In the Public Eye

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 140, 14 June 1924, Page 24

In the Public Eye

POINTS OF NOTABLE PERSONAGES

An intimate and amusing story of; Mr. Kamsay MacDouald's young days w;.i told by Rev. E. .B. Cornford, vicar St. Matthew's, Sonthsea, England. ■ When Mr. Mac Donald, then a young journalist, contested a Parliamentary seat at bouthampton—he polled only 900 votes —he stayed for a day or two with Mr. Cornford, at that time resident in Southampton. "H e had no moiiev, no friends, and no influence," the'minister declares. "One afternoon, when he was going out to address a meeting, my wife Eaid: 'I am not going- to let you go out of my house like that.' She sternly took him into the dinitis-rooin and made him stand upon a chair. With deft fingers and a pair of scissors she removed what are usually known as whiskers! from the lowest extremity of his trousers; then she let him go."

Sir_ Edward Marshall-Hall began his working life as an office-boy in a teamerchant's office. He declares that his favourite story concerns the witness whom he asked to give a definition of absent-mindedness. "I should say," he replied, "that a man who. thought he'd lelt his watch at home and took it out of his pocket to see if he had time to go home to get it—l should say that chap was absent-minded." Imagine being offered the farce "Charley's Aunt/ which has earned hundreds of thousands of pounds in its Ions; existence, for_ £500—and .refusing it"! What makes this fact even more remarkable is that the man who "turned down" the offer was Sir Edward Marshall-Hall. Sir Edward saya that he saw' the first production of the now famous farce and praised it to the producer, whereupon he was told : "You can have the dashed thing for £500."

Lord Willingdon, the late Governor of Madras, has had eleven years of Governorship. During the eventful five years' Governorship of the Southern Presidency, which he has just completed, nobody worked harder or devoted himself more wholeheartedly to the progress and well-being of the people than Lord Willingdon. Whatever success the ■Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms have attained is due chiefly to Lord Willingdon's liberal interpretation of them, in spite of the unprecedented scurrility of the'attacks on him by the extremist Press. Lord Willingdon's popularity was shown by the series of farewell entertainments held in his honour by every community. Huge crowds gathered to bid him farewell.

Seventeen years have passed since General Smuts, first took office as Colonial Secretary in the Government of the Transvaal, and more than thirteen years since he joined General Botha's first Administration of the Union o' South Africa, says "The Times." His worst enemies will not grudge him his splendid record of service to the Union in the troubled times that lie between Vet leaders of parties in other countries than South Africa have discovered, to their cost, that a long term of office if not always a recommendation at the polling booths.

Mr. A. J. Cook, of South Wales, secretary of the British Miners' Federation, is in his 40th year, and is a native of Somerset. His first step towards earning a living was to shoot crows on a Somerset farm. At 17 ho appeared in the pulpit of a Baptist chapel. He worked in the mines for 22 years, and ha= been on the national executive of the Miners' Federation for two years. He took a leading part in forming the Unofficial Reform movement of ~tV3 South Wales coalfield—an organisation whose avowed object is to "ginger up" the federation policy. Mr. Cook has been described as "the stormy petrel of the Miners' Federation."

Mr. John Bowser, Speaker of the Victorian Assembly, is a most unusual kind of politician. He is a gentle, droamy, modest, absent-minded soul, with a genuine love of literature and of the bush. When he was younger he used to spend a good deal of his spare time in the. ranges south of Wangaratta, studying the lyre bird and other birds and beasts of thos<> parts. *

Most elections in which Mr. Winston Churchill is concerned manage to catch the public eye. • Politics apart, Mr. Churchill has several strong points in his favour. He is the calibre and reputation (>,; likes to associate with the cen tral constituency of the country. He has Parliamentary gifts of an unusual order, which would be of greater service in Opposition than in vacuo. He has a distinguished record oE State service.

Emanuel Lasker, the famous chess player, is often spoken of as an old man, but this is really an exaggeration, due to the fact that he matured as a. first-class player very early. Actually lie is only 55 : , but, he was a boy of 15 ■■hen he first began to attract attention = a ga-eat player, and hs was only 24 hen he won a championship in Engnd, followed by that of America in the ■llowing year and that of- the world in J94, when he was under 26. . He was :ought unbeatable till Capablanca con- . -iered him in 1921. Like some other :'eat chess players, Lasker is a notable ■ '.athematician.

"There is a widespread belief that ti1. Clynes will not long continue in lice as Leader of the House," holds the ondon correspondent of the "Birmingara Post." Ha is reported to have mnd the strain of the duties more lian his health would stand. Perhaps t was a health handicap that brought, im a serious loss of prestige on the re•^nt two debates on the Evictions Bill. f so, he has general sympathy, for he as the goodwill, and even the ad'mir!ion, of men of all parties. What he ;jpears to lack is not only the essen:il experience of Front Bench leaderlip, but also the gift of rising to ai> nergency and dominating the House ith temperament and personality.

The works of Frank Brangwyn are be»g collected from all parts of the world, nd will shortly be placed on "exhibi:on in London. A few of his' works '.re to be found in New Zealand. He vas born in 1867 at 'Bruges, and liis •ather, Curtis Brangwyn, was a wellmown English architect. Young Brangwyn studied at South Kensington, and ;or some time worked at the establishment of William Morris in Oxford. His first -.picture, "A Bit of the Esk near A'hitby," was hung in the Royal Aealemy in 1885. He is a member of thr> 3-oyal Society of British Artists, nnd tor some time came under the influence >t Whistler. He became A.X.A. in ISC4 'iiid RIA. in 1919. In the field or nnral decoration Brangwyn ha's few superiors in the world, and his fresco ut ' :!u> ltoyal Exchange, London, vt-pn--'ontiug Commerce, is a charai-todstic pxample of his decorative work. Braup'■vyu is regarded as one of the. greatest oolourista and draughtsman the world iias ever seeu.