In the Public Eye

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 17, 21 January 1939, Page 8

In the Public Eye

William Joseph Jordan—who describes himself as an ex-London policeman—occupied the high position of President of the Council of the League of Nations, at the recent session in Geneva, says the "Christian Science Monitor." , Mr. Jordan's career has been one in which merit and ability has triumphed splendidly over stupendous obstacles to success. .„. His old comrades in the Metropolitan Police Force have special reason to regard as appropriate the appointment to the League of Nations post of one who in his youth helped to maintain law and order in the East End of London. He has been controlling an assembly concerned—at a.most critical moment of world history—with the endeavour to apply internationally thdse very rules of good citizenship which it was once his duty as a bluehelmeted British constable to uphold. Son and grandson of sea captains, he was born on the coast of Kent. As a boy he attended St. Luke's Parochial School, Old Street, London. He was afterwards at one time in the London Postal Service, and at another in the Police, his "beat" being in the Limehouse area close to the- Docks. At 25, as he has often told, he went to New Zealand,., as the most distant point in the /British Commonwealth that he had heard about It was also, he once said, attractive to him because he was told it possessed "no snakes and but few millionaires." „ Here he took up, farming, arid soon became influential as an exponent of Labour politics among .his neighbours. In 1907 he begame the first secretary of the New Zealand Labour Party at Wellington. In 1922 he won a seat in the House of Representatives previously .occupied by the Speaker in .that Assembly. Appointed New Zealand's High Commissioner in London in 1936, his first visit on reaching England, was to his mother, who was then living in Harringay, Middlesex. His wife and son and daughter accompanied him, the whole family being then for the first time united after more than 30 years of separation. Mr. Jordan takes greet interest in immigration. He stands for the ' 40----hour week, also for giving everyone in -New ■ Zealand, who is willing to work, a home and enough to live on comfortably. His recreation is beekeeping. His son is an officer in the Air Force. Sir Edward Parry. ;, ; Sir Edward Parry, to whom many old friends tendered their good wishes on a 75th anniversary recently, earned his reputation as one of the most tactful and sympathetic of county court Judges both in Manchester and in London, especially in handling the domestic concerns of the poor. The shrewdness and independent;.spirit, of these people' appealed to himjrand: he did;not mind confessing fihat \spme of them could get the better of him in argument "Why don't you pay?" he demanded of -one woman, summoned for arrears of 'rent,' says .the "Manchester Guardian1;,'; "Well, sir,, last Friday, vfrhen/:.! was 'cooking a rabbit * . ." she began. "My good woman," he interrupted, "never mind about the rabbit. Tell me why you didn't pay." "Well, I am atelling you," she retorted, "if yo^d only listen. Last Friday I was acooking a rabbit when the soot fell down the chimney and spoiled it. D'ye think- I'm going to pay rent for that week?" . ~ Another woman, informed that her case would be adjourned till Monday, responded, "Oh, will it then! I can't come on. .Monday; it's my washing day. So if you wants me you'd better come and see me instead of wasting my time coming to this 'ere old court." Bdr. Orson Welles. Plump, prodigious Orson Welles is, at 23, New York's dramatic thunderbolt. His theatrical eminence began when he turned up in Ireland seven years ago, presented himself ambiguously to the Gate Players as a leading luminary of "the New York Theatre Guild. He promptly was cast in coveted roles, garnered enthusiastic applause. His previous stage experience had been confined to preparatory school dramatic clubs. His New York success began when he organised, directed, and acted in the Mercury Theatre, giving individualised presentations of theatrical classics. It continued on the radio. So much in demand was the Welles voice that taxis have waited at studio entrances to whisk him across town to a subsequent broadcast. American radio addicts have heard him on the "March of Time," as the Great McCoy, and as "The Shadow," a Welles-created, highly melodramatic character who eludes criminals from coast to coast. Last summer the Mercury Theatre went on the air over the Columbia network. Critics have praised the timeliness of his plays, particularly the revival of Shaw's "Heartbreak House," ; which prophesied the decay of civilisa- . tion. When the play opened last spring, that prophecy seemed well founded. Recently Mr. Welles's timing outdid itself, and panicked a nation . in a revival of H. G. Wells's "The War i of the Worlds." ' Viscount Bledisloe. : Viscount Bledisloe, chairman of the . Royal Commission which has been in- ■ quiring into the possibilities of closer ; constitutional union between Northern ; and Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland, i arrived at Southampton recently, with i other members of the Commission, in ; the Union Castle liner Arundel Castle, i The Commission had been absent from i England four months. "We took evidence from over 200 people of all sec- ■ tions of the community, both Eurot peans and natives," Lord Bledisloe said ; at Southampton. "Now we have to * consider our report, which eventually : will be submitted to the King through t the Government Department concern- ; cd. In all three territories the Royal Commission received a most cordial I hospitable welcome, and the fullest possible information was furnished to us I 1 from both official and unofficial - j sources. We shall now have to conr sider whether, and to what extent, we i can recommend closer union- of the ; three territories. The solution to the - problem is rendered more difficult by . the paucity of the unofficial European I population in Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland.

