In the Public Eye

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 68, 17 September 1927, Page 28

In the Public Eye

Mr. T. E. Bavin,

As Leader of the Opposition in New South AVales, JXr. T. E. Bavin is at present in the midst of a General Election, and is impressing a great number of people .with his earnestness and directness of purpose. . Whether he and his party will be strong enough to oust Labour from its position on the Treasury Benches cannot be " forecasted at this distanco from the actual scene of operations, but Mr? Bavin recently stated that he was more than

hopeful of success though such a statement;;^ necessarily coloured by the politics of the man making the statement. Mr. Bavin has always discharged his duties with great ability, and he is recognised as one of the fines debaters in politics in New South Wales, if not in Australia. He is actually a New Zealander by birth, having been born in the Auckland province and educated at Auckland Grammar School. He entered Sydney University as a young man and there received his B.A. and LL.B. degrees, the latter "with first-class honours which gained for him a gold medal. He later deserted law to enter politics, his first venturo being as secretary to the Commonwealth Prime Minister. He decider! to win a seat for himself, and was successful in being elected to the legislative Assembly of New South Wales as member for Gordon in 1917, and :he has remained in Parliament ever since. Mr. Bavin is not what is generally- regarded as a popular man. He takes his politics far too seriously for that, and' he has >iever sought after popularity, believing that there are things more worth striving for. He is rather of the severe type, like his father, who ia remembered in Australia as one of the sternest presidents ever elected to the head of the Methodist Conference. His 3on, however, though like the preacher in many ways, has certain^ great qualities which have won for him a commanding position n the ranks of his party. Mr. Bavin has always been a thorn in the side of the Labour Party,,and never fails to draw the fire—and the ire—of his opponents. They often try to confuse him. with their interjections, but the Nationalist leader is not to be "caught with e.'.aff." He is inclined to be quick tempered, but ho:does not allow it to draw him from his lino of argument. A lawyer by training, he can dissect and analyse his subject, turning it inside out, and finally suni it up in a masterly manner.. It is that keen, analytical mind, the cold logic which it bring 3to bear on tho subject under discussion, that confuses his opponents, and which at the present time is giving tho Government of New South Wales a great deal to think about during the election campaign which is now in full blast.

Earl Beatty,

.For seven .years and nine months Earl Jioatty was in office as First Sea Lord, and ho only relinquished the office on 30th July. So fresh in mind arc the honours won during the war by the daring of this intrepid admiral that compa r at i v c 1 y few have realised the no less remarkable peacetime achi ovements ..hich he hag accomplished since ho took up his duties at the Admiralty^ Barely can any man o. valour beloved of his subordinates have been called upon to undertake a more delicate or distasteful task than fell to Lord Boatty's lot when he had, in the interests of economy, to formulate three special retirement schemes for men who had fought by his side. The hardships entailed by theso reductions on inon, who in midcurcor were driven toseok another profession were severe. It was owing to Lord Beatty's indefatigable energy that tho compensation awarded to displaced officors was far moro generous than it had ever been before. Again, it can havo been no light thing for a sailor whose life-object had been hitherto to see his country supremo at, sea to forruulato or approvo plans of retrenchment which should include tho "scrapping" of twenty capital ships, including his old flagship Lion. It is tho greatest triumph of hia very remarkable career that, in spite of having to hand over a.smallor force to his successor, he has succeeded in making it better equipped, more scientific, and more efficient than it was ir. tho moro spacious days before the war. Called in to curtail activities, ho has managed not only to do what was demanded of him but has estabhshod on the positive side during his regime an Air Arm of incalculable importance to the Navy; he has been largely instrumental in the development of tho Naval Baso at Singapore, the. enlargement of tho Dominion Naval Forces, and tho foundation of a Eoyal Indian Navy. He has mado it his B peclal business to see that lower-deck men snail have not only increased comfort but reasonablo prospects of promotion to commissions as a reward of merit, and that officers shall be encouraged to undertake scientific rosearch, and enjoy the advantages of University ana staff training? When one realises, in addition to all this, tho work that he has done in promoting the building of cruisers, of new types of aircraft-carriers, mine-sweepers, submarines, destroyers, and gunboats, of hin insistence on tho necessity of being prep red at short notico for trouble in tho East, and that ho has done it all on such extraordinarily reduced resources', it is not surprising that tho King shouldhave honoured him with a seat on tho Privy Council, a rare distinction for a naval officer, and that the Prime Minister should havi placed on record his appreciation of tho invaluable assistance renderod under conditions of such exceptional difficulty. Lord Beatty has won his laurels so young that thoro yet romain nino years before, he reaches the ago of retirement from the Navy.

Mr. H. F. Osborn.

Last. mouth Professor Henry Fairfleld Osborn, president of the American Museum of Natural History at New York, became 70 years, of age. He has many other titles, v/hich include paleontologist, educator, administrator, and author, besides that of fghter, which is not usualW' mentioned w hi) n dealing with the biographical details of a learned- professor. But traditions, isms, ologies, all have to be fought if need be by the man

.... who devotes his hie to research and truth. When a man undertakes to carry on the work of people like Darwin, Huxley, and Wallace, he undertakes also to carry on the battle that their discoveries and literature started. Professor Osborn does not look his ago, nor does he look like the man one visualises as a scientist—usually a little untidy, lean, nearsighted, careless, occasionally bad tempered—for he is none of these things.

