RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 108, 31 January 1930, Page 10

RANDOM NOTES

SIDELIGHTS ON CURRENT EVENTS LOCAL AND GENERAL

(By

Cosmos.)

Now that the influenza gma tafj been Isolated, let it be hoped that it will ba kept so. • • • Explorers have just discovered a tribe in Central Peru, ruled by wo men. A further indication that dvli isation Is spreading. ♦ * » The Duke of Norfolk has converted his estates into a company, the title being PltzAlan Howard Estates, Limited. Since the war there has been a tendency, on the part of large landowners In Britain, to take this step. In 1926 the Duke of Devonshire turned his huge Derbyshire family estates into a company under the name of Chatsworth Estates Limited. He was even then only the seventh duke to take this step. In every case it is a legal loophole whereby the crushing burden of taxation may be loaded on large privately-owned estates. By turning an estate into a company, a fairly costly proceeding in Itself, a landowner avoids excessive taxation, and is enabled to deduct the running expensed of the estate from his Income tax. In* cidentally, it becomes possible for him to put more money into developing it. * • * Although these are certainly advantages, the most urgent reason for making the change is to avoid death duties. A duke may die ho matter how much land he own; but a company never dies in the strict legal meaning of the word. A new managing' director, in the shape of the ducal heir, merely steps in to manage the estate. So heavy are the death duties on landed property in England, it has been estimated that, under normal conditions, estates must be inevitably broken up in about three generations. Hence the company-forming habit Amongst the larger landowners who have also taken the step are included the Duke of Portland, capital £780,009; Duke of Rutland, £500,000; Duke of Marlborough, £200,000; and some twenty others. \ ■ ••

The Spanish novelist Vicente Blasco Ibanez, in his book, “Alfonso XIII Unmasked,” which caused such a storm when it was published, gave also a study ~ of the man whom he termed “Alfonso’s accomplice, Primo de Rivera —Dictator.” It was, he said, King Alfonso’s first intention to make General Aguilera, Dictator. He spoiled what chances he had by precipitating a scene in the Senate when he declared that the honour of an officer was a more serious matter than the honour of a civilian. For this tlie former Prime Minister, Sanchea Guerra, an aged, irritable Conservative, replied with two resounding slaps by way of proving that a civilian’s honour is as touchy at least as an officer’s. That settled his prospects as Dictator. What prestige was left to an officer who had received two slaps from a lawyer The King thereupon bethought himself of Primo de Rivera, an officer whose rapid advance in rank' had aroused the dislike of his brother-officers. He was at the time Commander-General of Catalonia. “For thirty years, when anyone in Spain wanted to cite a flagrant Instance of favouritism, of nepotism, he would refer to Miguelito, Primo de Rivera. “He is the nephew of that General Primo de Rivera who betrayed the revolutionary Government in 1874 and restored the dynasty of the Bourbons.” Having no children of his own, the General exerted his influence to the utmost to advance the young man rapidly, and rarely has advance been so rapid. Wherever there was fighting, there the General’s nephew was to be found, and invariably (at least according to report) he managed to accomplish something heroic, sometimes almost before he had arrived on the scene of action.

Before he was thirty he had already, by way of Cuba and the Philippines, acquired a generalship. Yet this general at thirty had never had an army to command, and his first achievements in that direction were actually accomplished after he had become the president of the directorate. I might also add, however, that, like other Spanish generals, Primo de Rivera has also been beaten by fhe Arab leader, Abd-el-Krim, formerly his teacher of Arabic, and the companion of his jollifications in the days when General, de Rivera’s nephew was a Government employee at Melilla. Miguel Primo de Rivera is a native of the town of Nerez. Like all southerners he is garrulous, and he believes himself to have been endowed with an intelligence competent to solve all problems. For pedantry, self-sufficiency, and sheer impudence, as revealed in his speeches, he reminds me of nothing so much as the mushroom generals I knew in Mexico and some of the small South American Republics. Primo de Rivera’s military insurrection which made him Dictator of Spain was entirely an officers' insurrection, both in Barcelona and Madrid, and was carried out with the knowledge and acquiescence of the King. His first act as Dictator was to get out a manifesto urging his subjects to act as informants agairist one another.

The League of Nations’ Committee is concerned about the number’of drug addicts tn Egypt and elsewhere. Efforts are to be made to limit the drug output of the world to what is required for medical purposes. The problem is not so difficult as it might appear, for there are only about 20 properly-equipped drug factories in the world. At present it is estimated that ten times the quantity of drugs required for legitimate purposes are manufactured and sold at high prices all over the world. Where there is a demand, there is generally opportunity. We have illicit stills, and the problem will be how to avoid illicit drug factories. At present India has foregone the nice little* yearly income of a million pounds that she once drew from her exports of opium.' Turkey and Asia have benefited accordingly. No matter how severe the restrictions, the disposal of illicit drugs is the easiest and most profitable contraband known'. Millions have been made at the game.

All sorts of dodges are used to smuggle the drugs into good markets. Morphine has been labelled chewing gum and shipped by the hundred pounds into China, where it is forbidden. Cocaine comes in concealed in fountain pens and boot heels, and returns a very handsome protit to the person concerned.' In July, 1925, the New York authorities confiscated over £lOO,OOO worth of drugs that were very nearly smuggled successfully into the city. In another case, after an exciting race down the Hooghly, officers of the Calcutta Customs made a haul of £13,000 worth of cocaine from an innocent-looking fishing smack. Even in this Dominion a young Chinaman was discovered in an' attempt to smuggle £5O worth of opium into Wellington in a doublebottomed bucket.