LONDON TOPICS

Evening Star, Issue 19000, 23 July 1925, Page 1

LONDON TOPICS

[From Due Correspondent.) June 4. The King’s Birthday honors _list is a comprehensive document. No new peers are chosen, hut Baron Bearsted, of “Shell” fame, becomes a viscout. There am eight new baronet’s and twenty-live knights. The most notable new baronet is Sir John Bland-Sntton, tho great snrgeoh. Another wellknown doctor, Mr Janies Berry, our best authority on goitre*, is among tho knights, who include also people like Air Blain (chief Conservative agent), Major Ernest Gray (the former president of the N.U.T.), Air 11. H. Harty (the composer and conductor). Air Travers Humphreys (Senior Prosecuting Counsel), Mr Barry Jackson (of tho Birmingham Repertory Theatre), Air Colville Smith (the Freemasons’ Grand Secretary), and to show it is a list with a “punch’ in it, Mr Bernard Partridge, the world-famous cartoonist. Among the dames is Madame Albani and one Salvation Array “ lass.” WHAT OF WEMBLEY.

Unless something like a miracle happens, and despite the almost desperate efforts of their Majesties to make it go. the Wembley Exhibition looks like being financially an even worse venture this summer than last. Perhaps this fact accounts for tho talk that is already to be heard about the future of the Wembley site and buildings. One suggestion is that it may be adapted to industrial purposes, and .some of the more permanent buildings might readily lend themeslvcs to this _ Another project that is mooted is for converting the site into a big new residential suburb, with the latest kind of flats for over-crowded Londoners. Yet another scheme envisages the possibility of Wembley, with its more suitable buildings, remaining as a great suburban park, athletic ground, and conference rendezvous. All these tilings are at present very much in the air, but something will have to tie decided between now and the autumn.

QUEEN ALEXANDRA’S HUMOR. Someone who knows Queen Alexandra really well tells me Her Majesty’s special dower is a genuine sense of fun. She is the humorist of the Royal Family, and her capacity for looking on the comic side of things has often smoothed over what might have been rather unpleasant domestic upsets. When Sir Horace Smith-Dor-ricn was in command at Aldershot, four or five years before the war, King Edward and Queen Alexandra often visited him, ami on one occasion insisted on seeing the little Smith-Dor-riens. One of the .small hoys, quite unabashed, asked which was the King in the midst of tho drawing room assembly, and Queen Alexandra, patting him on the hack, said: “That stout old gentleman over there.” Which reminds mo of the experience narrated to me by another friend, a well-known Antarctic expert, who had occasion to attend a formal ceremony, over which Queen Alexandra presided, at the Palace. All the men present were in uniform, and had rows of medals and decora!ions on. A!y friend, who is a plain civilian, had no uniform, but sported one ribbon on his morning coat. It was the only ribbon of tho kind —pure white —in the Royal assembly. Queen Alexandra’s keen eyes quickly fastened on it, and she asked (he wearer what it was. Ho explained that it was for a South Polar expedition. Her Afajcsly was much interested, but, with a merry twinkle in her eyes, exclaimed, in her rather high-pitched voice: “1 thought it was for innocence; conic and stand by me!” WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN.

