LONDON CHAT

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 96, 23 April 1921, Page 2

LONDON CHAT

FRENCH APPRECIATION OF THE

ENGLISH

(N»M OVB OWN CORMSFOMIBXT.)

LONDON, 2nd February. General Sir A. J. Godley was present at the lecture given to members of the Institute Francais, when Monsieur Andre Manrojs, the author of the famous war novel, "Les Silence dv Colonel Bramble," delivered a very entertaining lecture, "Discovering the English." Mons. Maurois said that he joined the French Infantry at the outbreak of war, and he and his comrades suffered considerable trepidation when they heard they were to be attached to a British unit.

"We were very frightened when we first heard, the news, aa to what sort of ; fellows we were going to find the British officers and men," observed Moils. Maurois, "but a, very little acquaintance with them convinced us thai, there wa6 no need for nervousness on our part at all. We met with » splejtdid reception, and onr first and continuing impression, of our :iew comrades in arms was a very pleasant one. I think tho chief thing we IJYanohmen appreciated in the British soldier was that he had a sense of humour, Ho had a very happy way of getting on tvith the peasants- and making himself at home with them. The French peasant also got on very well with the British Tommy, and there was a sort of 'mutual admiratiou society* existing between them. The British and the French nations should now take advantage of the common knowledge they had of each other, and continue to seek to unclenatand each other. Let the peoples of both these noble nations continue to meet in, the war-time spirit of brotherhood. French people in the lands of Northern France, where your boys lived so long, still retain a memory of them and their heroic deeds, as clear as on the first day they arrived wnongst them. Not long ago I visited Bailleul, where I was with the Scottish in 1916. And there, where the brave Highlanders of yore danced to the music of the bagpipes, a pretty Flemish lassie sang to me 'Annie Laurie' and 'Auld Lang Syne.' Listening to her I thought of our two countries." At the conclusion, General Sir Alexander Godiey proposed a vote of thanks to the lecturer. THE COWDKAY CLUB FOR NURSES. Some little time back Viscount and Vis-countess Cowdray bought No. 20, Cavendish Square, formerly the residence of Mr. and Mrs, Asqujth. They have since acquired a 999 years' lease, and have presented the residence to the College of Nursing to be used as the headquarters and as a residential club for college members. The Council, after most carefully considering what accommodation 'should be provided to meet the full needs of the college, and also desiring to respond to the appeal of the nurses for a club with ample residential accommodation, recommend that 20, Cavendish Square shall be exclusively used as a club, and that the garden, having a frontage }o Henriettastreet, shall be utilised as a site for the college. To give effect to this recommendation, Viscountess Cowdray has I advised the Council of the College of Nursing that the gift will be increased toja total of £100,000. The conversion of the mansion into the clubhouse will be taken in hand at once, and should be completed by mid-summer. It is proposed to defer the erection of the college until building operations become cheaper. Meanwhile, interest will le accumulating on the gift. The college will contain offices, class-rooms, laboratories, lecture halls, etq., while the upper floors will provide over fifty bedrooms, having direct access to the club. The club will be named the Cowdray Club, j and it will be of an international charac-! ter, open by election to trained nurses all over the world, and probably to women of other professions, but as the gift is to the College of Nursing preferential tratement will be given to it* members. A HUSTLER FOB ESCALATOR LINGERERS. Tirea workers are faced with a new instrument of possible terror on their way home by underamndi. It began, by shouting at Oxford Circus the other night. Just aa home-going passengers stepped on to the escalator to go down to tlw> trains they were startled by the loud cry, from below, "Keep moving, please.' Aft** a moment's pauee came another shout: "Let others pass on the left," an 4 two seconds later the rasping voic» again cried! "If you must stand 1, stand on the right." Then : "Some are ie a hurry; don't impede thorn!" All this is to hustle tfne passenger who prefer* to stand still on the escalator, in* tead of walking with, it. At the foot of the escalator is a wooden structure, about 3ft square, to all appearances an. egg incubator. The inventor, atandiag by, explained that his "automatic stenfcophone" wae worked by compressed air, and one gramaphona record will last a week. It would cry out: "This way, please; plenty of room inside," for ever. Whether the travelling public will stand the thing for ever remains to be seen. The inventor is the man who tried exr periments with electricity to rid his lawn qf worms. The surprise of his un. announced stentophone commands caused some confusion on its first appear. s»nce, for the curious wanted to knoiy whenoe the stentorian voice. A LADY MINING DIRECTOR. Added interest to the meeting of the Champion Reef Gold Mining Company o* India was imported by the flection to the board of Mrs. Margaret Edith Tenant, in place of the late Lord Glenoottj?er. This is believed to bo the first pcpaeioß on which a lady has been admitted to a place in the counsels of any prominent British-controlled mining company, although it has often been represented in force on the opposite side of tho directors' table, notably "at meetings of the Chartered Company. Mrs. Tennant is the wife of the Right Hon. H. J. Tennant, who has held various offices in the Government, and has herself filled with distinction the post of Government Superintending Inspector of Factories, held various high offices during the war, Was awarded the exceptional distinction of Companion of Honour, and was one of the first of her sex to be made a J.P! Considering that the mine superintendent of the Champion Reef managed to effect savings in cost last year, in spit* of increased wages and certain extraordinary expenditure, there would not seem to he much room for further economies, but if there be any, the practised eye of a lady like Mrs. Temiant may be relied upon to detect what a mere male director might conceivably overlook.—Such is a city comment of" appreciation, FORTUNE FOR ME, W. CHURCHILL.

