IN THE PUBLIC EYE

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 49, 26 August 1922, Page 12

IN THE PUBLIC EYE

PblkrsO^ INTEREST IN NOTABLE ■ ■'■\^ ;; } people •.■.;■ ■ •

Does ?My.j L|oyd. George hpW a "reoorcV' for! the number of "freedoms" which have been offered; or presented to him? At the moment he is stated to be endeavouring to solve the problem of the acceptance of no fewer than; 44 of-' fers of the freedom of cities and boroughs,/which have been offered to him smce .he was last able to attend a public function for the acceptance of an honour of this kind about a year ago.' It is, as a matter of fact, more than possible that he will be able to wipe off his arrears of "freedoms",'before the end of the year. His nearest competitors'in the matters of honours-of this kind'were apparently ' Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, but neither of them approached the record of the present Prime Minister. . -

No personal, fact in America is more familiar than the bulk aad weight of exPresident . Taft, Chief, Justice of the Sopreme.Court at Washington. He was, presumably, the largest and heaviest cic. ciipant of the White House. During the four, years of hie Presidency the caricaturists and paragxaphitU had a tremendous . time, and ■ they have never given Mr. Taft much of a rest. He is not now quite what he was in the yean of his executive authority; Indeed, some years ago, when Mr Taft had been ''banting,", the newspaper* lovingly recorded not ofaly th* fact of tie treatment and its rault, but the number of ps of trousers that his tailor had taken in. It U all one to the Chief Justice. He knows that the affection irt which he. is held by the American public is not unrelated to the physique which has helped to make him a popular legend. ■'■.'■■. A

Dr. Wellington Koo, the Chinese Minister to London, is often referred to as aprobable Prime Minister of China. Dr. Koo, who'« now only 35, has had a very brilliant diplomatic career, and represented hu country at the Peace Conference and the Washington Conference. Educated at St. John's College in Shanghai and at Washington, he became Minister at Washington at the remarkably early age of 28, and five years later came to London.' His pet th«n« is an understanding between Great Britain, China, and the United States.. He married, a daughter of a former Premier of China, Mise Pao-yu Tong. .' : ■'

The new ControUer-Genaral of Civil Aviation, Major-General Sir W.-S. Braocker, has bad a remarkable career. He joined the Air' Force immediately after war broke out, and soon gained a reputation as a dating pilot. Although be is still well on the right side of fifty, he has held most of the important v po*ts in the flying world. An incident happened to him whan he want up to be medicaily exajoiad for his pilot's certificate. lfThis officer," wrote the doctor, "will be a danger to himself and everybody else!" As a matter of fact, the general has never had a "crash" in all the tnouaods of miles winch he has flown. .',,.'.

Mr. AHred Short, M.P., who has puied hi* final examination for the ... English Bar, ii a boilermakar by trade, and the ton of a working moulder, ud edacated at an «le«aentary Kbool in Shelßdd. H» woo the Wedwibury Division, which waa ngardad m a Conaerrative jtronghold, for Labour at the last denerol' Election. In an interview he' explained that hi* main object in seeking, to enter the legal prof canon waa to qualify hiniieU to become more useful. __ to his fellow-workera. "The atrea* of '"■

Parliamentary life, the calls of trade onion activity, aM, for a period, indifferent health, made the work seem doubly difficult," he said. "There were times when I felt that the task was beyond me. The work, however, had to be done, lima was the essence of the contract. In the train, oh-the tramcar, in the "bus, in the library of,the House of Commons, and in the quiet of my. private room, I took advantage of every spare moment, and became ■ a slave to my books."'" "'"' . . .'■ •'. _'. '"•'";'

Miss Ivy Williams is the first woman in England to qualify as a barrister. Eight other women have passed their finals; but Miss Williams is the first to be called to the Bar. However, the woman-barrister does not intend to practise law.' She is already-a Doctor of Laws and lecturer on law at an Oxford women's college—a position she rttani to retain. • ■•• ■;■.-. ■ ■■:. ■'■, ■.;"'■:'■.■•■••■*.• ; '

Mr. C. H. Wickens, wEo hat bean appointed to succeed Mr. Knibbs U Commonwealth Statistician, it 49 years of age. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries (London), and of the Roy»l Statistical Society (London), and is a member of the. Actuarial Society of Australasia. ' He has been a close student of economics* and sociology, and has contributed several papers to professional and scientific societies in Australia and Great Britain. Before joining the Commonwealth statistical office in 1906, Mr. Wickehs was for some years on the staff of the Government Statistician of Western Australia. The office carries with it.a salary; of £1000 per annum.

"The King's bestowal of a knight, hood on Mr. H. A. Barker, the famous bone-setter, i# a happy method of recognising the eminent services which this greatest of surgical manipulators has rendered," holds, the "Daily Mail." "There are hundreds, if not thousands, whom he*has cured quickly and thoroughly and rescued from the cripple's fate. His work in the war .was admirable, though the Army medical authorities felt obliged, for professional reasons, to refuse formally his offer of aid. In a limited and sharply-defined field he was able to achieve success where the ablest professional men failed j and medical men who have been under his treatment have been among the first to pay tributes to his skill." .

To not many architects can the «z. perienco come of hmving two children of their brain and hands unveiled on successive days. This distinction fell to Mr. Gilbert Scott, A.R.A. / The Arthbijhop of Canterbury laid the foundationstone of the Charterhouse School Memorial Chapel, designed by Mr.. Scott one day, and the next at Windsor was dedicated a memorial to the Brigade of Guards,, also erected to Mr.,, Scott* design. The architect is the grandson of Sir George Gilbert Scott, the designer 'of the Albert Memorial and joint architect of the Foreign Office, and his great-sreat-grandfather was the : Bey. Mr. Thomas Boott,thß commentator.

Lord Saltonn, who at 71 has bec«*et a captain in the King's Bodyguard for Scotland, can boaet that he continued to do war service as late in life **' most jnen, for he commanded ■an infantry brigade in -the B.E.F. That it in th« tradition of the fcrasers, #h"d rhaVe been a fiphting race. The surteenth lord saw service at the beginning. 6( the nineteenth fought in the Peninsula, at Qimtre. Bros and at Waterloo, lad served again, 26 year* later, in the .Oliinfr W«v/ The first lord's father **• killed in battle/the fourth' lord fottiht a-t Flodden. ThtM Ptte&k of &M branch fell at Hftlidon Hill, Mtoth«r »t Dupplin, another at Durham.