In the Public Eye

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 10, 11 July 1936, Page 21

In the Public Eye

Lord Allen of Hurtwood recently decided to resign from Mr. Ramsay MacDonald's National Labour Group owing to "complete disagreement" over League policy. This diyision, which' was made known in correspondence that passed between him and the Naticnal .Labour Committee, is the result of an article which appeared in the "NewsLetter," the group's .organ. Lord Allen, in a letter dated May 12, wrote: "I find myself in such complete disagreement with the attitude of the National Labour Group towards the League of Nations that I should prefer my membership to lapse. "The eve of Mr. Eden's departure for the Council meeting at Geneva is surely the worst possible occasion for saying: 'Let us admit that Italy has smashed the Covenant' [A reference to editorial comment, which appears in the "News-Letter."] The lesson of the. recent tragedy is not that we should make any such admission, or weaken in our loyalty tp the existing Covenant. Quite the contrary. ■■"' "This humiliation has not been brought upon us by defects in the League Covenant, though undoubtedly improvements could be devised. It has resulted from the failure of statesmen to take action at the right moment and to protect international law under the Covenant with the same precision and will-power that we display when our own national interests are at stake. Indeed, we can no longer divorce the safety of Britain from the defence of international law. "The opportunity to prevent the present avoidable disaster, was, I fear let slip when National Labour and National Liberalism were in the ascendancy in the conduct of foreign affairs, and I have never disguised this opinion. ■. • ■ "As for the future, it is not merely in Abyssinia, but every bit as much in Europe that fidelity to. the League Covenant will be of paramount importance. It seems to me that every support should be given to Mr. Eden and the Government jn their present effort to reconcile Germany and France,'so that at long last the peace of Europe may be founded upon equality and protected by collective security, as was intended by the Covenant. "Forgive me if I say that I feel that the policy of National Labour is hindering the achievement of world peace at a most critical moment." Earl de la Warr, chairman of the National Labour Committee, in his reply stated: "As realists we have to recognise that the Covenant needs revision in the light of experience. This does not mean that we can no longer support the League. On the contrary, it means that we care for it-sufficiently to be determined that its machinery shall be such as will work!" Dr. Axel Munthe. Dr. Axel Munthe, author of "The Story of San Michele," the best-seller which appeared in 1929, recently read his own book for the first time. ■ This revelation was made in an introduction to the illustrated edition of his book. The introduction is called "Instead of a Preface." When Dr. Munthe wrote the book he was going blind rapidly. An operation by Professor Alfred Vogt, of Zurich restored his sight. Now, for the first time. for many years, he is able to read with spectacles. Dr. Munthe told an interviewer that' until April he">had to have his book read aloud to him. In his introduction he writes:— "When at last the long manuscript was read to me, I was reminded of the old Doge in Venice who, when shown Tintoretto's frescoes glorifying his various deeds and victories, asked with unfeigned astonishment if it really was he who had achieved all this? "As I am now reading through this rambling narrative to its bitter end for the first time by the critical light of my own eyes, I have an uneasy feeling that I have come out in this book a far better man than I have been in life." Dr. Munthe said that "Death and the Doctor," the. book on' which he has been engaged at intervals for the last five years, will probably never be published. "It is too personal for publication," he said. Its theme, however, is hinted at in the last words of his new introduction to "San Michele." "This night will be dark for there will be no stars overhead and no hopes for a dawn, but I have been in darkness before. It will be lonely to be dead, but it cannot be much more lonely than to' be alive." A sequel to his earlier book, to be called "The Missing Chapters of the Story of San Michele," is to appear. Dr. Munthe went to London from his home at Capri to fmish writing his book. He said he had been much inconvenienced by a necent report that the Italian authorities had forbidden his Italian secretary to accompany him to England. "This is entirely untrue," he said. "I have never had an Italian secretary. The story apparently was based on my leaving, my Italian valet behind As he is just of age for military service, I never intended him to accom-' pany me " Earl Stanhope. It was officially announced last month that the King has been pleased to approve that the Rt. Hon. Earl Stanhope, K.G., D.5.0., M.C., D.L., be appointed First Commissioner of Works. Lord Stanhope, who now enters the Cabinet for the first time, has had a long career of service in junior Ministerial offices. From 1924 to 1929 he was Civil Lord of the Admiralty and during the first National Government from September to November. 1931 he served as Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty. After the General Election in 1931 he became Under-Secretary of State for War, and he held that position until 1934, when j he was appointed Parliamentary Under-1

