A LETTER FROM LONDON

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 53, 26 November 1928, Page 12

A LETTER FROM LONDON

DISTINCT STEP TOWARDS CHURCH REUNION

SCHOOLBOY TOUR TO NEW ZEALAND

Dominion Special Service.

London, October 11. .The Church Congress, at Cheltenham, marked a distinct step forward in the movement towards the reunion of the Church of England and the Nonconformists. As the president (the Bishop of Gloucester), so strikingly declared: “We are.not fundamentally divided, and there -is a common conception of Christianity, and a common belief in our Lord, which some people express differently.’’- In the tense ; atmosphere of sharp controversy which marked the Congress, the Bishop - of Gloucester maintained a firm, but tolerant, attitude. How much this was appreciated by the Congress as a whole, . was abundantly evidenced by the applause which greeted Canon H. A. Wilson (Rector and Rural Dean of Cheltenham)., when, having been called upon to give out certain notices, he referred to the services performed by the president, and, turning to Dr. Headlam, said: “You have given , an elementary lesson to the whole Church of England, which, I hope, we shall not only learn here, but pass on to other people.” The phase of reunion to which several speakers directed' the attention of Congress was that which concerns the mission field. Canon. Garfield H. Williams (secretary of the Missionary Council of the Church Assembly),, admitted that while reunion “seemed”-more urgent in the mission field than it did at home, he was beginning to doubt whether it was much more urgent in the one place than in the other. Of many

practical reasons for reunion, there was none to compare with the simple fact of the -weakening .of their witness as a divided Church. Congress was reminded that in every non-Christian country in the world, they met with the gibe: “See how these Christians hate one another.” Disunion on the vast issues of religion, appeared to him to have been inevitable, but he claimed that the kernel of Christianity was victory over sin, and victory over disunion in the formation of a real fellowship. Trade Union Candidates. Following the Birmingham Conference, in which Communists and extremists like Mr. Maxton met with a severe rebuff, Labour leaders’now look forward to a period of rehabilitation of the movement up to the general election. lhe decisions are regarded as in complete harmony with the verdict of the Trade Union Congress at Swansea. Efforts to recruit members for the.trade unions have met with only limited success, lhe position in the distressed areas is worse as regards organisation than the oldest ot the union officials can recall, and even m favoured industries, such as some ut the luxury trades, there has been a marked indifference to the trade union appeal. These facts have compelled both the political and industrial sides of the movement to look to the application of the programme iu the Melchett-Turner conversations, especially as recommending complete* organisation of the emp. yers and workpeople. That is. however, a purely voluntary pronouncement, anu not for many months in any event could there be effort to reduce it to practical politics.. Meanwhile, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald and his colleagues recognise that ill the. general eletcion they must .rely largely on voluntary effort, but it is pointed out that, in view of the large proportion of Independent Labour Party candidates and those nominated by nontrade union organisations, which has been true of most elections, there will be nothing new in this situation. ; Indeed, there are many candid friends "of the Parliamentary Socialist force who consider that it would be entirely to its advanafge in efficiency to have the number of strictly trade union candidates reduced. Experience of recent years has shown that few can effectively combine Parliamentary and trade union duty, and very few have shown a marked aptitude for the tasks of Westminster. A Prosperous Industry. With the opening. of the great annual Olympic Show, London becomes the centre of interest of the whole motoring world For months past manufacturers in all the motor-producing countries of the world have been at work on their show models. These machines - are . now . set out in splendid array at Olympia, and comprise the finest, largest, and most varied display of motor carriages ever got together under one roof The present exhibition differs from its rivals in Paris." New York, Brussels, and Berlin in that it is truly international. Here the British buyer is fortunate in having all. the- motoring world at his feet. ■ There is scarcely any car made in any. ’part ot the world that is not to be found ajt Olympia, the foreign exhibits constituting over- one-third ot those in view. Olympia this year shows, as never* before, that as regards design, efficiency*, appearance, and price, the British car is more than equal to any foreign product But the combination of the import duty, plus rising production costs abroad.* has given the British manufacturer his chance. Output, has been increased, with corresponding diminution in overhead charges,- so that prices have fallen tb highly competitive levels. In many cases, though prices’are the-same as before, the cars, are really cheaper, because so much additional equipment has been added. Thus, some makers are equipping their cars with such extras as unsplinterable . glass, pneumatic upholstery, vacuum servo brakes ami hydraulic shock absprbers. yet are charging only the same price.-as they did last year for cars that did not embody these improvements. ’ The constant price reduction that has been made in recent years in the motor trade’ means that motor-car buyers are in the fortunate position ot being able to purchaser cheaper—and far better—cars than in pre-war days. Ot few articles of commerce can this be said. A Schoolboy Tour to New Zealand. The l’ublic Schools’ Empire Tour Committee, formed by Mr. Amery two years ago, is arranging a venture more ambitious than either of the two previous tours to Australia and South Africa. At the beginning of. January a party of schoolboys will start on a tour to New Zealand by way of Panama, and return about the middle of May, after a Homeward voyage via the Suez Canal. Seven weeks will be spent in New Zealand in lhe height of summer, and the greater

part of the voyage round the world will be across summer seas. On the voyage • Home calls will be made at the chief Australian ports, and at Colombo. Owing to the length of time occupied on the journey, the tour will be confined to boys who are leaving' school at Christmas, The purpose of these tours is to make boys at tin impressionable age familiar with the conditions of a settler’s life in the countries visited. A certain number of those who took part in the previous tours have returned to Australia and South Africa as settlers, but success is not to be measured only by this criterion. Equally . important is the awakening by personal contact of interest in the political, social, and agricultural problems of the Dominions, in after-life, lads who took part in one of these tours, and were not attracted to the life overseas, still may be able to give useful service to overseas interests, because they once were gatherers of knowledge at first hand. The British Shoe Industry. One of this country’s leading industries is the manufacture of boots and shoes, and at the. opening ot the Shoe and Leather Trade Fair Lord Inverforth paid a tribute to the trade for the way in which they had reorganised the industry after the war. When he was SurveyorGeneral of Supplies at the War Office he said, he learned to appreciate the extraordinary importance of the industry in

