A LONDON LETTER

Evening Star, Issue 18031, 27 July 1922, Page 9

A LONDON LETTER

IKBLAND-OTHER EMPIRE TOPICS,

[From Odb Correspondent.]

LONDON, June 8. Troops are proceeding in a steady stream to Ireland, but so far with the one and or)y purpose of- •‘trs'igthcr.mg the hands c. the civil power in the Norh. What will happen later depends n the evolution of .-.ovtain c v ents, ami mis evolution is more or less in the hands of Messrs Griffith, Calms, and De Valera. The maintenance of the treaty has always been an unchallenged principle within • tho British Cabinet. There is reason to believe that a minority who shied at the logical outcome of the observance of this prin-' ciple in certain circumstances are now Jeea uncompromising in their opposition to the military plans which intervention will , necessitate. But in Abe event of such intervention the number of soldiers which must be employed and tho cost of the operations are such that a direct mandate may be sought from tho country. .The week has brought one gleam of hope, and that is the abandonment by the Irish Provisional Government delegation of tho ridiculous Irish Constitution informally submitted to the British Government to the extent of against consulting Dublin. The draft Constitution' was • the opposite in spirit and ./letter to the treaty under which sanction is sought for it, and go flagrant in its flouting of the treaty that Mr Lloyd .George and his colleagues would have been legally justified in breaking off negotiations, instead of providing South Deland with a method’ of retreat. IRELAND’S ONLY HOPE. There could be no greater tribute to the Earl of Balfour’s unique status as our British Nestor than the general feeling of relief and satisfaction expressed at his intimate association with the present Irish parleys. His presence in the inner councils of Mr Lloyd George’s Cabinet will appreciably strengthen the _ Minister's bands, apart from the intrinsm value of his experienced judgment by giving "con- ■ fidence to Conservative feeling throughout the country. Lord Balfour’s prominent share in the politics of the Government will enable the Cabinet to risk a stronger line, either towards patience or towards action, than might otherwise have been tho case. At present the only real hope would seem to be following Mr Churchill’s admirable speech, which has produced an excellent impression in Ireland. British Ministers are compelled to gamble,_ as ap- , parently Mr Arthur Griffith and his Irish colleagues are doing, on this factor. Should the coupon elections under the pact produce a realistic popular demonstration, and the independent candidates opposing . extremists be sustained by adequate public. votes, Irish affairs would assume a now and more reassuring shape at once. I believe that this is what the best f riends of a settled Ireland are piously hoping may happen. ‘ ‘ A SUCCESSFUL HELICOPTER.

We must hope it is merely a coincidence that, at a moment when there is a big agitation against the Air Ministry’s one-sided policy, there comes the semi-official news of a’ successful helicopter machine. The sensational report asserts that the_ Air Ministry, in view of completely satisfactory experiments at Farnborough with a helicopter invented by Mr Louis Brennan, withdraws its oiler of a £50,000 prize for such a machine, capable of rising under . its own power to 2,000 ft, with pilot and fuel for an hour’s flight, of a speed of sixty miles an hour, and of hovering in a stationaryyposition, even in a twenty-roile-an-hour wind, for half an. hour.- Great secrecy has been observed abo-iU the work of this machine down at Farnborough; but, if all that is now claimed! for it be true, the practical development of flight receives an immense impetus. Because the real difficulty and danger in all flying has been the vital dependence of aerial stability upon more or less high speed. A machine which could hover overhead would solve that great problem, and, besides making safe both flying and landing (which is the most. dangerous part <)f°flying), would enormously facilitate the whole business. A really good helicopter means that the air taxi is well within living vision. And the existing Strand taxi joins the museum rank of the old growler. TREASURE SEARCH. Miss Jane Sands, whose father is well known in Imperial circles, is fitting out an expedition to search for the famous pirates’ treasure on Cocos Island. Just how many expeditions have gone in search of this treasure it is impossible to say, but they must run into three figures. Some consisted only of three or four men, who put off in a crazy schooner. The best known is Lord Fitzwilliam's yachting party in the Cape liner Harlech Castle. On another occasion the admiral in command of the Pacific. Fleet landed a large party and started to search with high explosives, but the only thing that he got was the displeasure of their lordships at a British flagship being put to such use, and it is to be feared that his men destroyed a largo number of landmarks which are mentioned in the old directions. There is certainly treasure there—probably worth over two million pounds—but whether it can be got . at is quite another matter. Miss Sands has a sort of R.L.S. map, in which she has absolute faith; but so had every other expedition, and they are to be bought in any of the Newfoundland fishing ports for a few shillings apiece. SHELLEY CENTENARY. But for the centenary preparations, some of us who have talked with those who knew him might have difficulty in realising that 100 years have passed since Shelley’s death. Our most tragic English poet’s meteoric life presents abundant anomaly. He was born in Horsham, of all places, as abjectly truly rural a Sussex small town as there is 'in the whole of the “sleepy” county. The, date was August 4, 1792. “A beautiful boy, with ringlets, deep blue eyes, a snowy complexion', exquisitely-formed hands and feet, remarkable for his genjle sweetness.” This Is the unfortunate youth, effeminate, sensitive, rmathletic, whose earlier schooling took place at a Brentford academy mostly attended' by tradesmen’s sons of a robust brutality, and his later education at Eton . during the Georgian tradition ! Everybody ' knows how Eton’s most gifted pupil was expelled for stabbing a tormenting bully with a penknife, and afterwards from Oxford for a pamphlet advocating Atheism. We are also more-than familiar with the tragedy of bis early first marriage to an innkeeper’s daughter, who committed sui- ■ cide when the poet ran off with another lady, who became his second wife. Finally we know that, after giving the world tome of its finest poetical masterpieces and a note of , richer poignancy than any other Writer save Shakespeare, Shelley’s fate was that of the minor poet whose memory Milton honored prematurely in his ' Lycidas. ’ He was drowned on July 4, 1822. We ■hall be celebrating his memory next month in London---but is the new generation reading him? FRENCH’S TITLE.