The 1938 Nobel Prize for Literature has been awarded to Pearl Buck, American author of "The Good Earth," and other novels dealing with China. Mrs. Buck, formerly Pearl Sydenjtrycker and now Mrs. Richard J. Walsh, of Great Neck, New York, was born in Hillsboro, West Virginia, in L 892 and has spent much of her life in China. [Mrs. Buck's parents were missionaries in China and her first husoand, J. Lossing Buck, was a member Df the faculty of Nanking University, rhey were divorced in 1935.3 The Nobel literature prize amounts to 155,000 kroner (about £NZ9500). The 1938 Nobel Prize in physics was iwarded. to an Italian, Enrico Fermi, of the University of Rome. Sig. Fermi was credited in 1934 with the discovery of a new element—said to have been produced artificially from uranium—called "element No. )3," said to be the hardest substance mown. ■. Pearl Buck said she "just couldn't aelieve it'! when cable dispatches from Stockholm brought word that she had won the 1938 Nobel Prize. Her husband and publisher, Richard J. Walsh, said that presumably the! prize was awarded to her for her •amous "The Good Earth" and for sub- j sequent works, including "This Proud Heart" —her first American novel —pub.ished last February. Miss Buck ,won the Pulitzer Prize in L 932, and the Howells Medal in 1935 "or the best work of literature during ;he preceding five years. Her next novel, entitled "The Patriot," will again be laid in China and will be published next February. Mr. Walsh pointed out that the Nobel Prize was now awarded, for "the body 3f work" by an author rather than my specific novel. Pearl Buck is the third American to win the Nobel award in literature, an lonour she shares only with Sinclair Lewis, who was accorded it in 1930, md Eugene O'Neill, who received it in L 936. f . She joined the company of such literary greats as Maurice Maeterlinck, rtudyard Kipling, Anotole France, Wil-1 iam Butler Yeats, and George Berlard Shaw. She was the second woman of the decade to win Nobel

recognition for literature. The first, in 1928, was Sigrid Undset. Other winners of the past ten years were Thomas Mann in 1929, Mr. Lewis, 1930; Erik Axel Karlfeldt, 1931; John Galsworthy, 1932; Ivan Bunin, 1933; Luigi Pirandello, 1934; Mr. O'Neill, 1936, and Roger M. dv Gard in 1937. There was no award in 1935. | "The Good Earth" won the Pulitzer j award for the best novel of 1932. Mrs. Buck also was awarded second prize in the 1933 O. Henry Memorial awards for her story, "The Frill." Mr. Paul V. McNuM. . Mr. Paul V. McNutt, High Commissioner of the Philippines and former Governor of Indiana, plans to leave his post in Manila in the near future, evidently to push his presidential ambi-. tions in the United States. This was disclosed in correspondence released by Acting-Controller General' Richard Elliott, from whom Mr. McNutt sought a ruling on the rights to be conferred, on a successor. Mr. McNutt's aspirations for the Democratic nomination for President in 1940 are well known. His retirement from the 18,000 dollars a year island post has been rumoured for some time, but this is the first definite word from Mr. McNutt. Mr. McNutt made his debut as a 1940 presidential candidate at a lavish cocktail party given by Indiana followers last winter. At that time, in the best tongue-in-cheek manner, he denied that he was a candidate. But the typical campaign party belied that. Since that time it has been reported that Mr. McNutt did not wish to return to the United States prior to the elections, in order to avoid any Democratic controversies which might prove embarrassing in his race for the No. 1 office. President Roosevelt, although frowning on Mr. McNutt's ambitions, has indicated he would readily accept Mr. McNutt's resignation. In the meantime Mr. McNutt's friends have been organising in his behalf. Reliable reports are that contacts have been made with the Democratic organisations in Illinois, lowa, Wisconsin, and Virginia, as well as other, states. The McNutt letter, transmitted through the secretary of war, did not say whether Mr. McNutt intended his absence to be temporary •or perman-! ent, but it appeared evident it was to be of some duration. It is generally interpreted, however, as warning of his resignation. "In connection with my contemplated departure from the: Philippines before the end of the year," Mr. McNutt wrote, "there is presented the question of the designation by the President of a member of my staff to act as high commissioner, and particularly is there presented the question of the powers, duties, pay, and perquisites of the staff-member so designated. It is my desire to haveall doubtful points in connection with the : above matters settled definitely I for the good of the service before I leave the Philippines." I The Commissioner explained he was preparing to turn over . certain quarters, automobiles, and funds for the use of his. successor and asked for clearance from the Controller General's office. General Elliott advised him in reply that ■ his successor was entitled to these items, but would not draw additional compensation for his services. If Mr.' McNutt resigns and returns home he will have to pay his own travelling expenses. Last April Congress denied his request for 10,000 dollars to bring his family home if he should resign. Congressmen, irked at I the construction of two "palaces" for the Commissioner at a cost of 750,000 dollars, knocked out the 10,000" dollar appropriation item. '-.. [■■■.,