In the Public Eye

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 46, 1 September 1928, Page 30

In the Public Eye

y. ■-.-■■, m ■i , Cardinal Boiiaventura Ceretti. When-it.-was first stated that the International Eucharistic Congress of the present year was to be held in Sydney, great interest was aroused everywhere by the query, "Who will be Papal Legate," and when it was announced that the honour had fallen on Cardinal Boua- . venture Ceretti universal satisfaction was expressed. He left Komo for Sydney on 29th July, at the same timo intimating his extreme pleasure at having been selected as the representative of tiie Pope in view of the i'aet .that lie knows Australia well, having worked there in the cause of the Roman Catholic Church for a number of years. Cardinal Ceretti, who is also titular Archbishop of Corinth, first visited the Commonwealth in February, 1915, as the Apostolic Delegate for Australasia, having his headquarters in Sydney, where he is naturally well known, and.still appreciated. After two years'service he returned to Rome, and became associated with the Papal Secretary of State. .In 1921 he went to Paris as Papal Nuncio, and his diplomatic qualities are of such a high order that he proved himself to be eminently suited to the office. Ho received the distinction of the Bed Hat of a Cardinal in December, 1925, a fitting tribute to the fine work he had done in several parts of the world. Born at Orvioto, in Italy, on 17th June, 1872, his student days were mostly speut at the Vatican Seminary, at Rome, where he prepared himself for the high offices he has since attained. After ordination he filled the chair of doctor of literature at the Vatican Seminary for several years, after which he was transferred to the Sacred Congregation of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, and was later sent to the Kepublic of Argentina as a priest. His next post was in Mexico, where he acted as secretary to the Apostolic Delegate in the days when that country jvas faithful to the Church, and before there- was any thought of schism. At the end of several years' service in Mexico, Monsignor Ceretti was sent to the delegation at Washington, where he fulfilled the duties of auditor, retaining the post until his appointment to Australia in 1914. Cardinal Ocretti is to inaugurate tho exposed Host at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Sydney, next Wednesday, a ceremony which will officially launch the Eucharistie Congress, 1928, although a great deal of preliminary work has already been carried out. M. Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin. The Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party may be considered to be the actual Soviet Cabinet, and, according to cabled news during' the past year or two, it has been the central pivot of consider- ; a b2 e unr est, while its individual members have come and gone according to the whim of its leaders or at the will of outside influences. The latest indication of change was received early in the present month, when it ■was stated that M. Stalin, responsible for the fall of Trotsky and Eykoff, together with their supporters, was himself likely to bo supplanted by M. Nikolai Ivanovieh Bukharin, the virile editor of "Pravda." For a long-time iM. Stalin carried the greatest weight in the inner circle of Soviet politics, but it appears that he is now being subjected to a dose of his own medicine, and that before long he may be superseded by the man he has largely trained in Soviet policy. M. Bukharin is. much younger than his leader, being now little more than forty years of age. The son of a schoolmaster, a student of the Universities of Moscow and Vienna, he joined the party in 1906, and after four years of revolutionary work ■in Kussia was arrested, spent a year jn prison, and was then banished by tho Tsarist authorities to Siberia. He escaped from that dismal waste of snow and wilderness and went abroad, where he remained until 1917, but carrying on his propaganda work in Germany, Austria, and the United States, and at the same time occupying himself chieily with literature. He has written a large number of books on economic anc 1. other subjects, and is now editor of "Pravda," one of the leading organs of the party. He is considered to be.-., the chief theoretician of the Soviet Cabinet, as he is, in fact, of the Communist Party generally, his quick, lively, excitable brain having moro than once crossed swords with the great men of his own party, including Lenin. His enemies have reminded him quite frequently .that he once opposed the Best Peace and that his tongue has been at times a little too fast for his judgment, -but they are few in numbers compared with those of the other leaders, and he has come through the welter so far unscathed. Ho has been a frequent heretic to Soviet thought, though never for long on any one subject, and he has now created for himself a new office—that of chief executioner to the heresy-hunters, while he makes full use of the newspaper he controls in scourging those whoso opinions and deeds have come under suspicion. 111. Eduard Benes. Among the signatories to the Peace Pact, when' the time comes for its signature, will be the name of M. Eduard Bencs, one of tho earliest members of the League of Nations and Minister of Foreign Affairs for Czecho-Slovakia. The outstanding personality of Dr. Benes during the post-war years has, not uunaturally, been the cause of much controversy among students of affairs in Europe. He has beou strongly criticised in England during several diplomatic crises, particularly those of 1920 and 1924, created by the Genoa Conference and the Geneva Protocol, on the ground that his orientation was towards Paris rather than London. He has -also -been criticised because of his being an opportunist, but this is a complaint from/which many politicians and diplomatists suffer. Dr. Benes's public statements'and his record of action appear to be that he regards Czecho-Slo-vakia's political independence as of the chief importance, and all else as secondary. Diplomatic quarrels between the various countries have caused him mucii anxiety,; both for the particular interests of- Czcch-Slovakinn security and for the general interests of European stability.. -At the same time he has shown himself to be an unsentimental realist, holding the view that a negative, attitude- in diplomacy is a blunder, ■ irrespective of; the merits of the case. Ho has never concealed his point of view that it is 'an important function of the Little Entente to pra- ■ rent any Hungarian or Hapsburg coup

