In the Public Eye

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 87, 9 October 1937, Page 21

In the Public Eye

The Rumanians resent the prominence which- is given abroad ,to Magda Lupescu, the red-haired friend of King Carol. They believe that the romantic situation has. been stressed altogether out of proportion to its importance in Rumanian life. It is possible to have a good deal of sympathy with this Rumanian point of view, and yet it is not possible to deny that Lupescu is s one of Rumania's chief problems. It is not that she exercises a baneful influence over King Carol. Preponderant evidence would suggest exactly the contrary. But Madame Lupescu cannot be kept out of the political arena. Members of Codreanu's Iron Guard have, sworn to remove her, if necessary by assassination. Leaders of the Peasant Party, led by Maniu, have declared that she must go.

No newspaper in Rumania would i dare to mention the name of Lupescu. ( There appears to be no law on this | point; but every'publisher knows what j would happen to him if he mentioned j th 2 King's friend. No book may legally bt circulated in Rumania which men- ] tions Lupescu. This has barred such ] a book as' . John Gunther's "Inside ] Europe," slight though the reference , 'is to Lupescu and to Rumania. . •, Madame Lupescu , is objected to i i largely. because she is a Jewess. The i fact that her mother is a Catholic, and < iMadame herself was educated in aeon- ■ i vent, is not permitted to obscure the i ifact tha.. her father's name is Wolf. . The origin of "Lupescu" can thus be discerned: the Latin word for her father's name, coupled with the com- < mon. Rumanian >name-ending of "cu." Antipathy for Jews -has increased ,in Rumania', as .in other 'Danubian .coun- , tries, during the .past year.; Madame < Lupescu left. Rumania early, in July j for a trip to Paris and other- unan- i nounced destinations,..and the opinion i was freely expressed that Rumania would be much better off if she never . returned., . , L ' There is a growing-fear in informed : Rumanian social circles that Uladame 1 Lupescu may-desire to change her pre- ; sent status to a more regularised one: marriage. She has been going- intp social circles more in the past year than previously.' On Coronation night. May 12, she gave a large party in i Bucharest. She has appeared at social ; functions, especially those sponsored ; by the Spanish and Portuguese Lega- ■ tions. . , i Madame Lupescu has had an elevenyear "reign." She is verging - on her forty-fourth' birthday. She, is known to have more than average intelligence, and has usually shown a keen political sense. She has her own private' espionage service into every party, ind every district. of Rumania—even into the Iron Guard. She must realise, say those who are friendly .tov.'».'ds her or at least neutral; that mar r riage with Carol would end Carol? reign. It might end the dynasty, althougn it would probably mean that Michael would once again be King: as he was from the time of the.death'Of Ferdinand, in 1927, until his father s spectacular return in June. 1930. ; Michael is another complication _m the problem of Lupescu. He is a sturdy, brilliant yoiith, .who will be sixteen oh ' his next birthday., There ; is no aoubt whatever, but, that Carol is, devoted 'to Michael; but the shadow t of his father's friend has recently,, it .is said, lessened Michael's affection for his father. Some months ago when Michael'arid'Llipescu met tliere was reported to be.a. very stormy scene. Recently all three parties to this odd triangle were outside Rumania, Carol, after visiting Paris and London, stayed with his sister, in Bled, 1 Yugoslavia. Michael visited his mother, ex-Queen Helene, to Northern Italy. Two months out of each twelve he spends with her. Lupescu, so far as < could, be ascertaine ,• was in France.* Mr. H. GrindeH-Matthews. Harry Grindell-Matthews, 57-year-old "death-ray" inventor, said recently that he would marry Ganna Walska, the Polish- operat singer whose fourth husband was, Harold Fowler McCormick, Chicago harvester magnate. Mr.-Grindell-Matthews said tliat his first wife, the former Miss Olive Moore, of St. Paul, Minnesota, was now Mrs. Archibald White, of New York. All he would' tell of his matrimonial- plans was that:he met Mme. Walska about,four months ago at the opera, .but that she was now in France, and that the marriage ; would take place shortly. He is 45 years-old. . ■ , Mr.' Grindell-Matthews, who-asserted that his secret "ray" could down aeroplanes* • set fire to distant objects, and strike death at long ranges, • said he had been engaged' recently in' : air-defence problems in , Wales, but-was. reticent about'details. . . : "r have , been working problem- for about three and a half years," he said. "Although I am a free-lance, all my work is for the benefit of this country and the-results ■ will be submitted to the Air, Ministry. "A great deal has beeln said about the 'death ray,' but nobody knows its underlying principle. It 1 has been said, that tfce principle is to establish a mine field in the air by means of rockets anS aerial torpedoes fitted with time fuses which can be sent up to great heights to release a 'colony* of smaller torpedoes. Each of these torpedoes drop? on; a parachute fitted to long wires /and together they would form, a web-like network around enemy aeroplanes. . "There is a great deal more in it than that, and I am naturally not telling any one yet." Mr. Grindell-Matthews has done extensive research in air defence and wireless telegraphy. He has invented an automatic pilot for aeroplanes, submarine detecting devices, simultaneous photograph, and• sound films, a 'sky projector," and a luminagraph, an organ played; light. He was a consulting expert on sound film production for Warner Brothers in the early days of the talkies. Mme. Walska, who was a Polish war refugee and the widow of a Russian cavalry officer, Captain Aradie d'Eingom, went to the United States in 1915

