OUR LONDON LETTER

Evening Star, Issue 17368, 2 June 1920, Page 2

OUR LONDON LETTER

[From Otjr CosnESPONDENT.] April 1. The King held his first levee since the war this week, and the neighborhood of Sir James's Palace was thickly populated by brightly-colored uniforms and decorations, recalling the best days of the geranium beds by Buckingham Palace. Though the instruction had been sent out that fu!l-clr»ss uniform was to bo worn, there was a- curious air of compromise About the whole thing, the King driving in a bril-liantly-gilt coach, wearing the scarlet and gold nnifonii of a field marshal, and being escorted by.a. troop of Hones'uold Cavalry in khaki. Most of those who attended the levee were shy enough not to go on foot, though I saw a gorgeously-attired lordlieutenant of the county going down St. James's street under the. eyes of a curious crowd. People have forgotten, what our pre-war uniforms looked like, and generally the effect was ono of shyness on the part of the wearers and a quite unusual •curiosity <m the part- of everybody else. The Prime Minister turned up wearing for the fret tirne the 1914 star and other war medals, but I noticed he was not weaving his Legion of Honor. The Bishop of London enlivened the crowd by arriving in an open taxieab, and wearing a most_gorgeous purple cap. and with his long sleeves Hying in the wind. The inside of St. James's Palace had been redecorated for the purpose and all the pictures clear.-jd up; but I often wonder why something is not done to the bricks' outside, which before the London smoke bit into them must have been as bright as those at Hampton Court of the same date. LABOR INTERNATIONALS. The international governing body of Labor, which was set up under the Peace Conference., is holding its meetings in London this week. No one can accuse ■M, Albert Thomas and his friends on this organisation of class warfare, for they hold their meetings in that stronghold o"f ; Labor sentiments, the House of Lords, and they have their permanent Labor offices in the most exclusive and expensive street in in May fair, hitherto the sacred dwellingplace of the Rothschild family, in a large maiu;ion overlooking Park "Lane. One caiuiot help thinking that somewhere nearer the industrial parts of London would have been a more suitable headquarters for international Labor: but, then, most of the international Labor people are not what could strictly be called Labor men. CALCUTTA SWEEP THREATENED. The great Scotland Yard offensive against the sweepstakes has caused consternation all over the place. All lands of enterprise under the most respectable auspices possible have been closed down, and those of us, including more than one high police official, who. through the medium of our club notice boards, put our money down are now considering how we are going to get it back, owing to the seizures by the post office and' the detective.?. Even the Calcutta sweep seems menaced, and the Golden Ballot, which has had an official benediction and is under the patronage of Lord Beatt*- is proceeding at once to a draw. People may hold what opinion of gambling they chose, trot.this persecution is very silly. Grand National and Derby sweeps axe held in most Government offices, in nearly all London clubs, in colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, and last- year they were held at the Peace Delegation. It -would not surprise me to hear of a mild flutter at the Home Office. Clearly it is not Mr Shortt nor the Cabinet who has instituted this crusade. I wonder who it

