In the Public Eye

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 76, 31 March 1934, Page 15

In the Public Eye

The decision of JR. T. ("Bobby") .Tones, the, greatest golfer of his day, to play professional golf, gives interest to a statement which he. made when still aai amateur. "I supposo'l, havo often been called a jackass because I havo not seen fit to play professional golf," said Jones. "I am commended in some quarters for maintaining the ideals of amateur sport, and censured in others for foolishly refusing to grasp the bonanza of wealth supposed to bo waiting for mo if I should turn pro. Yet, although I began to play golf quite by accident and played for years \yithout exactly knowing why, I have had very definite reasons" for not. accepting golf as a profession; but the idealistic part of the thing is entirely apart from, that decision.

"Amateurism, in my opinion, is entirely a matter of .convenience, depending upon the financial condition of the individual. It-is nice for a man to make a hobby of his favourite sport, to play or leave it alone as he. likes. But to enjoy this luxury he must bo able to earn a living from 'some other occupation or must, possess an income sufficient for -.his needs. .In other words, it is fine to. be an amateur if one can afford it. ' "

"No question aris.es in ray mind eon- i corning tho right .of an individual to I commercialise his proficiency in sport if Ins happiness and well-being will bo promoted by so doing.. If enough people will pay1 money .to see Walter Hagen play golf to.make it. profitable for him to play, and if he wants to play, I cannot sec why the situation is vastly different from, that of Camso's being paid to sing or of a lawyer's receiving money for drafting a contract. That there- is a demand for professional golfers is shown by the.fact that many of them earn quite a respectable amount of money., The calling is a legitimate "one1 and there appears no good reason why a man should not accept it if- he (desires. "For mo there -was no temptation in professionalism until I had all lout com- > plcted the college education which my | father had determined I should have. Naturally my services as :i golfer were not iv demand prior to 1923, when I won tho American open championship. And by that time I had seen a lot of golf, had indulged in'strenuous seasons of competition, and had been on barnstorming tours exhibiting for the Red Cross during the war."" "I had found out tlio vast difference between playing golf for pleasure and golf as a business, and that professional golf involved considerably more than long putts and twenty-dollar bills. I had learned that a good many professionals had full-time positions with clubs, where they , maintained a shop and gave lessons, earned comfovtable livings, but that the only men ' who drew really attractive incomes' were those in demand for exhibition purposes. And I also had learned something of what exhibition tours meant, and I did not like them. "T am not trying to sympathise with the professional or to create the im- , pression that he deserves more com- j pensatipn than ho now" gets. Eather, I am trying to'point out to the business man who thinks he would like nothing bettor than to play golf every day the fact that even a fascinating pastime may, when one is foicod to it, become actual labour." Sir James Caird. Sir James Caird, who has given a collection of maritime curiosities to the British nation and has offorcd £29,000 towards reconditioning a building to house them, was born in Glasgow seventy yeais ago and has been connected with the shipping industry both on the Clyde and in London ever since ho joined the firm of William Graham and Co., East India merchants, in 1878. Eleven years later he migrated to- London and became associated with Mr. Howard Houlder. In twelve months he was made manager of tho shipowning firm of Turnbull, Martin, and Co., in which his business interests centred until his retirement therefrom in June, 1927. Tho company were early pioneers in the refrigerated meat trade from Australia and New Zealand, and the first steamer specially built for the carriageof frozen produce- was their Elderslie, which was put: into ; commission in 1882. On the death of Mr. Edward Martin in 1900, Mr. Cairo, as he then was, and Sir Edwyn Dawcs purchased the .business. The latter gentleman, died in 1903, and ultimately Mr. Caird became solo partner and owner of the .Scottish Shiro Line. One of tho first things he did on attaining completo control was to open up, in-co-operation with tho Houlder and Federal Lines, the trado between tho West Coast of' England and tho Antipodes, the service being maintained under the name of tho F.H.S. Lines. Sir James's direct pc-rsonal connection, with the Shire Line ended in 1917, when he'sold it to tho Clan Line, but his association with the- shipping and allied industries was by no means terminated thereby, for lie is still a member of the board of I directors of some twenty-five companies, and the wide scope of his aetivi-1 ties ih further cyideneod by the fact that he is, inter alia,- honorary' director of the Union Bank of Scotland, director of the British Overseas Bank and of Messrs. "William. Cory and Son, i Ltd., and chairman of the Smithflcld and Argentine-Meat "Company. Ho was created a baronet in 1928, in recognition of his services in connection with the restoration of H.M.S.'Victory,' andhis open-handed generosity has jnore- recently- been proved by his action in securing for the nation-the Macphersou collection of prints and the "Mercury" museum of ship models. ' .

