strewn with drifts of leaves tnat fall almost as fast as 'the sweepers clear them. In the streets braziers have appeared with muffled Cockneys crying: “Chestnuts, roast chestnuts, they re lovely." The breath shows white on the morning air now and m every home chimneys smoke into the London haze. Already the evenings are dark at 6.15. They will close in still further next Saturday, when daylight saving el Shops are bright' with autumn fashions.- Exclaiming at the shorter skirts and the coats with huge collars are crowds of women, now wearing head shawls and fur-lined boots. The summer flowers of the window boxes along Whitehall and Regent street I have given way to chrysanthemums and wallflowers. _ This is the season of dances, parties and theatres. Back from their holidays, crowds are still flocking to the musicals, “Annie Get Your Gun and “Oklahoma" (third year), and to the newer successes: “Brigadoon, Latin Quarter,” “The Folies Bergere, at the Top” and “Her Excellency.” The most discussed play » “A Streetcar Named Desire ’ ana themost discussed film, “The Third ManWinter sport is in full swing. While vast crowds are speculating on England’s team for the World Cup at Rio de Janeiro and (in millions of pounds) every week on the pools, Rugby pedants are sadly shaking their heads over the chances of a good British side for New Zealand. Speedways have closed and the shrill, thrill-starved fans have gone to the ice hockey mSt ln d 'the clubs and newspapers the Government is being flailed for indecision and ineptitude. That, however, is not seasonal.

The Alamein Reunion Crowded out of the Albert Hall, this year’s Alamein reunion was held in the great Empress Hall. Nearly 10,000 enjoyed a spectacular programme of bands, trumpeters, qancing girls, humorous patter, songs (including “Lili Marlene”) by famous stars, choir singing and an uproarious sketch by the famous cartoon characters, tne “Two Types,” who were brought to life for the occasion. They were there complete with duffle coats, tea billy, jeep without a work ticket, and idiom in the Gropoi style. While there were cheers foe Field-Marshal Montgomery, now balding and white haired, there was a remarkable ovation for Mr Churchill. His references to other desert leaders, Alexander, Auchinleck, and Gott, were especially well received. Later there was dancing and meetings with long separated friends. Cheer for the Fern .Leaf New Zealand former servicemen would have been deeply gratified could they have been present to hear the thunderous cheer tl\gt went up when the fern leaf emblem of the 2nd New Zealand Division was

paraded. Borne by four steel-helmeted soldiers, the sign of each division and corps of the Bth Army was marched across the stage and down before Mr- Churchill and Monty. Only the signs of the 7th Armoured Di. vision (the famous desert rats), the 51st Highland Division (“H.D." in a circle), and the 4th Indian Division (an alighting eagle) received equal or greater applause. I doubt if there were many New Zealanders there to hear it, however. I made a long search, but did not meet one. Garden for the Blind

Hearing that Exeter, in Devon, had the only garden for the blind in Britain, I wrote to the town clerk for details. He tells me it was planted in 4939, and that blind persons are frequently to be seen there smelling the flowers and caressing the leaves During the first years of the war, when there were many blind evacuees in Exeter, the garden was so popular that the raised Braille dots on the central plaque became bright from the touch of sensitive Angers. Among the many items, selected for the scent of the flowers and leaves, are:—trees: la. burnums, cherries, and crabs: shrubs: azalea, lllaci daphne. viburnum, heather, myrtle, and mock orangt; herbs: lavender, lad's love, rosemary, thyme, and majoram: flowers: UUm, narcissi, hyacinths, stocks, wallflowers, violets, and heliotropes. £157 10s for New Zealand Stamp last week, in a quiet room in Pall Mall, £157 10s was given tor a Id New Zealand stamp. It was one of six stamps (dull carmine full-faced Queen Victoria) printed in London in 1855, and cancelled with the special mark of the printer, Perkins Bacon, to show they were samples. In recent years, said the auctioneer, this stamp has brought as high as £l7O and as low as £llO. Another, which was slightly torn, was sold for £4O. Other nigh prices were £72 10s for a Is yellowgreen full-faced Queen Victoria, £« for a vertical pair of 3d brown-lilac of the same design, and £5O tor a pair of 1855 Id reds. There were tour bidders and 25 mail bidders, mainly New Zealand collectors, tor the 60 lots of early issues, which generally realised above catalogue prices. Film on Atomic Energy “Atomic Physics," produced expressly as an educational Alm for n stricted audiences, is making cinema history this week by being the flrst such film to be released for general exhibition. Freely described as the most ambitious and brilliant educational film ever made, “Atomic Physics" is a fascinating 80-minutas lecture tour of the history, theory, apparatus, achievements, and person, alities of atomic research from 1826 to the atom bomb. Lucid commentary and clever animation enliven the Ahn. Generous tributes are paid to New Zealand's Lord Rutherford, who first split the atom and whose uncanny prophecies are being proved correct to-day. Both he and Professor Ein-stein-looking very like the Wizard of Oz—appear in several close-ups, those of Lord Rutherford being taken from a documentary of his work in 1986. Two 16mm. copies of “Atomic Physics" are now in New Zealand, but it is scheduled for general release soon.