Sir Edward Bagnall Poulton, this year's president of the British Association, is an entomologist, in which science' lie is one of- the. leading experts.l He carried out a minor revolu - tion in .his worl,d by devising "an accurate and comprehensive: nomenclature to include • J1; cases of; protective and aggressive resemblance!. He thus made clear the difference- between the mimicry,' as discovered by Bates, -aild the cases which , fall under' the: head of .synaposematic association, as, explained by Muller." . " Sir Edward 'Poulton was not, however, always (thus. When he was up at Oxford it looked as ,if his strong line might be politics rather than syb4posematic association. , ■ lie was elected president of thje Union—at his third attempt—after, two very narrow- defeats. On the first ; occasion he was beaten by Lord Lymington—later tHe sixth Lord Portsmouth— by 298 to 296 votes, and on the second he again failed, by four votes. > r Thirty years after'; his contest witn Lord Lymington he met a New, College man who apologised for having lost him the election. "I- was dining, in college with a lot of friends that night and we all intended go round to. the Union and . vote for you," said his friend. Unfortunately,' they lingered over- their wine until the college gates were shut and it- was not possible: fot them to get out. Mr. H. G. Wells. Mr. H. G. ' Wells's slashing criticism at the British Association meeting ron teachers and the present methods of teaching will-no.doubt,.become: a subject- for heated discussion in' many common-rooms. Promptly, certain, leading educationists counter-attacked in terms hardly, less vehement than those of Mr. Wells himself. Mr.'. Charles - Robertson,. who is the chairman of the L.C.C. Education, Comjmittee, said ' he> thought Mt. Wells 6 remarks w6re a libel- on teachers. In the London-schools facilities wpre given to teachers '.for ; having ''refresher' courses. . Lectures were giyen . on, -a variety .of subjects- each winter, apd teachers not .only! were meant to attend them, but were extremely eager to do so.- Mr. Robertson mentioned that ; . the next course of lectures would be begun this month by Mr. John Masefield, the Poet Laureate. 1 One of Mr.. .Wells's criticisms wfl? that schools, made, insufficient use .f of the cinema as a quick and modern means of - education. Mr. Robertson replied, that in the L.C.C. school experimental iuse-of cinemas had'been made for Some three years. . Recently a' special" cotohittee reported to the L.C.C. education authorities on this question, arid 'cinemas would probably be' moire widely used in future. Yet Mr Robertson insisted that the expansion, of the use of the /'educational cinema" ought to be very gradual. There was great danger 0! .washing ift'o"ndy;on it fc and many , schools would not know how best to use the cinema. ' Mr. Wells's main attack had been on. the ; "antiqtiated" methods, '. of teaching. He had specified history hj particular, and geography to a lesser extent. fttr. Robertson described , this 1 as intellectually dishonest ■on M.r. ; Wells's part. ' Had Mr. Wells visited • an L.C.C.- school he would have-seen 1 that the teaching of geography was ' not any more a matter of enumerating rivers and towns. - It was taught much ' on the lines he favoured. ; > Histpry| was, Mr.' Robertson- said, a more diffl- ' cult question, but social, and economic ■ history, at least, we're not taught in f ways so different from what Mr. • Wells proposed. • Vaslav Nijinski. I have talked over the long-distance ■ telephone with; Madame Nijinski < at the mental home at Kreuzlingen,-near Zurich, ;wh'ereo she is in attendance upon ' her ! famous husband,. .Vasto? [ Nijinski, says ' a London correspon- ; dent of the ''Daily Telegraph." -Most • famous of all men;dancers, Nijinski be--1 . came mentally unbalanced during; j war and has spent the last 21 years in 'the home,, attended by his wife, i . Recently hope has at last been entertained ,of his ultimate . ren ' covery. Madame Nijinski at once ■ sounded a note of warning. "After 21 ! years it is not well to have. too high 5 hopes,", she said. "While, we have great : expectations' >s - a result -of the ■ recent • turn for the better which took " and was' maintained ;,we mu6t be.ejfc 3 tremely cautious in our. predictions. it is,"for:iristimce,. : far.too sodnHo talk I about any return to the stage. .Yester* ■ day," she continued, -"I myself - danced I for him Karsavina's part in 'Le Spectre i de la Rose,' the greatest of all my husi band's dances! It w a s not very easy t for me, as I am not a. dancer. . He seemed. ■ interested—for the" first - and at V lasthe joined, in. I, would ' not say that he dances as' he used to, , but he knew, the steps. Then I tried 5 him with the;' music Fetrpuchka.. He . seemed greatly interested arid pleased to. hear it." I asked whether Nijinski , had spoken much as yet. "Hardly at I all," she replied, "but Professor I Sackel, ,the famous Vienna insulin specialist, has great hopes that "the insulin treatment which he is going to give ' him will be effective in this direc- ; tion." Madame Nijinski concluded as ® she began: "Undue optimism must be , avoided." 1 i .

and sought a career in opera. While in New York she met Harold Fowler McCormick, then actively engaged in promoting the work of the Chicago Opera Company. Later, she married Dr. Juli'is Fraenkle, a New York physician, who died in 1919. In December, 1920, she married Alexander Smith Cochran, then reputed to be the world's richest bachelor. ; He .'.divorced' hSr; fit Juhe, 1922. . . She and Mr McCormick were mar-; i ried in Paris, August 11, 1922, Mr. McCormick having been divorced from, Mrs. Edith Rockefeller McCormick the preceding December. Mr. McCormick received a divorce decree in Chicago in October, 1931, from Mme. Walska on charges of desertion. Mme. Walska had spent most of her tiine in Pari* _ .;j