Sir Edward Wentworth Beatty, who made a statement on Pacific shipping this week, has the distinction of being the first Canadian-born president of Canada's—and the world's—greatest transportation system. He succeeded Lord Shaughnessy, at the age of fortyone, and his advance was hailed, even

in the "classic continent of opportunity," as sensational. Sir Edward Beatty is a lawyer, not a railway man, by training, but his executive ability has proved more than equal to the demands of the position he holds. It was a big.job this, the control of one hundred thousand employees, twenty thousand miles of railway, and a fleet of steamers aggregating half a» million tons, besides hotels, farm hands, mines, and smelters. - He "filled the bill," and filled it without the accompaniment of trumpet blowing. Edward Beatty the boy gave but little promise of Edward Beatty the man. "When I was thirteen years of age and had finished one year's course in a prominent school in Toronto my parents received a report which, without bragging, I think I may say was fne worst report ever written about a boy," he confessed to an audience of youthful scholars. ,■ He was removed to another school, "where my record was . not known, for which I was very thankful," and there came under the influence of a violent-tempered teacher who gave him the first words of encouragement he ever received. "He told me that some day if I worked hard I might amount to something, which was news to me—l had never heard it before." Thus encouraged, "Eddie" worked hard, and the teacher's prophecy has been splendidly fulfilled. j Sir Edward has no fads. His outlook on life is sane and healthy. Good health, honesty, moral courage, modesty, and courtesy—that is his prer, scription for success. "As president of the Canadian - Pacific Company, chairman of Canadian Pacific Steamships, Ltd., and as Chancellor of McGill University, Edward Wentworth Beatty has held a high place in the national life of Canada. Professor E. X Butler. The Council of Manchester University recently announced that Miss Elsie Marian Butler, of Cambridge, nad accepted appointment as Henry Simon Professor of German Language and Literature in succession to Professor Barker Fairley and would begin her duties in September. Miss Butler will be the second woman to holdVa Chair in Manchester University. The first is Dr. Mildred K. Pope, Professor of French Language and Romance Philology, who was appointed in 1934. Miss Butler, who holds the M.A. degree at Cambridge University, began her education in England, France, and Germany. She trained as a teacher, and subsequently entered Newnham College, Cambridge, in 1908. She read Trench, German, and English for the Mediaeval and Modern Languages Tripos, and was placed in Class I in both French and German, with distinction in spoken German, in 1910, and in Class II in English in 1911. She taught for some time in a secondary school, and later went to Bonn while holding a Gilchrist Studentship. After a further short period of teaching experience in a school she held a temporary post at Newnham for a year. During the war she had service as an orderly with one of the Scottish women's hospital units in Russia and in Rumania, and was later in Macedonia with a field hospital. In October, 1919, she was appointed to a lectureship at an elementary training college, and in January, 1921, returned to Newnham as assistant lecturer in German, being elected also to a research fellowship, which she held for three years. In 1923, according to the "Manchester Guardian," she was appointed Director of Studies in Modern Languages and in 1924 to a lectureship at Newnham College. In 1929 Miss Butler was made University Lecturer in German. Since 1924 she has published four books: "A Study of St. Simonism and the Young German Movement," "A Biography of Frince Puchler-Murkau," "A Study of Sheridan," and "The Influence of Greek Thought and History on the German Temperament."

Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. * + v Vso he was Cfeated a Knight of the Garter.

It was also announced that Lord Stanhope would lead the British delegation to the conference at Montreux on the Dardanelles, and it is understood that he will continue to speak on foreign affairs in the House of Lords on those occasions when Lord Halifax is not in charge of the debate. It is unlikely, therefore, that a successor m the office of Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs will be appointed. lAfter Mr. Eden became Foreign Secretary last year a special Act of Parliament was passed to enable Lord Cranbone tp be appointed as a second. Parliamentary Under-Secre-tary of State for Foreign Affairs. Since then there has been an Under-Secre-tary in each House, but in view of the strong foreign affairs team in the Upper House it is not expected that a new Under-Secretary will be appointed.

As there will now be no representative <y the Office of Works in the House of Commons, a Minister from another Department will be deputed to answer questions, of which there are likely to be a larger number than usual, in view of the arrangements for the Coronation for which the Office of Works will be responsible. The Cabinet now consists of twentyone members—fifteen Conservatives, four Liberal National, and two National Labour. .