In the Public Eye

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 79, 30 September 1933, Page 21

In the Public Eye

Lord Lloyd, who sees the new Aus- . tralian defence proposals giving a lead to the Imperial Parliament was recently re-elected president of the Navy - ■■• League, and so is specially interested in naval affairs. ! When he was Sir George Lloyd and j filled the office of Governor of Bombay,! he showed a great aptitude for understanding the native mind. ! When he first went to India he was faced/ with almost similar conditions | to those existing later in Egypt, the storm centres at that time being in the Punjab and Gujerat districts, but ail ominous situation was dealt with in a manner which showed him capable of decision and ' firmness, two virtues which are all powerful in the native mind. George Ambrose, Lord Lloyd of Dplobran, to give him the full title according to * Debrett, was born in 1879, the son of Mr. S. 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, Russia, 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 Ooneervative member of Parliament for West Staffordshire, a seat he reeigued when appointed Governor of Bombay. ' Returning 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. He was the centre of a storm in 1929 when he was attacked by the Labour ««~(j nvern men't for his administration in Egypt and resigned his post. That year he acted as chairman of the Empire Economic Union and was elected president of the Navy League for the ■fivs.t time. ".Sir Oomer Berry. ■■''•"' Tie auction sale of Sir Gomer Berry's ' "famous herd of Shorthorn cattle at Pendley Farm serves to remind one that "this famous figure in English life has other interests besides newspapars. Sir Gomer has for years taken a keen interest iiKstock, and owns a large estate, Fartiham Chase, at Farnham Royal, Bucks. Sir Gomer Berry is the third son of the late Alderman J. M. Berry, Hand was born in 1883. The family has acquired large industrial interests in Wales and important properties in the newspaper and publishing business. The two elder brothers were Henry Seymour Berry (Lord Bucltland), who died jn 1928, and William Ewer-t, who was .^created a baronet in 1928/ and. who is -."-now Baron Camrose. Lord Buckland, ■^"■who was chairman of Guest, Keen, and --C^Nettlefolds, and a-generous benefactor T.-3oi his native town in South Wales, was «'.Stilled in a riding accident. Sir Wil./■^lia'm Berry was a member of the firm -„Tvho devoted most energy to newspaper -Work. He founded the "Advertising jWorld'/ in 1901 and became a working journalist, contributing largely to the newspaper which he directed. After that he became connected i with the "Sunday Times," and was editor-in-chief from 1915 onwards. Ho acquired, ctiher alone or with his brother Gomer, other important undertakings. The brothers obtained a controlling interest .in the- "Financial Times," "Tho Graphic," Cassell's publishing firm, Kelly's Directories, and groups of newspapers, and now controls the largest newspaper proprietary in the world. In 1924 the Berrys bought most of the Hulton publications, and they now control newspapers in Manchester, Sheffield, Glasgow, Newcastle, Bristol, Aberdeen, and Cardiff. They also have, acquired the London "Daily ' Telegraph." Part of the extension of their •activities was due to keen rivalry with the Rothermere group, the Berrys taking up the challenge vigorously. Sir Oeorgo Pearce. Sir George Pcarce, whoso announce- ' "'ment of Australia's defence policy has created greaf interest, overseas, is a man with a very long and distinguished career in Commonwealth politics. He was returned to the Senate for Western Australia at the first Common- ■ wealth election in 1901, when he stood in the interests of the Labour Party. - -Since then he has continuously represented that State in the Senate. He was Chairman of Committees from 1907 to 1908, and first attained Ministerial rank in November, 1908, when he became Minister of Defence in the Fisher Cabinet, holding office until Mr. Fisher ■■ was defeated in June of the following — year. On Mr. Fisher regaining the .., .Government benches in 1910, Senator ~, Pear.cc was again given the portfolio .of Defence and held it until 1913, when the Cook Ministry succeeded to office, only to remain in power, however, for fifteen months, when, as the result of a double dissolution, it was defeated. , ( Senator Pearce again became Minister ~, of Defence, first under Mr. Fisher^ and ...then under Mr. Hughes. He held the portfolio throughout the Great War, and only retired in.1921 to take over the portfolio of Home and Territories, .which he held until 1926. Ho was born ~,,at Mount Barker, South Australia, in 1870, and began life as a carpenter and ,;, joiner, and in 1892 he went to Western ..Australia, where ho did much work as •an organiser in the Labour movement. "He represented the Commonwealth at» the Washington Peace Conference. He .- may be said to be of moderate Labour persuasion, and retired from the more „;;militant branch of .tho movement at the ,;; same time as his leader, Mr. W. M. ...Hughes. He led the Opposition in the ■ .Senate against Mr. Scullin, and then ~.re-entered the Cabinet after Mr. Scul- . Jin's defeat. In 1927 he was made a Knight Commander of the Victorian Order, and in 1921 a Privy Councillor.

