In the Public Eye

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 39, 15 February 1930, Page 28

In the Public Eye

King Alfonso XIII. of Spain. So many crowns have been hurled to the dust in Europe since the war years that few pjeoplc will feel surprised to hear that another throno is likely to lie vacated before very long, and Alfonso XIII. cease to rule the kingdom of Spain, though it has been sug-

gested that he should remain with a ' certain amount of power as the life President of that State. Alfonso XIII. does not know what it is like not to be a king, for ho was h orn into that great state. Fortyfour years, ago

next iVlay Uio wljuju Spanish nation was tunseiy awaiting the birth of a child, whose safe arrival into the world could alone save the nation from disaster. A few months previously Alfonso XII. h#d died, with his child still unborn. One question was on every lip: Would tljere be an Alfonso XIII.? There was. Though it is not at present fully appreciated, it is to his courage and commanding personality that Spain really owes more than she can ever repay. Although a republic may come to-day without a great deal of bloodshed, some years ago it would have en^ tailed months of bloody revolution. Again and again, when anti-monarch-ism 1 has been ■ at- its . strongest, some, personal act of the King's ha 3 saved t&L situation. ' Once, at least, when MWlrid was in a ferment, and a more timorous monarch would have seen an assassin at every corner, King Alfonso went out from the/Boyal Palace at Madrid, unaccompanied and unarmed — into the bosom, as it were, of his people. They rose to the occasion. He returned to the palace, not alone, but with an escort of thousands, and every man o.f them a loyal subject. His ideal dur- ( ing the hot summer months so common* to Spain is to live as far as may be from the ceremony and pomp of Madrid. The Queen goes shopping in the little town of Santander like anyone else. The King plays polo, while the younger members of the family bathe from a tent on the beach. And San-. , tander, for it is there that* the soyal family usually stay whjsn away from Madrid, quite used to it, takes it all for granted. Like his father, ho loves the "bright eyes of danger." "Whenever my people need mo, I come," wrote his father once, '' and if there is danger I come sooner.'' In 1906, when he was but 20 years old, Alfonso XIII. married Princess Victoria Eugenic- of1 England, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, and they have four daughters and two sons. Miss Mercedes Gleitze, ■ Some time in the early part of last year it was expqcted that Miss Mercedes Gleitze, 'a noted English woman swimmer, would bo paying a visit to New Zealand with the idea of attempting to swim Cook Strait, but for some reason or other the trip did not eventuate, and Cook 'Strait still awaits a conqueror. This week the cable news stated that Miss Gleitze had, howeverj add ed another laurel to hci crown by breaking an endurance record by. remaining in the water at Dublin for 28£ hours. It is because of her pluck as a long-distance swimmer that she has come into the Public Eye at various tim£s. In the summer of 1922 Miss Mercedes Gleitze made her first attempt to conquer tho English Channel, and she tried.on eight occasions before she attained her ambition. She claimed to have succeeded on 7th October, 1928, but as the swim was not officially attested, and some doubt was cast on her Channel performance by Dr. Dorothy Logan's confession as to her own Channel swim hoax, Miss Gleitze made another trial in icy water on-22nd October.'. Tho accompanying boat was manned by pressmen and official witnesses. . After swimming for over ten hours she was taken, out of the water exhausted when a little over five miles from Dover. Miss Gleitze then proceeded to Gibraltar, with the intention of swimming tho straits, a feat never before accomplished. She had a competitor in the person of Miss Millie Hudson, another, typist, and the two swimmers left England in the same steamer. Miss Hudson, however, failed to achieve the feat, and returned home. Miss Gleitze's first effort was made from Tangier on 16th December, 1927, but she gave up when half-way across. On 2nd January, 1928, she got to within a mile of Tarifa, but was overcome by the cold. On 25th January she was nearly drowned on her third attempt, being caught in a whirlpool. Other unsuccessful attempts were made on 12th March and on 3rd April, the latter effort being from Tarifa; she gave up when about a mUe from the Moorish coast. But victory came on sth April.j She started from Tarifa, the most southerly point of Spain, and arrived at Punta Leona, on the coast of Morocco, after swimming for 12 hours 50 minutes. Then she went to Ireland in the hope of conquering the Irish Channel, but after four attempts she decided to give up on account of the coldness of the water. Miss Gleitze was born at Brighton, in the South of England, and learned to swim there before she was ten years old. She was educated at the East Hoe Higher Grade School, and went to London nine years ago, where she follows the calling of a typist. She has never been keen to attempt speed records in the water, her interest mainly being in long-distance events in open water.

The Maharajah of Patiala.