As the result of the lamented and tragic death of Lord Herbert VaneTempest in the Cumbrian railway disaster, when two trains met head-on on a single track, the estate in Antrim, known as Garron Tower, with sijrrounding lands, passes into the possession of Mr. Winston Churchill, first cousin once removed. The inheritance is believed to be in the vicinity oi £5000 per annum. The relationship came about thus : Mr. Churchill's great-grandmother, who was the grandmother of Lord Herbert, was the daughter and heiress of Sir Harry Vane-Tempest and wife of the third Marquess of Londonderry. The pro? perty in question was bequeathed by her

to the younger children, of her son, the fifth Lord Londonderry, and after them to the children of her daughter, Lady Emily Vane-Tempest, who had married tho seventh Duke of Marlborough. One of the latter was the late Lord Randolph. Churchill, father of Mr.. Winston Churchill. Mr. ChurchiH is thus heir to the prpperty by reason of Lord Herbert Vane-Tempest's death without issue./ The Marchioness of Londonderry, Sir Henry Vane-Tempest's heiress, died in 1865, and left =£10,000 to Lord Herbert Vane-Tempest's elder brother, who prtdeceased him, and sums estimated to l.» more than £14,000 per annum for SI years, to accumulate at compound interest, for her son, the fifth Lord Londonderry, and his issue, the youngest of whom was Lord Herbert Vane-Tempest. A political correspondent writes ; -'The news that Mr. Churchill has come into ■a considerable fortune caused great interest in political circles, where inn effect on his future position was discussed with great interest. He may legitimately aspire to become himself the leader of a party and ultimately Prime Minister. A railway disaster may prove to have had a far-reaching effect on British politico," THE ONLY MAN THE PREMIER FEARS. By another political writer the. opinion is hazarded : "Perhaps the greatest blow which the twin leaders of the Coalition have received is the independence which Mr. Churchill's inheritance has suddenly brought him. Now he can act as he likes, and it entirely alters the face and future of politics. Just as the for-. tune which an admirer left to Chatham freed him for the great struggles of hi* life, so Mr. Churchill stands now unharassed and at the beck of no man upon reaching the prime of his political career. It is said that the Prime Minister has more than once admitted that there was only one politicianl alive who might beat him at the polls, and that Mr. Churchill was that man. It is also said that Mr. Churchill has not agreed latterly with his chief upon our economic programme or our American policy. His advent now to wealth and freedom makes him the most formidable element in politics to-day and {he greatest single danger to Government solidarity. ■ He is believed to mean to have hia way this time!"