In the Public Eye

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 111, 13 May 1939, Page 26

In the Public Eye

At the outbreak of the Great War Colonel Joseph Beck, who has been prominent in the recent Polish-German exchanges, was a student at the Academy of Commerce in Vienna. He at once joined Pilsudski's famous legionaries and went through all their campaigns. Pleased with the ability of his young recruit, Pilsudski allotted him the difficult task of forming a Polish military unit in the Ukraine in 1918, when that region was a no-man's-land of disorder following the collapse of Russia. Joseph Beck achieved such excellent results that, when Poland was reborn at the close of the World War, he was one of the first to be selected to go through a course at the new military staff college. During the war with Soviet Russia in 1920 he commanded first a battery of horse artillery, with the rank of colonel, and then took command of the forces on the Lithua-nian-White Russian front. Peace found Colonel Beck still on the active list, where he remained during the years of Parliamentary wrangling which ended with Pilsudski's coup d'etat in May, 1926, when, after'a dramatic meeting between the marshal and President Wojciehowski on the great Poniajowski Bridge in the heart of the capital, there were three days of street fighting, which resulted in the reins of government passing into the hands of Marshal Pilsudski and the army. In the new regime Colonel Beck, by reason of his past services was at once marked out for high office. He received first of all the post of personal assistant to Marshal Pilsudski, and in 1930 was promoted to the VicePremiership. Soon afterwards he was made Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, with Mr. Auguste Zaleski as his chief. In 1932 he was promoted to Foreign Minister, and watched over his country's affairs with marked success both in Warsaw and in Geneva. Characteristically, when Colonel Beck found that Marshal Pilsudski had destined him for a political career instead of "a military one, he dropped his army title. Mr. S. M. Bruce. A move has been made in Melbourne by the "secret junta" behind the U.A.P. —the National Union —to manipulate the election of a Federal leader in succession to the late Mr. Lyons, which carries with it the Prime Ministership, reported the Melbourne "Age" just before Mr. R. G. Menzies was chosen. Although no official announcement was made, it is reliably reported that the National Union at a secret meeting in Melbourne decided to "recall" Mr. S. M. Bruce, High Com-j missioner in London and a former Prime Minister, to assume the leadership. Mr. Bruce was recently in Australia, and is about to land at San Francisco on his way back to England via the United States. Such a move is certain to be viewed with surprise and indignation among all political parties as an impertinent attempt by an outside body to take I control of the situation. No external] organisation has any right to attempt to recall a man appointed to a public position by the elected representatives of the people. To assume that Mr. Bruce can be recalled at the behest of such an outside body is the summit of audacity. But there are other implications, among them an attempt to discipline U.A.P. members, and, incidentally, Mr. R. G. Menzies, who, at the meeting of the U.A.P. at Canberra, is expected to command sufficient support from members to ensure his election as leader. But the National Union junta would crack the whip again. It remains to be seen whether members will respond. Before Mr. Bruce could assume the position of Prime Minister, a period of three to six months would elapse. He would have to clean up his affairs in London, and he would have to come out to Australia. But before he embarked upon this Mr. Bruce would first of all have to be assured of a safe seat. Who is the U.A.P. member who is going to resign? Would Mr. Bruce, for example, risk a possible snub by trying to win either the vacant Wilmot seat, held by Mr. Lyons, or the Griffiths seat in Queensland, which reverted to Labour in recent elections? Meanwhile, according to this extraordinary plan, Sir Earle Page would continue in office as Prime Minister. To further the proposal the National Union would have to obtain the postponement of the election for a leader. Who is going to be the U.A.P. lamb in launching this move? Australia needs competent leadership—it cannot wait months while the National Union tries to pull the political strings. Faustin Wimus. He was king over 12,000 Haitians once, but Faustin Wirkus is just a retired sergeant of marines to American Navy Department officials and they see no reason for making him a captain. Certainly, the Department conceded, this former Pennsylvania miner did a good job when the Marine Corps assigned him to duty on the island of La Gonave, a dependency of Haiti, back in 1925 —but that is expected of every marine. The fact that the natives made him king makes no difference. So the Department turned thumbs down on a Bill by Representative J. H. Flannery (Democrat. Pennsylvania) to promote Wirkus from his present rank of gunnery sergeant to captain on the retired list "with the rank, retired pay, emoluments of that grade." Including the "emoluments" —rental and subsistence allowances —the promotion would have increased Wirkus's retired pay from 487.20 dollars a year to 2598 dollars. As far as the navy is concerned, he will have to struggle along on the 487.20 dollars, plus whatever he makes as securities salesman in New York. "But you know what that means." he said recently. ''It's tougher than being a king." It was in April, 1925, that Wirkus was given the imposing title of "sequestrator" and sent to La Gonave. The 12,000 negroes there liked him so well they made him king. "I let it go at that." Wirkus recounted. "They wanted me to wear royal trappings, but I stuck to khaki and puttees al] the time." He ruled the island for three years I— a job which he said meant being Judge, tax collector, midwife, and teacher.

