In the Public Eye

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 22, 26 January 1924, Page 24

In the Public Eye

SOME POINTS OF NOTABLE PERSONAGES

In becoming Governor-General of South Africa, the Earl of Athloiie, brother of Queen Mary, will be taking up a high post, which, in another Dominion, he might have occupied nine years ago. He was, in fact, nominated Governor-General of Canada at the outbreak of war, but waived the^ appointment in order to go on active service. The Earl is of a retiring nature, and outside military affairs his interests lie in philanthropic work. He has proved himself a "live" chairman of the Middlesex Hospital, |and has been personally responsible for designing many of the striking posters calling attention to the hospital's needs.

General Smuts is thus described by a Very old friend: "He looked to me quite well, though he has recently been overdofte with work and anxiety. No ruler in the Empire has more serious and difficult responsibilities. He retains his characteristically Boer tranquillity of expression, coupled with bonhomie and simplicity; and the bright: blue eyes retain all that impression of piercing penetration which reveals the very potent temperament behind—the temperament that wag equal to the days of the .ambushes by, day, and the nights on the cold veldt | and then to the equally arduous struggles, often with hi* own race and with hit eld friends, in domestic polities, To judge by bis looks, General Smnts bears all hi* responsibilities with the Iron resolution that lies behind those piercing tye»,"

A French poblielst has written a boojt on the man who lead France, "Gent; gui neus menent." He divides the iheep from the goats, saying that Olemoneeau. Barthou, Beraird/Briand, Pajnleve, and Vivianl balong to tha past. Of Clemen-' ceau, hg writes i "When the Germans saw the beginning ©f thai? demoralise atien, the he?aiding ot their defeat.'they said to' th^maelves i "If only ws had a Olemengeau |' " A nature that could rica to great crisas, Olemeneeau was'p.t his best in the Great War, He was able to show than tlmt he wa§ mo?§ than a eleve? politiclaHj p. ruthless upsetter ef Minlstriss, 'and p. brilliant journalist, Thaugh he is proverbially' known M "hard boiledj"^ pompletely Jacking In Sentimentality, Olemencean ; peuld not bring' himself as Premier ta sign a death warrant—his reason teing, oddly enougftj Fgggect for his fathai' who ha 4 been "against capital ponishment, lij ig noteworthy however, in thi§ gennectjon, that Clemencssu, wi)9 W9fl s physic Jan by profession, B6ed, as a, young man, to giys his seryiceg free \fi the pops p{ Montmartre, '

Sir Charles .Harington, tha "man en the spot," and in charge ,at Conftanti? nopje, will eyer be remembered for fhe way he handled a Very critical pituftr tion with coolness and good tempe? au(i eagacioua firmneSß, |le proved ence more that the best soldiers are often the best diplomats, In any situation there is always onq man, »nd, both Turkey and Great may bi» thankful'that lij Constantinople tlie ana man Was Si? Chai'les Harington, They bq eefc,- these British onlcafßj an the needti o{ tHa E»i= pire summon tham, Tliey do the worH oommltted to them without fuas ef ssH--advet'tiaement, and they return horaa, often enough, to find their own countrymen ignorant or forgetful of what they have achieved. Not iiskfnu for ap* plauso, content with having dona their duty, they are phllo«ophers enough net to worry, All the name, it is a'plaaaure to put, it on raoard that in tha ease of Sir Choi-lea Harington England remem* bers and is grateful, .

Colonel Thbmm JTermor-Hesketh, British invontor and member of Parliament, is a veteran o! the lata war m well as of the Boer War, So active is his interest in mechanical .invention that he was retired on half pay during tha tweSntyfive-year interval of peace between those two war* in order to devote himself and his remarkable talents to mechanics, a subject on which M was lecturer at the University of Oxford before the recent European outbreak. The Colonel is half American. His father, the seventh baronet of his line, and now noaring eighty, was formerly n eclebrat* ed yachtama'n who had occasion in 1880 to put into San Franefsoo for repair*, whero he made the acquaintance of Senator Sharon, of Novadn, and eventually married hio daughter, " Colonel Fermor-Hesketh himself married ■on American wife. .

Admiral Sir Dudley de Chair, Governor of New South Wales, has had a career that reads like an; Arabian Night's tale. He is said to be the only officer in the British navy now living -who >%n speak from personal experience of life in Oriental harems. As a midshipman in the Egyptian war of 1882 Sir Dudley, sent with dispatches to the outposts of Ramleh, lost his way, was taken prisoner, and was sent under a strong escort to Cairo. Because of his exceptional good looks and very boyish appearance the unfortunate midshipman was handed over to the harems in something of the capacity of a page. Incidentally, Sir Dudley might be languishing yet in Oriental leisure if it had not been for the efforts of Ferdinand de Lesseps, creator of the Suez Canal, who interested himself in the boy's case and to please whom, Arabi Pashi, the insurgent leader, finally released the middy, who has become an admiral and colonial governor as well as an. authority on harems.

Mr. Henry Morgenthau, former United States ambassador at: Constantinople, has recently gone to Greece, where he becomes president of the League of Nations Refugee Settlement Committee, a postr about which he has shown considerable enthusiasm because,' as he expresses it, "it is the greatest scheme of colonisation the world has ever known.". As president of this committee he will be entirely responsible for the future welfare of the million refugees in Western Thrace and Macedonia. Mr. Morgenthau was described by a London reviewer as being '■'& small man, with a pointed beard, Tather reminiscent of the traditional portraits of Uncle Sam, and, like Uncle . Sam, ■' his every movement betrays great physical and mental activity."

The new Bishop of Peterborough, the Rev. Cyril Bardsley, comes of a family which for over half a century has always had a member' holding high office in the Church. The present is the second occasion within a quarter of a century that a Bardsley has received the mitre, Dr. J. W. Bardsley having been Bishop ,of Carlisle until 1905. ; The Bardsleys have also been distinguished for their extraordinary memory, the faculty having been most developed in the late Archdeacon of Bradford. Archdeacon Bardsley was accustomed to prepare his important addresses by dictating them to his daughter, and would then' glance over the manuscript once. On checking the Archdeacon with his manuscript when he came to deliver his address it was found that he rarely varied so much as a word in the discourse he had. prepared, thanks to Mb memorisiajj powers.;