CRISIS IN DENMARK. The diplomatic circle in 'London takes quite a serious view of events La Denmark. A general strike is threatened against the King, whose action in summarily dismissing his Cabinet on the Slesvig question, when the Ministers in question had a majority in Parliament behind them, arouses deep hostility. The King's excuse for what is admittedly an unconstitutional action, and assuredly an unwise one in the present state of' Europe, is that the Cabinet was out of sympathy with the people of the country. It is a curious rumor in the Danish Press that the exEmpress of Ruasia is responsible for giving unwise advise to the King. The latter has always been reputed a " democratic" monarch, and most unlikely to pick a quarrel with his subjects; but one cannot believe that the ex-Empress, _ a sister of Queen Alexandra, could possibly intervene in such a matter as the one in dispute. The King of Denmark is, next to King Albert of Belgium, the tallest monarch alive, standing well over 6ft, and he had the reputation of a real beau sabreur—in the pleasant social sense —when serving. , as he did for 18 months, as a ranter m the Danish Guards. His companion in arms then was another regal ranker, Prince Chira of Siam, who looked beside him very much like Jeff alongside of Mutt. But the King of Denmark is not, though the London gossips say so, the only "ranker" monarch. The King of Italy served in the ranks properly, as the heir apparent in' Italy always does. WILL HISTORY REPEAT ITSELF ? Last night I was talking to a very old parliamentary hand with pronounced As-quithian-Liberal leanings. He ivas verv doleful on the outlook. In his opinion—and I know none more likely to be accurate—Asqdith will carry the older Liberals with him throughout the country, but th* allegianco of the younger men is more doubtful. Ha cast back to another crisis he can well remember, when the Liberal ' Unionists " went out.". They carried the day then, but they died out'. As he put it. somewhat quaintly but quite seriously: "No more Liberal Unionists were born." la other words, as I have insisted from the first, the Asquithian Liberals stand for 1 a dying cattse. They may rally the old brigade of Liberals to their standard now, though whether the muster will be of practical dimensions is still doubtfulj but the party politics of the immediate future holds no place for them. Quite clearly the line of the old cleavage is obliterated, not by any tactics but by hard facts, and the new cleavage will be ba-sed on economic lines in the main. Mr Lloyd George has the presienco to see that coming, and to prepare for it. The war has given an immense lever to those who assail th© existing system of things, and the fight, will be between individualism and some epeciea of communism. BERLIN'S BAD TIME. Nov/ that fuller information is available, the real position of affaire to Germany and the happenings during the terror in Berlin begin to be understood. Apparently there was a tragic misunderstanding in Berlin after the Monarchist coup. Troops sent by the Government to put down the emeute by the Baltic troops under Ludendorfl's ' staff-lieutenant were fought Tby the workmen under the impression that they were Monarchist soldiers. This misunderstanding resulted in many casualties, and was followed by drastic court-martialing of all civilians found with arm* Quite a number seem to have been summarily shot, including some prominent Socialists. On the other hand, Ivlr H. J. Greenwall, the ' Express' representative in Germany, whoso accounts of events there have eo far been exceedingly accurate and intelligent, takes the view -expressed in this column more than once. He believes all danger of Bolshevik revolution in Germany is now past, basing his belief on the horror mat disciplined ond educated Germane have for all such manifestations. But it S6ems also to be true that the German* are bent on rendering as difficult as pos&ble the work of the allied missions entrusted with the supervision of the Peace Treaty terms fulfilttent. The real masters of Germany today, according to the same authority, ar6 ihe trade unions. But their aims do not include anything so fatuous as lhat Soviet regime for which a 9mall minority of our own workers seem to ,be sighing 1 . The (xerman trade unions are closer to the Russian Soviets, and know more about them. ELECTION ADDR-ESSE&-ANCIENT AND MODERN. Afc the moment election addresses are eminently apropos. It is not uninstructtve to compare some of those now issued by the rival candidates at the ponding by-electkma. One note 3 that Mx M'Cnrdy eficks to his last, like a good .CftbbJjW. He- jnfta firstj aecfittd* and third

f the question of the Cost of Living. Prob- ; ably he is-, right, quite apart .-from- the fact that this is hie special domain, >-aS" Food _ Controller, because certainly thetopic is the only one much discussed bv most people nowadays. Dr Macnomara 33 •wider in his range, but lie afeo deals, prominently : with this crucial domestic j topic. The lady who is "standing against «im in the Labor interest merely promise? her supporters the full moon.. She is going to do everything. One cSnla not avoid a smile when looking to-dav. at some election addresses stored up in"tic> British Museum. The contrast in method over an interval of a few thousan-d -years, or thereabouts, is very _ great, There H\is ' one Pucms Ponilius, whose election addrn.su of about 57 B.C. is carefully preserved tßs.der a glass case, and" he made succinct appe\l as tollows:— "Ploasa make Lucius aits aedilc—he deserves it I" (digmis eat), j 1 TWO BISHOPS. This week the- death was announced of 1 Dr Diggle, Bishop of Carlisle, and I)r f Jacob, who recently resigned the Bishopric of St, Albans, fhey were both distin- \ Suished figures in their, own wav, but j they were very different ways. Dr "Diggle will be long honored and remembered as one of .the- most tolerant and broßdminded of our leading ecclesiastics. He I was a remarkably small man—about trip height of Napoleon, I should say—in stature, but he had a tremendous 'heart for humanity, and was a steadfast champion of the under-dog. He hated theology in its narrow acceptance, and lived the simple Christian life. His great hobby—he was a strong and proselytising believer in hobbies for everybody—was gardening. Digging appealed to him as one of _ the most healthy and digrdiied occupations for the sons of men. He was also known to boast of his skill with a knitting needle. He was appointed to Carlisle by Mr A. 'J. Balfour from the Birmingham diocese. Dr Jacob, the son of an archdeacon of Winchester/ was a standing example of the fact that a good churchman can be a sound business man. He was Bishop of Newcastle before he transferred to St. Albans, and he made a great reputation for hard work and business acumen in both dioceses. On his retirement last December Dr Jacob, went to live in Winchester, where he was a schoolboy. FEELING THE DRAUGHT. It is interesting and encouraging news for smokers that the big tobacco combines who rule the roost in this country are already ..feeling the draught in the matter of reduced consumption fc&owing the excessive prices for the weed. I said when the latest advances in tobacco prices took place that the inevitable result would be a very considerable reduction of consumption. And this has proved *to be a true prophecy. Most men are now paying about half a crown for tobacco that cost, before the war, about a shilling at most. This is a very serious matter in the case of what is. however necessary for a great many people, really a luxury. In the case of cigarettes the position is even