against the 1919 settlement, arid bo has always moulded his policy accordingly. It was largely due to.his influence that attempts mado to establish tho Koyal House in 1921 at Budapest failed. Dr. Beuos has shown himself to be .progressive in policy, and exceptionally well informed on all political and diplomatic subjects. His unbrcken period of office, his work for tho League of Nations, and tho close touch he has maintained, with European affairs during tho past twelve years, mako him ono of the most influential post-war statesmen in Europe. Professor A. W. Bickerton. This week it was announced that Professor A. W. Bickerton had been honoured in New Zealand by Canterbury College conferring upon him the title or degree of "Professor Emeritus," tho highest honour which a New Zealand University has at its disposal. Although ho has now been a. resident of England for a number of years, Professor Bickerton is by no means unknown 'to residents, of the Dominion, especially by those who are capable of reviewing the past twenty-five or thirty years. In those distant (lays he -was lovingly referred to by the residents of Christchurch, if not by people in other parts of the Dominion, a3 the "Prof." He and his family lived at Wainoni Park, on. the banks of the Avon, at Burwood, a house which was justly celebrated for the number of young men and boys which always seemed to be about the premises, several of whom were his own sons, and for the fact that in addition to its being a central point of astronomy, it was also the place of supply for fireworks, which were frequently let off at "display's") in the grounds, to which the public were invited, and provided a source of income to the family, which did not always find it easy to make ends; meet in the days when the professor's knowledge was not appreciated to the same extent as it is now. Professor Bickerton first came to New Zealand in 1874 as Professor of Chemistry to the New Zealand University, remaining in that position until 1902, but the greater part of his time was spent in the study of astronomy, in which he occupies a preeminent place. In 1902 the New Zealand Government sent him to England to make known the new astronomy of j "cosmic impact," of which theory lie! may be said to be tho inventor. Ho lectured all over England on the subject, and to the most learned of the astronomical societies, but his theory was not received with the enthusiasm ho expected, and has since been considerably modified. Professor Bickerton's first experiments in astronomy were in connection with sun-spots which he reduced to visibility by means of a shaving mirror, watching the changing and whirling spots until he had evolved a theory as to their cause. Since then he has shown sun-spots to hundreds of people in different parts of the .world, but never with such primitive arrangements as in his own early studies. Professor Bickerton has written a number of books dealing with the heavenly bodies, many of which are recognised as classics, and though he has many opponents to his theories he is generally admitted to bo one of the great astronomers of the present time. Mr. Herbert Smith. . . Englishmen are seldom stirred to violence Tjy differencial of political opinion. Generally they content themselves with an exchange of verbal "blows," from which little or no harm ensues. Hence tho public were startled towards the end of last July when it was learned that Mr. Herbert Smith, the British miners' leader, had attacked | the opposition in the union with his lists. Mr. Smith is burly and gruff, with a broad Yorkshire accent, and usually wearing the cap of his mining days, though or' recent days lie has taken to the morning coat and the "bowler" hat for special occasions. Born in 1861, Mr. Smith begau work in the pits as a boy, and has devoted his' whole life to Trade Union ism among the miners. A short, solidly built