To look at him one -would naturally classify him as banker, yachtsman, clubman, or something large'and forceful, but always ■in business. He is a large man, blue eyed and grey haired*. In his youth, it is plain, he.was.lair and would probably have been branded as handsome. To-day he works as hard as he did thirty and forty years ago, while his voice still rings out as strongly and powerfully s, ever it did in controversy in support of truth as he sees it, though to-day it has the weight of added years and knowledge, which gives it considerably more force. After his graduation from Princeton he went on two expeditions of exploration organised by the college, and the result amply proved that his genius was in the direction of paleontology. Afterwards he went to England to learn at first hand the methods of tho men whose names were ringing through the world at that time. It was whiie working in Huxley's laboratory that Professor Osborn met Charles Darwin, whose name was_ to become a household word of praise or anathema. When. Professor Osbora returned to America ho carried with him the spirit of research as well as the daring of the English naturalists. ' This has never left him, from the time ho got, simultaneously, his first two jobs—the first, that of organising a department of zoology at Columbia University, and the other, that of curator of paleontology at the ■ museum. Besides being interested in. knowing for his own satisfaction, he is interested in teaching others to know. The work at Columbia University gives him contact with the student mind, while his work at the museum keeps him in contact with the mind of the public. To make the theory of evolution comprehensible to the ordinary mind, Professor Osborn worked for years on the "Hall of the Age of Man," so that to-day it is completed and is looked upon as the most convincing lesson of its kind.

Mr. A. B. Houghton.

To be the firßt Ambassador to Germany from the United States after the Great "War, and to make a success of the job is in itself an achievement. Then to go from Berlin, having won popularity among the Germans, as American Envoy to the Court of St. James, where people still. remember how German Zeppelins and aeroplanes had show ered murderous bombs on their great city, and again to "get away with

it," is more than

might be expected from any one man.V Vet Mr. Alansou Bigelow Houghton, Ambassador for the United States in London since 1925, and American representative in-Berlin during tho three preceding years, has that twofold achievement to his credit. The chief reason for his success seems to be that he is; an entirely- new sort of Ambassador—a business man in a business, ago who believes that the way to win ..diplomatic victories is to advance business-like arguments. Mr. Houghtou is sauvity personified,, lie seems never .to be in a hurry, and when lie speaks' it is in a measured and quiet manner.- In fact, he radiates calm and culture. His is the velvet hand carrying out the dictates of a practical brain, while his method of impressing his ideas, or tho ideas of his Government, upon foreign statesmen is always forceful but always polite. His blend of business directness -with cultured smoothness never deserts him. Mr. Houghton went to Berlin in 1922, at a time when he was.without any diplomatic experience, for Berlin was his first diplomatic post. Ou the surface his special qualification for the 1 job was the fact that after completing his course at Harvard nearly forty years before he had taken post-graduate courses at Gottingen and Berlin. But hia real, qualification was that ho had made up Ijis mind that the German problem was not a political but a business matter, and that ho bad determined in his.quiet way to apply to its solution nono but business methods. Ho is now 64 years old, and one might almost think that ho had reached the period when ho might rest from his exacting labours, but ho 6till continues to handle tho many problems which crop up day by day betweon tho two great English-speaking countries. "With his German and .British records as a basis for judging, it is a fair guess to say that no mattor what unexpected situation ho may find himself concerned with ho will bring to bear his long experience as a business man, and all will bo well between the two great countries. Long ago a successful career iv manufacturing made him an ardent believer in the adage, "Business is business." Now, after.five years of experience as an American envoy abroad, he seems to have mado for himself this other motto, "Diplomacy is business." Sir W. T. OrenfeU.

"Grenfell ,of Labrador" is the almost universal title by which Sir "Wilfred Thomasou ' Grenfell is known in Newfoundland, and 'tho adjacent Canadian coast. Ho is. one of the bestknown medical missionaries , in, that particular area, if not in the world, and only recently his work was recognised by the King, who conferred ■ upon him a knighthood. Born in 1865, the second son of tho Bey. Algernon Gren-

foil, headmaster

of Mostyn School, he went to' Marlborough, where ho won a scholarship to''Queen's College, Oxford. Ho was a fine athlete,' and gained a Eugby "blue." Under the influence of tho- 'American evangelist Moody, he determined to join the Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen; while on the advice of Sir Frederick. Treves, whose house surgeon he was at the London Hospital, Dr. Grenfell equipped himself by an apprenticeship of several years among the fishermen of tho North Sea. In the spring of 1892 he began his work on the Labrador coast. He enlisted the financial support of many influential people, ' including Lord Strathcona and Mr. Andrew Carnegie, and. founded a series of co-operative stores, an orphanage, hospitals, schools, and numerous small industrial schemes. As recently as last year Dr. Grenf ell was in England giving lectures and raising funds for the extension of these works. Theso funds were used for the extension of certain buildings, and last July, Sir William Allardyce, the Governor of Newfoundland formally opened the new Grenf ell Hospital at St. Anthony, in the northern part of the island. It has just been completed at a cost of £.30,000, largely contributed by generous friends in Great Britain and the United", States. .- Congratulatory... messages were read from the King, Princess Louise, "VicerPatron of the Grenfell Mission, and' Mr. Monroe, Prime Minister, of Newfoundland.. , At the closo of the ceremony the Governor announced that the King, in recognition of Dr. Grenf ell's quarter of a century's labours in Newfoundland and on the Labrador coast, had created- him 'a. Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George.