Admiral Earl Jellieoe, G.C.8., 0.M., G.C.V.0., who is concerned at the state of the British Navy; was affectionately known in the service as "Silent John," a title of sincere respect, and his term of residence in New Zealand as Governor-General has made him hosts of friends in this country. He was not only efficient to a point, but he was steeled by experience in every branch of his profession. Though physically of medium height and of spare build, he is emphatically a '' big man.'' He spared neither himself nor his officers and men when service conditions required effort, but was generous in his praise of them, as his dispatches show. Born in 1859, he entered the Navy at the age of 13, and was a lieutenant on board the Agincourt during the bombardment of Alexandria in 1882. He was in the ill-fated "Victoria when she was rammed and sunk by the Cauipcrdown in the Eastern Mediterranean in 189£, being one of the few survivors of the terrible disaster. Earl Jellieoe attained the rank of captain in 1897, and ten years later he was made rear-admiral. It was intended that he should at the end of 1914 succeed Sir George Callaghan, but when war was seen to be unavoidable the appointment was hurried forward, and on August 5 it was announced that he had been placed in supreme command of the Fleet. • Earl Jellieoe was then the ablest of the admirals of the younger school. He' saw active service in the Egyptian War of 1882, and again in China in 1898-1901. During the expedition for the relief of the Peking Legations he commanded the Naval Brigade, and acted as chief staff officer to Admiral Sir E. H. Seymour. During the fighting at Peitsang he was severely wounded. While still a lieutenant in his teens on the Monarch he was awarded the Board of Trade's silver medal for gallantry in saving life at sea. He became a Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty in 1908, and was appointed Second Sea Lord of the Admiralty in December, 1912. In May, 1912, he cruised, as a guest of tho Kaiser, in the Zeppelin Hausa, and from her deck looked down on Berlin.- He took part in tho famous naval action at Jutland,, where his skilful handling of tho Grand Fleet is now coming to "be fully 'appreciated, and left his last command afloat to become First Sea Lord. It was largely due to his labours that the submarine menace was overconfe. After the war he was sent on a special mission to the Dominions to advise on reorganisation of their navies. For his war services he received the, thanks of Parliament and the siim of £50,000, and at the end of 1918 was raised to the Peerage. In 1925, when he returned from New Zealand, he was created, an Earl. Admiral Richard E. Byrd. One of the widest known of Americans is Admiral Richard E. Byrd, whose ship the Bear has left for Dunedin, which is to be the base for a new expedition to icy southern seas. This will be Admiral Byrd's second expedition to the Antarctic, and elaborate plans have been laid for it., Admiral Byrd was born in Winchester, Virginia), in 1888. At tho age of 12 he made a trip round the world unaccompanied. From 1904 to 1907 he was at the Virginia Military Institute and later at the University of Virginia. Thon in 1908 he went on to the Naval Academy and graduated two years before the World War. In that conflict he held the temporary rank of lieu-tenant-commander in command of the U.S. naval forces operating in Canadian waters and built up naval aviation stations at North Sidney and Halifax. In 1918 he became lieutenant and four years later, by special Act of Congress, ho was promoted lieutenant-commander on the retired list. In 1925 ho went to Greenland as flight-commander with tho Macmillan Expedition and tho experience which he gained there convinced him that a flight to tho North Pole was feasible if undertaken in May. On his return he selected a carefullytested Fokker monoplane equipped with three Wright air-cooled motors. He sailed from New York in April, 192G, and, accompanied only by. his pilot Floyd Bennett, he left Spitsbergen on May 9, having two objectives, a flight to the Pole and back and alternatively a flight to Peary Land. He flew in a straight line to the Pole, which he reached, then circled several times and verified the observations , made by Peary in 1909. Then he returned by a different, course, covering 1600 miles in fifteen and a half hours' flying time. In June-July, 1927, he made a dramatic four-passenger flight from New York to Vcr-sur-Mer, France, covering an air distance of 3744 miles in forty-six hours six minutes. He arrived in bad weather and after circling for hours over inland France was compelled to make a forced landing, in which his machine was wrecked, but all the party reached the shore uninjured. Then in 1928 he equipped a large expedition for the famous journey to the Bay of Whales, which he made his base for exploration of the Antarctic continent. The expedition was able to make a stay of over a year, it included about 100 persons, and it cost more than 1,000,000 dollars. The success with which Admiral Byrd met in the Antarctic and his subsequent promotion to admiral's rank in the United States'are familiar to everyone. He mapped and claimed for the United States the tract which he named "Little America," and he added materially to the store of knowledge of the frozen south.