Sir Philip Chetwode, who made a defence of Indian Army costs this week, is the Coniniander-in-Chief in India, and his action is an. event in Indian history, for it is part'of the policy for the Indiaiiisation of the army. Sir Philip is an experienced soldier and has. a notable military career.. He was born in 1869 and fi;-sfc joined the militia, later . being gazetted to the Nineteenth Hussars in 1889. He.then saw active service, iv Burma arid-'took part: in the fighting in South Africa. When lie -returned to England he was appointed assistant military, secretary' to Sir John French at Aldershbt. Promoted to eomraand of the Fifth Cavalry Brigade in-May, 1914,,, he took"his brigade with the Expeditionary Force to Prance and aided in covering the famous retreat from Mons, making one of the rare cavalry charges of the war near Cerizy. In 1916 he went out to Egypt to command tho Desert Column and won early distinction by a decisivo surprise attack at Rafah which finally freed Sinai from the Turks. After tho second battle of Gaza in .1917, he succeeded General Dobell in command of the'whole Eastern Force. When General Allenby went out to take over the- supreme command he based his campaign on General Chetwode's.plans,and >tho latter, commanding tho twentieth Army Corps, after the reorganisation of the forces, played a distinguished part .in tho advance to- Jem*salem and in the crowning victory in September, 1918. Shortly after tho war General Chotwode was appointed Military Secretary to the War Office, and in 1920 he succeeded General Harington as Deputy Chief of the Imperial Staff, two years later becoming Adjut-ant-General of "the Forces. This post he gave up in 1923 to take over the Aldershot Command. Sir Philip Chetwodo is the most distinguished survivor of tho Palestine campaign in active employment at the present-time. Rev. H. Wilde. From the height of luxury to the most primitive civilisation in the world where even the bare necessities of life are limited, is the step the Rev. Harold' Wildo is cheerfully taking. With twelve tons of luggage he sailed recently from Southampton in the luxury liner Atlantis. His 350 fellow-passengers are looking forward to two months of sunshine cruising, but Mr. Wilde has started out to "take over" Tristan Da Cunha, a tiny island in the South Atlantic, the loneliest and- most primitive of P»ritish possessions. Seven miles long, it is 1400 miles from the nearest human life. Not only will Mr. Wildo be the spiritual father of the 170 islanders, bn\ he will also i act as Magistrate, dentist, doctor, a»d general guardian of his parishioners. But this jovial forty-year-old minister is not easily daunted by a job that will be one of the most difficult in the world. His luggage includes radio sets and an electrical generator, which,he hopes to be able to work from a waterfall on the island and to charge the batteries of his radio sets from it. "Radio wonlu be a great boon" to the islanders, for their only link with the outside, world at present is the supply ship which arrives with stores once a year," said Mr. Wilde; who as an. old soldier is used to hardships. "I joined the Artists Rifles as a private iv 10],), and later was gazetted to tho Lancashire Regiment.". - Mr. Wilde saw service In Palestine, was badly wounded in France, and after the war was ordained' at Liverpool Cathedral and sent to St. Helens. "I've always been a preacher," ho said. "When I was twelve years old a London paper printed an article, 'The Boy Preacher of Lancashire:,' about me." Mr. Wilde is married, but his wife, is not accompanying' him. She is iv Blackpool, looking aft or her aged father. Captain J. B. Glubb. Romance lias come to a British officer who for fifteen years has struggled to save desert tribes from death and disaster. lie is Captain J. B. Glubb> 0.8. E., M.C., of the Trans-Jordan Arab Legion, son of Major-General Sir Frederick Glubb, of Pembury, Kent. Captain Glubb is to marry Miss Mollic Turner, daughter of Mr. 11. A. Turner, Director of Customs and late of the Egyptian Civil Service. Captain Glubb has long held the strings of one. of the most involved intelligence systems in the world. For aomo years he was entrusted with the colossal task of protecting the Bedouins of ■ tho Irak southern desert and their sheep and camels, and preventing them from becoming embroiled with the'-piti-less and fanatical Nejd rebels led by Faisal Darwish. These rebels were then raiding and killing near the Irak frontier, and pushing further and further into Irak territory as Ibn Sand's forces pressed'them from the south. Captain Glubb organised a remnrkablo desert intelligence system of scouts and moved his widely spread* sections of men, camels, and sheep, like the pieces on a chess-board. His.movements were always complicated by. the necessity of using routes and areas where water and grazing were available. .-....-

Airmen have related how they droppod Captain Glubb out in the desert hundreds of* mile from anywhere. They would watch him fade into the heat mirages in the direction of the nearest Arab tents—ancl he would not be heard of again for months.

In Trans-Jordan he quicMy won the hearts of all true Bedouins. The secret of his success is. his sincerity, selfsacrifice; and honesty of purpose—qualities appreciated by even the most fanatical Arabs.