Lord French doubtless chose his new title, conferred for services in Ireland distinctly more hazardous than those which won his first peerage, wiiji his ears open. He must realise that by a very wide section of the community, including some of hia most ardent personal admirers who ■bared the heat and burden of bad times

on the western front, he will be .always - acclaimed as the Earl of “ Wipers.” _ The highest nobility is no novelty in association with the name of this illustrious old Flemish city. There have been Counts of Yores for more centuries than even the ruins of the ancient doth Hall or the ■tump of the old cathedral can count. One can appreciate the soldierly pride that dictated Earl Ypres’s choice of a title, though perhaps Lord Plumer, the vivacious and staunch old soldier who commanded the Second Army, plight assert best claim to such historic designation. He, who as General Plumer, in his salad; days made so many gallant but unavailing attempts to relieve Baden Powell in. Matc-hing,-was the real man of Ypres. He held the tragic ruins in the firm grasp of his second army against all odds for many weary months and years, until the sacred

pearl was crushed to dust within his iron clasp. It was the second hardest nut Tommy Atkina had to crack. The hardest of all—one talks merely of pronunciation —■■was tho small French town of Hinges, where British divisions frequently had their headquarters. When our boys cheerfully .asked native Frenchmen the way to “ Hinges,” pronounced to suggest tho mechanism’ on which doors are swung, the gravelled villagers completely failed to identify their own familiar “Ango.” 1 LENIN AND HIS HEALTH. Almost as many conflicting reports are current about Lenin’s health as used to bo spread about the Mad Mullah’s premature demise. The latest story is that tho proletarian Tsar has been suffering from gastro enteritis, and that, though recovering for the moment, may experience a serious relapse at any time unless lie reforms his regime. This report might easily conform to tha fact, as stated to me by a Russian whol knows the Dictator intimately of old days, that Lenin was wounded in the stomach by a bullet fired by some unknown hand in the early days of the Russian Revolution, and had .trouble in that region over since. Any fatal mischance to Lenin would be likely to have more tremendous ’consequences to European affairs than tho death of any oilier single statesman, because in a very special sense Lenin is the soul of the Bolshevik regime, and lacking his illimitable power of subtle analysis, relentless energy, of mathematical calculation! and nojy positively superhuman prestige with the Russian masses, the Soviet kingdom might easily collapse. At any rate, so say Russians who are now in London after experiencing years of hazard under the Bolsheviks. Some amazing personalities and remarkable mentalities have emerged’in Moscow under the stress of- Revolution, but Lenin still remains the pillar of the _ new State. His forte is scientific infallibility as applied to the rule of thumb business of politics.