In the Public Eye

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 129, 4 June 1927, Page 27

In the Public Eye

General Chiang Kai-Shek.

Like a modern Napoleon, General Chiang Kai-Shek has led his little army a thousand iniiea northward from Canton, across mountain passes that have no railways and hardly any roads, and has occupied a very large portion of China. His success has mostly been tho result of the popularity of the Nationalist cause, but this has also been largely aided by his own popularity. He has been called —is still called—"the saviour of China."

But Kai-Shek,

though leading the peoples movement, is not of the people. Born in Chekiang Province, he was educated for tho army, at Paotingfu Military Academy and in Japan. A tall, slight man, under forty, there is nothing in his appearance to mark him as a leader of men. His high forehead, which seems rather higher becauso of his closely cropped hair, his delicate features, and small hands, seem rather to . radicate the scholar than the general. The relations of Kai-Shek with the Russians has been an object of great anxiety to the foreign nations interested in China, and, to some extent, to his own followers.^ Kai-Shek has certainly made use of the Russians, for it was with the aid of a Russian general and Russian money that he trained tb<s officers for his army, but when questioned on the subject recently he remarked: "We employ some of them to help m technical training of various kinds. "Wo can use people from any nation if they sympathise and are ready to serve our nation. Russia, in general, has treated China better than the other nations; she has given up extraterritoriality, renounced territorial ambitions, and cancelled her unequal treaties, and we like the Russians who have been with us." Even so, there are limits to which he is prepared to love and trust Russians, as has been shown in recent cable advices. He will brook no interference with his plans, neither will he allow ihe Reds to control his policy. When he discovered recently that -tied extremists were stirring up strife among his own followers he quickly stopped the movement, rounding up most of the Russians in the district and shipping them overseas. He has a way with him, has General Chiang Kai-Shek

King Fuad of Egypt,

After the declaration of Egyptian independence in 1922, Ahmed Fuad took the .title of King Fuad 1., and since,then,has been' head of the State: During, the 'present :week.he has been negotiating with Lord Lloyd,' the British High Commissioner, in regard" to the office of Sirdar (head'of ,the army), which Britain insists must be held by a British officer. King Fuad was born at the Palace of Gizeh in 1868, and is the youngest son of the Khedive Ismail Pasha. After his father's flownf all Prince

Ahmed Fuad, as , . he then was, went to Italy, whoro most of his youth was spent. He returnee! to Egypt in the nineties, ana was appointed aide-de-camp to the Khedive Abbas Hihni. He found outlet for his energies by presiding over charitable and religious institutions and was largely responsible for the foundation of the Egyptian University, of which he became the first president. 1n'1917 his elder brother, the Sultan Husse:in Kiamil, died, and as the latter's son, Prince Kemal ed Din, renounced the rights of succession, Prince Fuad became Sultan. At the termination of the British protectorate on 28th February, 1922, he was proclaimed King of Egypt. King Fuad was married to the Princess Nazli in 1919; She was a daughter of Abdel Eehim Sabri Pasha, and the heir to the Throne, Prince Fnrouk, was born in 1920. It was the intention of King Fuad to pay a visit to England towards tho end of last year, but owing to the disturbed state of tho country from various causes it was decided to postpone the journey until the present year, but so far there has been no mention of it. Negotiations were being carried out between tho King and the British authorities on various matters towards the end of last year, the Egyptian ruler on 21st October paying an official visit to H.M.S. Warspite at Alexandria, whoro he was tho guest of Admiral Sir Boger Keyos. The Acting High-Com-missioner conducted the negotiations, Lord Lloyd, at that time being absent on furlough.

The King of Spain,

Recent cablo advices stated that the King of Spain, in consultation with General Rivera, had decided that thd succession should pass from tho eldest and second sons of the king to the third, Prince Juan Carlos, who is now fourteen years old. Whether this decision has been finally confirmed is not yet known, and it is said that even in Spain no such official statement had been so is said to be de-

voted to his family, and notwithstanding his many official duties he is first of all a Spanish father. In speaking of his children recently he described them as "average youngsters," healthy and strong, and added that the Infanta Alphonse, Prince of the Asturias, had begun to show a marked interest in mechanical problems. "If his interest keeps up," the King said, "I shall send him to an engineering school and let him follow his natural inclinations." With an almost Spartan regard for family discipline the King and Queen are said to reprimand the faults and praise the virtues of their several children impartially. They keep in close touch with their education, and the great object of the Royal parents is to see their children grow up into sturdy young men and women, who will be able to carry on tho work of the family. The Princess Infanta is a most charming personality, with much of the character for which her mother is so famous. She seems but a slip of a girl, with bluo eyes and English featuros, but with a Latin charm of gesture, free from consciousness of rank or state. The manner in which she carries her seventeen years, blends well with the romantic grace that is evidently a heritage from her father. She is the personification of the fusion of Anglo-Sa\-on and Latin. Tho position and dignity of the whole family is enhanced by the simplicity and democracy with which it is surrounded, even though a certain amount of pageantry remains around tho various royal palaces. The Queen, who was a niece of King Edward VII., and a daughter of tho Battonburg (now known' as Mountbatten) family, still retains her English associations, and is quite, frequently a visitor to London. Herself trained in tile English style she has adopted the same system and ideas in regard to her family so far as it was comißatjhte gdth fSpaauk mag*