figure with massive, rounded head sunk between deep shoulders, deep-set eyes with a hidden twinkle, and an immensely powerful jaw, his whole aspect suggests the massive, rock-liko strength of the man, which but conceals the extraordinary tenderness of his heart and the , quick practical sympathy which have made him the hero of a hundred mining accidents. All his experience has been in tho Yorkshire fields, and his knowledge of the industry acquired from long years of practical experience, together with his strong common-sense, courage, and humour, have placed him in a leading position amongst the i>;iners, first as president of the Yorkshire Miners' Federation, and later in tho Miners' Federation of Great Britain as member of the National executive, vice-president, and. finally, in 1921, as president. He undertook the responsibilities of the latter office after the collapse of tho Triple Alliance, when Mr. Smillio resigned and Mr. Smith, with Mr. Frank Hodges, had to find a' way out. His period of office proved to be the most difficult the' Miners'. Federation had ever experienced, but Mr. Smith retained the confidence of a majority of the miners because they felt,*and continue to feel, that- ho could always be relied upon, that his word was his bond, and that he would never let anyone down. He was a member of the Sankey Commission on the Coal industry in 1919, and played a prominent' part in putting the ease of the ■ miners before the Royal Commission of 1.025. He was president of tho Federation for the .second occasion during the great national dispute of 1920. .. Captain Wedgwood Bonn. ' vV'heJi Captain Wedgwood Bonn first became a recruit to Labour he raised a great deal bf criticism both in that party and among the Liberal and Conservative members of the House of Commons.' Ho arrived at his decision in February .of last year when sitting as Liberal member for Leith, a seat which he gained with nearly a COOO majority in October, 1924. On loth February, 1927, ho applied for the Chiltern Hundreds and retired from politics for tho time being.- Last week ho was returned to tho House as Labour member for North Aberdeen, a by-election having become necessary owing to the death of Mr. F. H. Rose, who had sat continuously on behalf of Labour since 1918. Prior to his joining the Labour Pa 7' , Captain Bonn told his Loith committee his intentions, and placed himself in their hands, with the conse-

quonoe that \ decided to retire. Ho was not acceptable to the Lcith Labour Party, and so did not contest the byelection, the seat returning to the Liberal Party. The fact that Captaiu Benn was following the example of Commander Kenworthy was regarded at the time by every Liberal as a severe blow to party prestige, which was further added to by the fact that Captain Benn has many brilliant Parliamentary gifts, while his' power as a persistent fighter had won him a great reputation iv the party. His decision, it is understood, was the result of the financial arrangements between Mr. Ll'Jjl. George and Liberal headquarters, Captain Bonn's attitude towards the cxPrime Minister having been somewhat uncompromising for several years previously. It seemed a pity that personal feeling should be allowed to interfere in preventing the working together of two men who, at that time at least, thought alike iv politics. Captain Benn is generally admitted to be a very able Radical, and yet he wovJd do anything rather than follow-a Radical leadership. He is one of a small class of politicians who may be classed as free and independent, and the Labour Party may find it ,iust as difficult to "bring him to heel" as the Liberal Party has done. He is not a rich man in the sense that quite a number of members of the House of Commons are; but he was endowed by his father, tve late Sir J. Williams Benn, with sufficient to allow him to pursue a Parliamentary career.