supplying equipment not only for our own Army, but to a large extent for our Allies. The high quality of the material used and the workmanship put into the Army boots impressed everybody, and-it is those qualities which are the secret of this British industry’s success—a success shown, by tlie fact that in two years our leather exports have increased by 40 per cent., and the boot and shoe exports by 20 per cent. Lord Inverforth amused his audience by saying that “as we spend two-thirds of each day (or 243 days in every year in our boots, we demand of them an ability to withstand greater strain and resistances than any other object of human apparel is subject to.” In spite of flie difficult times through which the trade has passed owing to the world shortage of hides and the . high cost of leather, there is every outward evidence of prosperity at the exhibition. The current year has seen a great improvement. Our exports of footwear are nearly two and a half times as great as our imports, and it is estimated that the trade in this country manufactures 117,000,000 pairs of boots and shoes per annum, of a value of £50,000,000. Among the novelties this year for women are coloured "rubber Wellingtons with high Louis-shaped heels, leggings and gaiters I of varied designs, and a new footwear called the “bootee.” The “bootee” is a shoe made in all sorts of faucy shades, but has at the ankle a collar, which’ can be turned up in wet weather to keep the ankle dry. The rubber Wellingtons are to be this year’s substitute for Russian boots. Scientific Aid to Navigation. The Leviathan, of the States Line, which sailed from New York on October 6, and is now well out in the Atlantic Ocean, is being guided to Southampton by an instrument which measures the depth of water continuously, by timing electric echoes, and thus making it possible for the navigating officers to plot their course as accurately in darkness and fog, as in clear daylight. The announcement that this instrument, the ■fathometer, had been installed . on the Leviathan as the latest scientific aid to navigation, was made at the London office of the United. States Lines. Tests have proved that the fathometer is especially valuable in approaching land where knowledge of depth is important. With its aid, the Leviathan is able to pick up the 100-fathom curve off the Grand Banks at full speed, 'where formerly it was necessary to come, almost to a stop to permit heaving the lead. The fathometer is a small instrument, about one foot square, which transmits electrical sounds, downward from the keel. The time required for • the return of the echoes is timed to a -split second; and is .translated in fathoms of depth on a clock-like dial. Various United States Government Departments have co-operat-ed with the submarine signal corporation, of Boston, in developing the fathometer as an important contribution to navigation. It is now being used on all ships on the coast, and geodetic survey, in making the charts which are supplied tfl shipping. It has also been adopted as standard equipment by the U.S. N'ayy, and by the navies of other important maritime nations. ” By Motor to Bagdad. A remarkable motor journey has been performed- by- James Williams, a young Welshman employed- by the Egyptian Educational Department, who motored from London to Bagdad in‘ a baby car. His route was Calais, Vienna, Belgrade, Constantinople, Konia,. Alexandretta, Beyrout, and Damascus. He left Bagdad to-day on the return journey across the Syrian desert to Damascus, whence he proposes to drive to Jerusalem, across the Sinai desert to Egypt, and to journey through Asia Minor. The successful crossing of the Syrian desert, 500 miles, with such, a small ear is -garded as a notable tribute to British workmanship and the pluck of the Welsh driver. Mr. Williams said the only serious incident throughout his 4000 mile, journey ■ oecurrtd in a remote region of Asia .Minor, when lie was travelling alone.. “I was held up bv three Turkish brigands, who endeavoured to steal an invaluable spade with which I used to dig myself and the ‘baby’ out of the sand and mud. I laid out two of them with a left and right, and got a half-nelson on. the third. 1 then carried on, complete with spade, after rebuking them in Welsh for their despicable conduct.” ■Williams-, who like his car, is a bantam-weight, was given a rousing reception by motorists, in Bagdad who regard his solitary lourney to Damascus and Bagdad with such a small car as a phenomenal performance. An Olympic Fund. The suggestion- is made by Lord Rochdale. chairman of the Olympic Games Committee, that a scheme should be organised for securing a iffillipn subscribers at 3d. each to a British Olympic Games fund. The chief merit of the pro-

posal is that it would put the financing of the British teams in the future on a satisfactory basis. It is a costly business to send a large number of national representatives to another country, and. often to a far distant country, and to maintain them throughout a fairly prolonged athletic festival. There have been difficulties in this country in raising the money necessary for this purpose, and on more than one occasion these difficulties could not have been surmounted if it had not oeen for the generosity of a few publicspirited people. Yet the whole nation comes in for not a little reflected credit when, as at the last Olympiad, its representatives are conspicuously successful; and the whole nation, too, takes a deep interest in the Games once they are in progress. If appealed to. therefore, for a trifling sum, it is hardly to be supposed that the public would fail to respohd whole-heartedly to Lord Kochdale’s proposal. The Olympic Games, deserve all the support that can be given them. They stimulate an enthusiasm for athletics, and this enthusiasm is an excellent check on any tendency on the part of a nation to drift into a C 3 physical condition. There are, admittedly, occasional jealousies, disputes, and unpleasantnesses, due largely to differences, in language and the tension of competition. But, taken as a whole, the Games help to promote international understanding and friendships, and the highest conception of sportsmanship; and they also induce in each contesting- nation the best sort of patriotism and a community of endeavour which recognises no class barriers.