M. Viacheslav Micnaeiovitch Molotov is the successor to M. Maxim Litvinov as Commissar for Foreign Affairs in Russia. M. Molotov, whose real name is Scriabin, was born in 1890 and educated at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic. He organised Bolshevik student groups and worked on the "Zvezda" and the "Pravda." He was a member of the Petrograd Soviet Executive Committee in 1917, and in the same year was Director of the Propaganda Department of the Military Revolutionary Committee. In 1920 he was secretary of the executive committee of the Communist Party in the Ukraine, and in 1921 was appointed to the same post for the U.S.S.R. From 1924 he was a member of the Political Bureau^ and from 1931 has been President of the Soviet of People's Commissars. He resigned in January of last year and was unanimously reelected. He was also a member of the committee for drafting reforms to the Constitution. Mr. Charles Smith. Mr. Charles Smith is never so happy as when being arrested for denouncing God without a permit. He is president of the American Association for the Advancement of Atheism, known familiarly in atheist circles as the 4A — a smallish, benevolent-appearing, whitehaired little man who must not be confused with that other professional infidel, Mr. Joseph Lewis, who has been called the Atheist Pope. Neither of them would like it. Both are labourers in the vineyard, but in a way they are competitors, for they both sell books to meet expenses. After his most recent arrest Mr. Smith was interviewed in his G.H.Q., the Atheist Book Company, on East Fourteenth Street, New York. Mr. Smith said that this permit business has got his back up. Public religious meetings cannot be held In New York without a permit, except by churches and regular missionary societies. The idea of the ordinance was to protect the public from religious fakers. The first time he was arrested, Mr. Smith got off by pointing out the silliness of accusing him of holding a religious service. But after that, the aldermen amended the ordinance specifically to include atheists. Mr. Smith could get a permit all right, and they are free, but it is the principle of the thing. An anarchist can speak without a permit, and so can a Communist. Why not an atheist? A month or so ago, when Mr. Smith was arrested and fined ten dollars, he appealed. He always appeals such cases. He will fight the point through and get a decision from a higher court. Mild as he appears, Mr. Smith likes fights. Always at his meetings—before the police arrive—are bigots who declare that he should be poisoned, hanged, shot, and drawn and quartered. He has to keep these fellows off. He has dodged many fruits and vegetables in his time. He started the 4A in 1925, and it has branches in various parts of the country. Its platform is taxation of church property, abolition of oaths in court, and the removal of "In God We Trust" from American coins. Under its auspices, the Ingersoll Forum holds Sunday evening meetings at Pythian Temple. Religion is the chief topic, but summer meetings may be enlivened by such subjects as "Sex Symbolism in Literature" and "Is the Nordic Race Superior?" When Mr. Smith lectures he usually has on the platform a chimpanzee in a dress suit—to symbolise man's ancestry. Mr. Smith feels that religion is doomed, but the depressions has been bad for his cause. Calamities always send many doubters running back to religion, he says. The Damned Souls disbanded because of the times. These were groups of college undergraduates. The Chicago Fair also was a disappointment to Mr. Smith. It refused him a booth. He had a slogan all thought out, too". "Make Atheism Known and Feared in Chicago." The book company proclaims a collection of six hundred anti-religious books, Darwin, Ingersoll, Voltaire, and Paine being featured. When his interviewer left, Mr. Smith handed him a leaflet containing rather fanciful portraits of Bible patriarchs, with an interpretative description of each: Noah, the first drunkard; Joshua, a cold-blooded butcher with no more mercy in his nature than an Apache Indian; and so on. They are rather a jolly-looking lot, too. Lance-Sergeant T. Carney. At the age of 26, Lance-Sergt. T. Carney of the Ist Battalion South Lancashire Regiment, recently became the master cook of the British Army, a position he will hold for a year. He won Sir Isidore Salmon's challenge cup in the finals of the Army cookery competitions held at Aldershot. He had 90 per cent, of marks. He is married, and said that, although his wife is not a trained cook, he never interferes in the home cooking arrangements. "I do not propose to begin now, even after this success," he said. The meal he ;ooked in the competition consisted of: Leek and potato soup; steak and kidney pudding, with braised onions and boiled potatoes: creamed rice and stewed prunes. Corporal F. Cracknell, Royal Horse Guards, with 88.8 per ceni,., and Sergeant H. Wood, of the 2nd Gloucester Regiment, with 88.6, were second and third respectively to Lance-Sergt. Carney. More and more thought is being given to the feeding of the Army. Under Sir Isidore Salmon, head of J. Lyons and Co.. who is hon. caterer and distributed the prizes, the training of cooks and the variety of meals now prepared are on a scale never dreamt of in former days. "We are keen to see that the man employed in the cookhouse is a craftsman," said Sir Isidore. "The training we provide today is novel so far 3s the Army is concerned." Lieut.-General Sir Walter Yenning. Quartermaster-General of the Army. declared that Sir Isidore had revolutionised the cooking and catering since his appointment.