NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 106, 29 January 1929, Page 10

NOTES OF THE DAY

Sir Gerald du Maurier, the famous actor, is an old man. Many of his contemporaries will agree with his wish that-he could go back to the good old peaceful days when there were no motor-cars, no jazzbands, but merely the placid hum-drum routine of Victorian life. But the younger generation, born to this new,, noisy, and whirling age, knows nothing of the life their elders knew, and liked. This “harking back” to the good old days is part of human nature. Our pleasantest recollections are of the days of our youth, for then we were participators in the game of Life. Old age is merely an observer.

In a sudden burst of communicativeness, the ex-Kaiser _ has celebrated his seventieth birthday by presenting to the world his views on the international situation. Whether the world will take him seriously is another matter. Some Americans will nd doubt be pleased to hear that “the centre of gravity has shifted to the United States, which is master of the world.” That great nation, he says, must refrain from even countenancing the Colonial Imperialism of certain European powers, and must recognise the right of Asia to selfdetermination.” This left-handed attack on Great Britain, which ne studiously refrains from mentioning, shows that he still nourishes his grievance against us for interfering in 1914 to vindicate the sanctity or “A Scrap of Paper.” >-

The Prince’s decision to visit the distressed mining districts, is a fine gesture oLmoral courage and personal sympathy. Although the miner is at heart a staunch supporter of law and order, these districts have of late bred a certain hoodlum element, the plaything of Communistic leaders. Mr. Stanley Baldwin, the Prime Minister, may well remember his errand of mercy to a certain Welsh mining town a year or two ago. There had been a tragic accident. Women for days stood weeping at the pit-mouth. The Prime Minister of Britain came with his wife to see what help could be rendered by the Government. But the hoodlum element were not to be denied an unsympathetic fling at a sympathetic man, who was there to help them in their hour of sorrow. They made the visit a fiasco, and challenged even sanity itself. The Prince on his visit will see much that is sad. He will see rows and rows of bleak mining villas crawling, like some grey caterpillar up the hillsides. He will visit some of the most densely-populated areas in the world, and he will see the gutters full of children. Indeed, the embers of a half-dead industry are full of sadness. But through it all he cannot fail to see something of the stoutness of these men, particularly those who have been through the greatest war in history. He will see men who daily risked their lives mining and countermining under the Arras trenches. He cannot but be moved by deeds of heroism on the part of many a miner in war and peace, whose life's work is underground, for at heart the British miner is an asset of which the country should be proud. It is the Communistic and the Socialistic tub-thumper that have spread a net about his feet. ,