worse. Where the pipe smoker, expends about ss, so I am told by those in the retail trade, the " fag" smolcer has to pay about 7s. The result has been that everybody more or less has adopted some sort of self-denying ratiofting ordinance, and the tobacconists report a tremendous slump in sales. There is yet no word of any reduction in price. And it may be that none will be made for some time yet. But the retailers in London seem to be convinced that the present prices will never pay even tho combines, and that eventually some* modification' must be made. GHOSTS. A friend who recently motored from London to the West tells me that Salisbury Plain is nowadays a very impressive spectacle. It was dusk when he passed over the plain, and the miles of empty hutments, which he remembered teeming ■with strenuous life during' the war, presented a strange and rather melancholy contrast with the past. He said it seemed to his party that the ghosts of the splendid manhood that trained there for the Great Adventure must still be moving among these desolate huts. The effect was like coming across one of those huge forests of little wooden crosses over in France or Flanders". Another thing the party noticed was that the innumerable regimental badges, cut out with great labor and skill in the sides of the ridges, are as fresh and plain as ever. They have been cut right down to tho white chalk, exactly like the ancient' landmarks familiar to travellers in the south and west, and will presumably be just as permanent. Centuries hence the badges of the New Zealartders, the Australians, the Routh Africans, the Canadians, and the different British regiments—among them the K.R.8..5, the Londons, and the Fusilierswill he landmarks on Salisburv Plain, souvenirs of the call to arms in the Great Wax of 1914. THE NEW ST. JAMES'S PLAY. j Mr Henry Ainley, who physically and mentally,, as well -as dramatically", has many qualifications for the role, is" carrying oil the George Alexander tradition, at the fit, James's Theatre, and apparently with the happiest auspice* of popular support. His part in Mr Douglas Murray's ' Uncle Ned,' a, comedy of domestic relation in the -asunl aet=, would have pleased Alesand.i.' i-nm-nsely. It seemed to please Mr Ainley; and, manifestly, it pleases the _ St. * darneds audiences. The theme is sron There are two brothers—one serious and hard, the other artistic and jovial—and naturally the former has the bia; bank balance. The young Bohemian brother pays tho elder commercialist a, vi&it after many years of estrangement and proceeds to sap ids moral and domestic position immediately. In the end the grim fortress of strong, silent mannerism surrenders without bloodshed, and tho conquering Bohemian, a delightful fellow of the sort popular with everybody—i ot a typo one prefers for brother in real life !—marries everybody off, including himself to his brother's typist. It was' magnificent, though hardly exciting, but Mt Ainley made it such a very pleasant evening for everybody, including the dour relative, that we all enjoyed curselvee nicely, thank you. Mr Randie Ayrton .was "the brother," and Miss Edna Best, was a eoxt of Peche Melba ha pottieoats, •mew plays. ' a New plays exa being produced in London jiusfi now at an average of about five a week. It would >he> hard lines if, among the cr&Vd of new things, there were not some good cnes. I earnestly advise any playgoers who are visiting London shortly not to miss Miss Jennings's ' Tho Young Person in Pink-' at the Haymarkefc. It is the brightest and by far the best-aotei play now to be seen. It is a story of lost memory, "which places ti daughter of tha peerage in a second-hand clothing shop with a "clergyman's widow." It abounds in the keenest characterisation, and is full of the drollest situations ; but tSe great and abiding charm is the impeccable acting of Miss "Fairbrother as the clergyman's alleged relict and of Miss FlHs Jeffreys and Mi&s Enid Trevor in parte that fit tham lfke ihe modem fiapper'a ealken hose. It is a genuine night's amusement which not even the most jaded or high-brow critic need fear to face. One cannot truthfully speak quite so enthusiastically of 'The Fold,' the Queen's Theatre's new piece by the Marchioness of Townsend, with Miss Hilda Trevelyan and other clever and wellknown players in the coat. This is *he old story of the wife winning back the Misband, who -appears in this instance never to have strayed at all, " with the assistance of expert conjugal advice from the potential mistress in the case. It i s not at all stupidly worked out, and is even brightly told, but it is rather prosy and far too prolix in. parts—a curate's eggy sort of performance—very good in places but still dull in others. ' On the occasion of the first night—quite a fashionable one by the way—the Marchioness authoress took the usual call, ' and made a ye-ry sweat little in a very sweet little f <wstame.