In the Public Eye

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 85, 7 October 1933, Page 21

In the Public Eye

T,h©.-now President of the Probato Divorce and Admiralty Division of the English High Court, Sir Boyd Merriman, has had a distinguished career. Ho was born at Knutsford, Cheshire, 53 years ago' and educated at Winchester, becoming a barrister in 1904. For soino years "ho practised as a Manchester "local" and then moved to London, where' he went into Sir Gordon Hewart's chambers. When tho World. War broke out Sir Boyd was early in the ranks of the British Army and served in France from 1915 to 1919. .His scrvico was with the Manchester Regiment,'and he three times gained mentwn .in dispatches. After the. war he decided to enter politics, and inlJ-4, ■with' the overturn of Labour, he was elected to Parliament as Conservative member for the Eusholmc division o± Manchester. He won great notice as counsel for the plaintiff in tho case of Wright v. Gladstone, and his handling of this difficult case drew groat praiso even from those who had no sympathy ■with his client. ' In 1928 Sir Boyd became SolicitorGeneral in succession to Sir Thomas Inskip, though at that time he was very little known in the House of Comirions and had spoken only once or twice. He had taken very little part in this affairs of the House, being one of those men who rose in the courts rather than in politics. In tho year ■of'-his appointment as Solicitor-General i.lie was knighted, and he received the 0.8. E. shortly after tho War. : Sir Boyd is a member of a wellknown Manchester family. His father was an insurance agent, and ho is a nephew of Canon Merriman, the former rector of St. Mary's Hulme. He has liold his seat in the House of Commons to date and has won various honours since his appointment to the Ministry, for he'took up his post again in 1932. Three.-years ago ho received an honorary LL.D. from McGill University, and he has been made an honorary member of the American Bar Association. He has' been twico married. Siejior'A: Lcrrqux. ' Ono' of the. most colourful men. In Spain, Scnor Alejandro Lerroux, who is the new Premier of tho Bepublic, became Minister of Foreign Affairs in the first Ministry formed after the defeat of King Alfonso. Spanish, with a strain of French blood, he is prematurely grey with tho strain ©f ploughing the soil for the seed of the revolution. In the earlier days of tho century, ' when the remnants of the Republican Party seemed to be falling apart, Lerroux infused new life- to the movement by the vigour of his speeches and his tireless planning. All over Spain men began to talk of the "upstart Lerroux" and of his boast that lie and his Republican "rabble" would ultimately win their way to a republic. He grow to be recognised as dangerous, and when tho new spirit of the Spanish people began to manifest itself in acts, of violence King Alfonso summoned this "upstart" to an interview, Lorroux went, and tho King demanded tho exact aims of tho Republicans. Lerroux answered that they meant to. create a kinglcss state. The King proposed that, the party leaders should co-operato with the authorities in. order to ensure peace. Lerroux accepted this proposal,- but had a hard %ht to endeavour to make his young followers confine their campaign to the platform. Then, when the Catalonian plot of 1910 exploded, Lerroux refused to have anything to do with it.. Ho was attacked ;by conspirators, ho was stabbed,' and his house set on fire. With the aid of a friend ho escaped. and was forced into hiding. A Catalan «iurt found him guilty of tho fantastic' charge of disturbing the peace of Barcelona.' Ho was pronounced a trajtor.to. Spain and sentenced to gaol, with the alternative of exile. Feeling ran so high that it was believed he would be murdered if ho went to prison,' so ho was shipped to South Am6rica. But when the Catalonian revolt subsided the King granted amnesty to all political exiles in South America and ■ Lerroux returned. Ho was rcrlcctedto Parliament, and in the World War he declared for loyalty to the King,' provided that the King was loyal to', his, people. ' Two years ago a turn of■ tho wheel brought him. back to Madrid from. France and sent Alfonso to England. Mr. Tom Clark>3. : There are ttvr better known figures iii -the English newspaper world than Mr. Tom Qlarko, the^ editor of tho "News-Chronicle," who has just resigned his post with that journal. Mr. Clarke, who is a member of the Council of the Empire Press Union and a Fellow, of the Institute of Journalists, was born in ISB4- and is a younger son of the late Mr. Joseph Clarke, of Bolton, Lancashire. Ho- was educated at Bolton schools and at. Buskin- Hall, Oxford. From tho beginning ho had a roving and adventurous career. In 1902 ho started journalism on the staff of the "Lewisham Journal," and went from there to the "South China Morning Post," Hong Kong. Ho acted as special (Correspondent for tho "Daily Mail" 'and Chicago "Tribune" in French' Indo-China during the cruise of the Baltic Fleet in tho Busso-China War, and after that spent three years in visiting China, Japan, Korea., Siberia and Russia. Later Mr. Clarke went to Manchester and joined the staff of tho Hultons, who held important newspaper interests there. He was not there very long when ho was attracted to London to boeomo news editor of the "Daily Sketch." Four years later ho was enrolled on tho foreign staff of the "Daily Mail," and the year before the war• was-appointed night news editor of that journal.' After his war service the.lato Lord Northcliffc appointed him news editor, and in 1920 tho great newspaper owner sent Clarke to the United States and Canada to study newspaper methods. In 1923 ho went to Melbourne anrl was assistant editor of the "prerald," but tf^G found him back in England agai*' \tf& £• became cdi-