A recent cable message from Delhi stated that tho Maharajah of Patiala had startled the people of India _by ■warning them against the machinations of the Nationalists, led by. Mahatma Gandhi, and stating that their greatest hopes for the future must lay through the constitutional methods advocated by tho House of Commons and the Government of England. The palace at Patiala, according to current accounts, is even an advance on ; the most fanciful j dreams of the theatrical scenic artists, and when he visited Europe some few years ago the hotels he stayed at were hard put to it to provide the Maharajah with accommodation in keeping with the luxury he bad lived in all his life. Despite a luxurious background it appears that he is nothing short of a model chieftain —for British definitions assert that Eajahs and Maharajahs, Although Hindu princes, now rank not as Kings but as tribal chieftains in British'lndia. The Maharajah's income, like-that of'most rulers, is the fruit nf taxation. But in Patiala the amount of taxation is graduated according to the year's harvest. "When the harvest is a. poor one the year's taxes are remitted altogether. In addition, all

those- in need receive reimbursements of their previous taxes from the Maharajah's treasury. When the harvest is particularly goou the taxes, of course, are increased—but nobody grumbles. This system is said to be of the Maharajah's own invention. It has, it is said, eradicated proverty from Patiala. That indeed was tho Maharajah's object, when he came to the throne; and those of his citizens who are even temporarily embarrassed are always aided. On certain days of the year the Maharajah holds "open durbar," or court. At these times ho is accessible to all his subjects, even the most insignificant. They may approach him personally and he will listen to their complaints and appeals—and woe betide-those whose corruption or cunning has caused distress. Apart from the open' Durbars, the Maharajah is also the High Court of Appeal in the ordinary course of law. He travels frequently among his subjects, \vho all know him. Recently, this native monarch introduced into Patiala tho first travelling dispensaries in India. He gives large sums of money to medical and scientific research work both in his own territory and, for special purposes, abroad. Not only primary but also collegiate education is free throughout Patiala; and the Maharajah gave hia close attention to social reform, movements in Europe, with a view to choosing and adapting what he conceived to be the best of them, for hia own people. Three out of the four public appearances he made in London were visits to philanthropic institutions for the purpose of gaining further information as to social welfare work. The three were the British Humane Association, the Salvation Army, and the Institution of the Blind. The Maharajah is also said to have given immense sums to charity during his reign. Lord Kylsant. At the recent frozen meat industry's jubilee held in London several large functions took place to celebrate the event, one of the most notable being a dinner at which there was a distinguished assemblage. It was held at the Savoy Hotel,

Lord Kylsant of Carmarthen presiding at what was really one of the most historic gatherings, so far ;is the Dominions are concerned,' ever held. ■Owen Phillips, Lord Kylsant's name before he was raised to the

peerage, is the beanstalk of the family, being Cft Sin tall. He left Salisbury many years ago to become a shipping clerk in an office at Newcastle, from which have come all the honours which have since been heaped upon him. He had become a shipowner in a small way, having bought his first ship in..- 1889, when the International Mercantile Marine of New Jersey, then known. as the Morgan combination, gave the British nation a ■ shock by adding the White Star Line to its other properties and operating it thereafter in the position of a line of- British registry but American ownership. The London papers howled for weeks. Tho White Star became "the lost British fleet." Its sale becamet "a disaster." A year later, in 1903, Owen Phillips joined the board of the Eoyal Mail Steam Packet Company, which then: operated 190,000 tons of shipping over the Soutli American and 'West Indies routes. One, of his first acts was to apply for a supplementary charter providing that its ownership and direction were to remain forever British. At the beginning of 1927 Lord Kylsant brought the White Star Line back to British ownership and-added it to tho now numerous family of the Eoyal Mail, the International Mercantile Marino retaining its American agency. The White Star now brings the total tonnage under his control up to the colossal figuro of 2,500,000, and makes the Eoyal Mail group easily tho greatest shipping combination in the world. Men who know Lord Kylsant say that his intention has not been merely to add line to line and tonnage to tonnage, but to build up a world-wide network of lines to be forever British, a powerful driving force in maintaining the laboriously achieved leadership of the British shipping interests through the currents of technical, economic and political change that continually beset it. Lord Kylsant's is to-day the most powerful single brain behind the infinite daily work of the Eed Ensign. His first ten years with tho Eoyal Mail cover only part of the story of his rise, but that the most exciting part. After the war ho entered the North Atlantic trade with a direct service to New York, and during 1927, in a deal which involved something like £7,000,000, he. absorbed one of his biggest North Atlantic competitors and one of the most famous of all British lines, the White Star. The services he controls now thread the Seven Seas. The ships he operates vary from the great Majestic and Olympic down to little cargo boats that lie rolling their masts out as they sling Birmingham hardware and Manchester cotton over the side into surfboats paddled by the cheery, brawny black men of the West African ports. His freights vary from the mails down to what is known as "general cargo." Frozen meat from the Argentine, fruits from California, tin and rubber from the Straits Settlements, wheat from Australia, wool from New Zealand, are all grist to his mill. There are few commodities whose supply and demand in the world's markets do not have their bearing on some aspect of a world-wide cartage business such as his. There are few British dependencies in whose prosperity he has no stake. At the age of 67 Lord Kylsant is a giant in more ways than one. Seen walking across Leadenhall street nearly, seven feet tall in his top hat, he is the complete picture of the more silvery and easy-going type of city man. It is difficult to believe, however, that easy-going men come wandering out of country cathedrals to scoop up, 500 steamers into a single combination. If he is at heart a dynamo of energy, as most giants of business are said to be, he is a soundless and effortless dynamo. lie' sat' as a Liberal in the House of Commons for four years; in fact, with two, of his brothers there was a time when his father had nineteen feet of son in the House. But he is no orator, and the greatest.stir he ever.occasioned,in the House was his first appearance there with the 6 feet 3 inches of his brother Jack. '