In the Public Eye

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 74, 24 September 1927, Page 29

In the Public Eye

M. Alexandra Millerand. To have been both Prime Minister and President of France has not fallen to the lot of many men, but these honours have each been held in turn by 11. Alexandre Millerand. Born in Paris in 1859. M. Armpr.nnd i 3 by profession a lawyer, and one who has scored brilliant triumphs at the Bar in important commercial cases. He made his reputation by his 'defence of the instigators of a coal strike in 18S3, and quickly be-

came prominent in

the Socialist Party, being elected deputy for Paris two years later. An industrious journalist, he was at one time associated with M. Clemenceau, then, editor of the party organ and later of "La LantoAc," with M. Briand and M. Viviani as his lieutenants. . He eventually became leader of the Socialists, speaking with acknowledged authority upon matters of social reform. But he moved steadily from the Left to that middle position best according with his strong coinmen-sense and freedom from illusions. In 1899 he entered tho Cabinet as Ministor of Commerce, and this led to his expulsion from the Socialist Party in 1903. Six years later he became Minister of Public "Works, and it became evident to most people that the party's loss was the nation's gain. He displayed a high degree of constructive statesmanship, carrying through a mass of important legislation relating to labour, instituting a weekly day of rest, old age pensions, improved conditions for women workers, creating a Labour Department, and organising the State railway system. He came safely through the Agadir crisis in 1911, and the following year M. Poincare gave him the portfolio of War. From that time onwards he devoted himself almost entirely to preparing against the German invasion, which he forecasted two years before it actually occurred. Ho held office at a most difficult period, when the strain upon organisation was greatest and when it was necessary to make many improvisations to meet the sudden demands which arose for unparalleled supplies. In the later stages Of the war M. Millorand was- not greatly in.tho Public Eye, devoting himself, after ho had relinquished the Ministry Of War, to relief works and his large legal practice. When M. Clemonceau's Premiership ended, M. Millerand took Office and held it during the protracted negotiations which followed the Armis tieo and peace negotiations. In 1920 he was elected President in succession to M. Dcschancl, who was compelled to retire owing to ill-health, and M. Millerand hold office until 1.924, when ho retired in turn to'give place to the present President, M. Doumergue. Since then M. Millerand has not taken a very prominent part in politics, but notification this week that ho is again contesting a seat in the Chamber of Deputies indicates that ho.is bnco morn preparing for political warfare.

Sir Henry Coward.

Those who recall the delightful singing of the Sheffield Choir when it visitod New Zealand in 1911-will readily remember the kindly,\ courteous conductor, urbane in manner and firm in discipline, Dr. Henry Coward, who has since been knighted, and who thia week made a sensational attack on jazz .music, during wh-ich he declared that it made a trombone bray .like an ass, whilo the silver-

toned trumpet is mado to wail like a nocturnal tomcat. The value whicu Sir Honry Coward has rendered to choral singing in England can hardly bo over-estimated. Anyone ! reading his book, "Choral Technique and Interpretation," will rcndlly discover how minutely ho h:is studied tho subject, and every 0110 who has heard | the famous choir of tho Sliofliold Musi-i-eal Union will approciato tho thoroughness with which ho hus put his principles into practice. Even in 'his early days, whon he was an apprentico to tho cutlery trade, he sedulously pored over books in tho hours ho was ablo to claim for leisure, and at 22, I whon ho enterod tho scholastic profestion as a pupil teacher in tho British school at Atercliffe, hn was alroady well equipped for his Work. Ho had long interested himself in music before he adopted it as his profession, and ho became a member of a church .choir, winning high praise for the boauty of his voice. He studied music, and soon made himself proficient, and himself became a teacher, organising classes in tonic sol-fa, which till then had taught only very occasionally, but later became a most valuable adjunct to' music, particularly in schools. It was in 1888, when he was 39 years Old, that he took up music definitely as his life's work. Sir Henry has been a power in music, not only in Sheffield but in England, for many years, but his fame as ouc of the greatest choral conductors of the present day dates from the first Sheffield Festival of 1896. His infinite capacity for taking pains, which has given him his eminence as a conductor, has been responsible for many notable performances. For instance, his choristers are said to know "Tho Messiah" thoroughly, yet ho always commences the practices, of this oratorio as though tho choir know nothing of it, becauso, ho contends, tho assumption of this state of affairs is the only road to perfection.

M. Maxim M. Litvinoff.

Recently a statement was made by M. Maxim Maximovich Litvinoff, a prominent Bu3sian statesman, that tin French attitude towards M. Kakovsky, Soviet Ambassador at Paris, was a neroilcss threat to peace," and that a break botwoen France and Bussia would bo a menace to world amity. M. Litvinoff was only seventeen when he entered military service as a volunteer, and while in the army he became

interested in

Marxism. Wfion his ivrni. of service was completed he devoted himself to propaganda, and bocame a member of the Kieff committee of the Social Democratic Party. Tho president of that committee proved to be a police agent, and tho wholo committee was arrested. After a year and a half in prison Mr. ■ Litvinoft", with eleven companions, escaped from gaol, and went abroad and took an activo part in tho "Iskra," the Social Democratic newspaper. When the split in the Social Dern<wratie Party occurred, M. liitvinoff joined the Bolsheviks, or majority section, returned to Bussia ille* gaily in. 1903 and worked there as a member of the Central Committee until the revolution in 1905, In that year he attended the London Congress as a delegate from the Riga Committee, and took part, with Maxim Gorky in found-