11. Albert Sarraut.

The challenge to the Communist Party of France, made by M. Albert Sarraut, Minister of the Interior, dying tlie course of a strong speech la the Chamber of Deputies, of which cabled advice was received daring the early part of the present week, has caused a great deal of perturbation in the ranks of French Communists. M. Sarraut is one of the ablest French administrators of recent years. He became Minister for the Colonies under M. Pom

care in 1922, and in that capacity worked out an elaborate scheme of development for every one of the French colonial possessions.. The scheme has not yet been applied in its entirety, but its merits are generally recognised. M. Sarraut has been keeping a strict eye on foreign Communists for some months now, and- last October ho sent a circular to the Prefects of Departments instructing them to keep a watch on political, agitation on the part of foreigners in France. The circular remarked that the liberty granted by the French laws to foreigners did not justify them in transporting their ov • political ideals to French soil.- Some foreigners overlook this, said the circular, and indulge in violent invective. The Prefects were ordered to warn associations containing foreign members, as well as newspapers voicing their views, that agitation of this sort would not be allowed and was liable to be punished. Where newspapers are published in a foreign language, M., Sarraut required that a translation should appear side by side with the original text, this applying also to posters'and proclamations. Another thing he prohibited was the wearing in public of emblems or badges deemed to be provocative. M. Sarraut is a member of the Badical-Socialist Group, and when he joined M. ■ Poincare 'a Ministry last November his party stipulated that he should receive the portfolio of the Interior, as the party had definite ideas in regard to home policy. That office commands the Prefects, and its ■ possession is always deemed of importance by any party, especially from the point of vieipf of preparing for elections. r \

Lord Lloyd of Dolobran.

Measured by the scale of high political and administrative achievement Lord Lloyd, whose term v High Commissioner for Egypt has really only just started, and who was previously Governor of Bombay for. five years, may be regarded as a young man, for " he is now only 48. It is probable, however, that not one of Britain's overseas' representatives in modern times has had such varied and strenuous terms of office or can point to better records of administration. When In , o he went to India in 1918 he was faced with political storm centres at Punjab and Gujerat, but an ominous situation was handled with firmness and decision. The disorders, were 6uppressed,.-and severe punishment awarded to those responsible, but for all that the civil administration was ney- superseded by the military. This was nearly nine years ago, and once more Lord Lloyd—he was Sir George Lloyd when in Bombay—is called upon to face a crisis in native administration, but this time in Egypt where he is the British representative in that frequently disturbed land. George Ambrose, Lord Lloyd of Dolobran, to give him the full title which is his right, was born in 1879, the son of Mr. 87 S. Lloyd, of Dolobran, in Montgomeryshire, and was educated at Eton and Cambridge. He became a close student of politics and travelled widely in different parts of India,. Tibet,. Egypt, Morocco, and Asia Minor. In 1905 he was appointed attache to the British Embassy at Constantinople, and three years later was called on to act as Special Commissioner for the British Government to inquire into and report upon the future of British trade in Turkey, Mesopotamia, and the Persian Gulf. During the Great War he saw service in Egypt, Gallipoli, Bussia, Mesopotamia, and with the Sheriff of Mecca's forces in the Hedjaz, gaining the D.S.O. in 1917. From 1910 for eight years Lord Lloyd was Conservative member of Parliament for West Staffordshire,, a seat he resigned when appointed Governor of Bombay. Eeturning from India in 1923 he again entered Parliament, this time for Eastbourne, but in 1925 was appointed High Commissioner for Egypt, being raised to the peerage prior to his departure from England in October, 1925.

Professor J. B. Perrln.

This year the Nobel Physics Prize was awarded to Professor Jean Baptiste Perriiij of tho Sorbonne, University of Paris, for his many important researches, especially on the molecules of gases and on tho chemical effects of light. ' Professor Perrin lias long been noted for his studies of the so-called "Brownian movement." Exactly .a' century ago, in 1827, tha British botanist Robert Brown discovered that extremely

minuts particles of , matter suspended in water, maintained a constant "dance," as if they were frequently bumped by invisible projectiles: He noted that tile effect increased as the sizo of the particles decreased, and he correctly inferred that the jolts received were actually due to the rapid impact of molecules of the liquid in which the particles were suspended. This molecular bombardment "dance" is tho Brownian movement, and it may be observed by anyone having access to a good microscope. Professor Perrin, the new prize-winner, has quantitatively studied this interesting phenomenon, using extremely small grains of mastic in emulsion in water. His careful observations beautifully confirm the kinetic theory of gases—the pressure of a gas is best explained as due to the impacts of its molecules against each other and against the walls of the containing vessel. Professor Perrin 's research is explained in his book, "Brownian Movement and Molecular Eeality," translated *nto English by Professor Frederick Soddy, the noted British physical chemist. This subject has also received the attention of some of the world's greatest scientists, and is now generally recognised, while the mathematical theory has been worked out by yon Smoluehpwsky and the equally great Einstein, both of whom pay tribute to the'valuable work done by Professor Perrin in developing the subject to its fullest extent.

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