Thero is no "warmer friend of tlie United- States Navy, and lias not been ono for many years, than the former Senator for Virginia, who was chosen by President Roosevelt for the post of Naval Secretary when the new Democratic .Cabinet was formed. Mr. C. A. Swanson's State holds Hampton Roads, a great harbour for fighting ships, the Norfolk Navy Yard, and the. famous. Newport: News dry dock and shipbuilding company where many naval vessels have been constructed. In the days of the Great War, Mr. Swanson was chairman of the Naval Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives; today he is at the liead of the lighting force. Ho was also Democratic representative on the Senate Committee on Naval Affairs, and served on tho important Foreign Eolations Committee of that body which has a large hand in framing the foreign policy of tho United States. Mr. Swanson, who has been visiting Honolulu for the inspection of tho naval establishment at Hawaii is also a deep student of international relations and has made many visits to Europe, sometimes as a participant in tho meetings of the Interparliamentary Union. Reading and study in connection with international affairs are perhaps his chief diversions. B9ni: seventy-one years ago in Swansonville, Virginia, he attended public schools until 16 years of age, taught school a year, and then went to Virginia Polytechnic Institute. He did not have tho money to continue his education, so ho became a clerk for two years; and saved enough to graduate at Randolph-Macon College. Later he received a legal degree at the University of Virginia, from which he went to practice law at Chatham. He was elected to Congress in 1893, remained in the House twelve years, and was elected Governor of Virginia in 1903.. In August; 1910, ho was named to succeed tho lato John Warwick Daniel in the United States Senate,; where lie has been ever since. Senator Swanson has been a prominent liguro iv Democratic politics for years. It. is' said that he came into close contact with tho President when Mr. Roosevelt was Assistant Secretary of tho Navy, and the Senator "was chairman of the House Naval Affairs Committee. ■ ' ~ Senator Swanson worked for the acceptance of tho London Naval Treaty in the Senate. More recently he was in Geneva as a. member of the American delegation to the Disarmament Conference. ■ He was in his way one of the sensations, of Geneva. Statesmen of the world had long been curious about tho United States Senate; now they saw a real Senator. And* the "gentleman from Virginia" played the part. Always dignified, ho dressed in tail coat, set his wido beribboned pince-nez glasses firmly on his proud nose, and upheld all the traditions. ' Interestingly,' Senator Swanson found a bond of kinship with those other delegates who had a background of rough-and-tumble, politics, but he refused to go to the Riviera for an Easter holiday. "Suppose my picture in a Palm Beach suit got back to Washington," ho cried in alarm. Professor T. H. Easterfield. .The retirement of Professor T. H. Easterfield,. director of.'the Cawthron Institute, will take from .active .life'almost tho last of the foundation professors of Victoria University College. When he came to New Zealand Professor ■•Easterfield, M.A. (Cambridge), Ph.D. (Wurzburg), F.1.C.,: F.C.S., and Associate of tho Yorkshire College, was on the staff of the .Cambridge University. Chemical Laboratory, the sanitary science- and pharmaceutical departments of which were for five years under his sole charge. Ho was 32 years of age, and brought out with him a- wife and two children. . A- student of the Yorkshire College, Leeds, Professor Easterfield's academic distinctions, are. as follows:—Senior Foundation Scholar, Cla-rc •College, Cambridge; first-class honours, Natural Sciences Tripos, Cambridge (chemistry, physics, geology," zoology); first-class honours, Examination for the' Doctorate, Wurzburg (chemistry, physics,:and technology). His scientific training is thus recorded:—Three years at the Yorkshire College, four years at the University of Cambridge, one and a half years at the University of Wurzburg, six months at the Zurich Polytechnic School, and two' months at tho Laboratory of the Great Northern Bailway. His experience as teacher, lecturer, and examiner includes work done as1 an assistant demonstrator in tho University Laboratory; three years University Extension. Lecturer in Chemistry and Physics (20 courses); five years Lecturer on the Chemistry of Sanitary Science and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, 1892 to 1898; four years Lecturer in Physics to the Agricultural Syndicate; three years as University Examiner in Pharmaceutical Chemistry; three years Examiner (Physics), for Cambridge Local Examinations; four years Lecturer (Chemistry) for Oxford and Cambridge Schools Examination Board. Brieily,• Professor Efisterfield then had ten years' experience in teaching classes in Chemistry and Physics, Engineering, and Sanitary Science. Professor Easterfield was appointed to tho Cawthron Institute in 1919, and left Victoria ColIqgo in tho following year to take up his residence in Nelson. Ho has been president of tho New Zealand Institute and of the Wellington Philosophical Society, an*d various papers by him have appeared in, the Transactions of the Chemical Society, London, and in the publications of the New Zealand Insti-