ing "The New Life" ("Novaya Zhizu"), the first legal Social Democratic newspaper to appear within the boundaries of Ttussia. During the succeeding years of reaction. M. Litvinoff lived abroad, where he organised the sending of weapons to the revolutionaries in the Caucasus. He took part in the International Socialist Bureau, which he left at the beginning of the Great War after protesting against the entry of Socialists into bourgeois governments and in general against Socialist support of the war. After the November revolution of 1917 in Bussia, he was appointed diplomatic agent of the Soviet Government in England, and he was subsequently arrested as a hostage for Mr. Lockhart,-. a British agent captured by Russia, for whom he was exchanged. Ho has since, become one of the most important 'figures in the Soviet Diplomatic Service, as Assistant Commissar of Foreign Affairs taking part in the initiation of peace negotiations with Estonia, in negotiations at Copenhagen with England, in the Genoa Conference, and," as president of the Russian delegation, in the subsequent conference at The Hague. In 1925 he becamo a member of the Eevolut'ionary Military Council of the Union of Soviets, and later Chief of Staff of the Red Army. M. Litvinoff ia now Acting People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, and is a powerful figure in the Bed Parliament.

Madame Zaghlul.

During tho Whole of his adventurous career, the late ZaghJul Pasha was supported by his wife, who helped him during some of the most trying periods of his L-nrrnr. nnfl „o w that he is dead she has decided to carry on the work of Egyptian Nationalism, which he had made his life work. During her husband's exile from Egypt, following the Alexandria riots of

Zaghlul, single- ... . „ handed, continued Ills policy and kept open, his house as a centre of political activity and a meeting-place for his followers. Situated in a delightful residential quarter ot Cairo, the villa; known as the 'House of the Nation/ witnessed many stormy gatherings and secret cabals. Even in those.early days of women's emancipation (and the movement m Egypt is oven yet very younc) Madame Zaghlul had sacrificed convention and frequently addressed largo meetings of men, displaying no mean gifts of logio and oratory. Kepresent-mg-tho exiled Saad Zaghlul as a martyr, working upon the imagination of the people, by whom she was looked upon almost as a high priestess of patriotism, slie kept alive and fanned the flame of Egyptian Nationalism. Echoes of her vehement and stormy denunciations of her. husband's enemies reached distant pai'ts'of the world, and those who heard of her doings imagined her to bo a virago, only to find that actually she is a gracious, cultured, and charming woman. Daughter, of an ex-Prime Minister, Mustapha Pasha Fahmy, she married Zaghlul Pasha in 1596. Aa a young woman she must have been very lovely, and even now, when she is verging on old ago, she is always well and tastefully dressed, and appears to bo tho essence of womanliness, with a gentle graciousness of bearing for those whom she likes. Before ho died, her chief care and preoccupation were for her husband, to whom she was deeply devoted, and who in his turn paid her tho most sincere tribute of appreciation by professing himself an earnest advocate of emancipation for Egyptian women, a cause to which she had been devoted for a great many years. Ho always declared himself anxious in every way to assist the feminist movement in which his wifo played such an active part. In conjunction with other Egyptian women of high education and social standing, sho has bee., indefatigable in organising and promotmg charitable works, taking a koon practical interest in education art -md science, over, ready with advice' and help ior those who Bought her aid, so that to-day her good works aro recognised all over Egypt.

Mr. J. T. Lang.

Now South Wales is at tho moment in tho throos of an election campaign, and tho Government—a Labour one—is fighting for its very Ufo, and no one enn safely say how Fortune will sway the contest. At the head of tho Gov-

crnmea't forces is Mr. John . T. Lang, one of tho greatest fighters tho Labour movement in Australia hag ever possessed, la fact, ho is not content to ■strive, with his oppdnents, ■ but continually falls out with those who avo under-

stood to bo his supporters and frionds. Mr. Lang had not boon long in Parliament boforo ho saw the memorable split iii his party ovor the conscription question, and this at a period whon tho Empire was fighting for its very existence. Tho Great War was hardly over —and won dospito all that Rod Labour could do to bring about defeat—when kindrod spirits introduced a new form of discontent into the ranks of Australian politics. They doclarod war on peace and order and Australian politics, so that the Australian had it forced upon him that those things wero part of an organised scheme •of "class war." Mr. Lang was able to watch tho earlier dissensions in 'the Labour Party either from the close view of tho party Whip (from 1921) as a youthful Minister. In December, 1921, he bficaruo State Treasurer, his first Cabinet office. Ho sat by and observed aloof tho currents within tho party, and, save for one occasion when the A.L.P. carpeted him on a charge connected with . the wages of Harbour Trust omployees, his name was hardly spoken in the strong passages of contemporary party feeling. Then' in July, 1923, he was- elected Leader of the Labour. Patty. in place of Mr. Dooley, and almost immediately ho leapt into the fray as a champion against the Reds. He and the DeputyLoader (Mr. Loughlin) '. fluttered their new pennant in a "manifesto to the men and women of the Labour movement." After expressing the need to restore harmony and get rid of "corrupt and disruptive elements operating amongst us," tho manifesto proceeded to welcome help from the industrial wing and made an appeal to the effect that "Capitalism will not bo shifted by hectic speeches, by fiery exhortations, or by purely destructive tactics." This was a challenge which his opponents in tho party did not fail to take up) and the Labour Party of New South Wales over since has been seething with tho elements of disruption, but Mr. Lang, so far, has come through,unscathed. Such quarrels, however, cannot fail to have a disturbing effect upon a General Election, and Mr. Lang's greatest task has not been to defeat his opponents but to weld ■■ the party into a more homogenuous whole in order that victory may again bo the portion of tho parte 1.