Colonel Ropington’s death followed within a few hours of tho Earl of Ypres But for a truly tragic affair do coenr, Colonel Repington and not Sir John .French might have crossed to France in 1914 at tho head of the • British Expeditionary Force. Alost ' people know Colonel Repington only ,as a brilliant society flaneur and a I famous military corcrspondcnt of ‘ The I Times.’ who started the great shell 'controversy on his return from a visit |toG.H.Q. Bnf ilie Army knew him as jan extraordinarily able soldier, quite j the greatest scientific cavalry expert |of his time, and marked out for bril- ; hunt tilings. His military career was , wrecked when he was serving on the Sirdar’s staff in Egypt, and Colonel j Repington later gave up bis eommis- ! sinn. His much-discussed “Diary” cast a queer sidelight on the social side of the Great War. I AVATERLOO THRILLS. There is an ex-scrvico man in London who fakes a personal interest in the thrilling story of a German aeroplane bomb found near one of the submerged Waterloo bridge foundations by the workmen engaged on rebuilding. Tho semi-official theory is that it must bo a. Gorman bomb, dropped from some Him night raider’s store, probably on the memorable, occasion when Cleopatra’s Needle, on tin: Embankment, received some big dints. A few foot farther east, say tho 'quidnuncs, and Waterloo bridge’s reconstruction would have been placed beyond tho region of controversy. The ex-service man I have in mind, however, has his doubts. He was a keen man on souvenirs, and possessed bimsd! of a nice variety of unexploded bombs. Then he “ got (lie wind up." His “missus” was nervous. Ami one dark night lie got rid of those, bombs —in a safe place! GERMANS PREFERRED.

A friend who is just/ back alter live months on tho Riviera, tells me that, in spite of the so-c.alicd “ tightness ” oi money in Germany. it i:s still the Gormans who arc spending money most freely in the Smith of France. ' They arc Germans of an unpleasant type, men ami women who made money during the collapse of the mark, and who hare acquired tho ability 1,0 spend money without the graces that go with the habitual use of it. They are so lavish that hotelkeepers fawn on them, last week a .British general had occasion to complain of lack of attention in an hotel at Monte Carlo. The proprietor rudely told him that ho “did not care if every Britisher lett the so long as the Germans remained.’’ No Gorman ever eats the table d'hote dinner. He orders a special meal, and pays for it. AT THE SICK CAR DEPOT. To-day I had to visit one of tho biggest and busiest motor garages in London, a huge place whore ail sorts, sizes, and conditions of cars arc overhauled, repaired, and tuned up by platoons of bored mechanics. Several of the latter are, quite' incidentally, public school men, who have fought shy of the overcrowded usual professions*. The immense yard presented an amazing sight, packed with more or Jess invalid (airs epitomising the modern motor industry at home and abroad. There were millionaire cars jostling the axles ol converted .Fords, two-seaters rubbing bonnets with monster touring cars, and motor cycles galore, all bearing the urgent mud of different parts.

of the Kingdom. And the very centra of the crush was a vehicle that uttered a more urgent cry for mechanic first aid than all the others—an absurd child’s tricycle, with a damaged pedal* Somehow, mechanics being human men, I fancy it stands the host chancel RAILWAY CONGRESS.

The International Railway Congress, which assembles in this country next, month for the first time for thirty years, will bo under the Duke of York’s presidency. Though under .tho quiuquonnial rule the congress was mot due until 1927, the date has been advanced two years to synchronise with the railway centenary celebrations. Though the congress will hold its meetings m London, the delegates will attend the Darlington centenary festival. They will number about 500, representing practically every civilised country in the world. The centenary arrangements include a procession at Stockton of all phases of locomotive developments, which will bo some five_ miles lung. After the congress, at which we may hear something about recent engine trials now embittering the relations of two groat lines in this country, tho delegates will tour the «ou 11try, to visit all the chief railway centres, and sec the different systems in practical working.

•BRITISH CYCLES IN GERMANY. A friend, who went over to Germany for the great motor cycle trials at Stuttgart—where the “ gallery ” numbered .‘300,000 —tells me that to him the most remarkable feature of the races was the number of British machinesAbout 180 machines were entered in the various classes, and of these no fewer than fifty-two wore entirely British, Of the remainder forty-seven .were German machines, incorporating British components, and about thirty were fitted with British engines. This is all the more remarkable in view ot the fact that German machines are very much cheaper, and that during . the last few years German designers have concentrated on designs for air-coolcd high-efiiciency engines. The German course, opened this year for the first time, is an attractive one, winding through tlic ancient “ Wildpark," the royal preserves of the Kings pi Wurtemburg. VOCATIONAL TRAINING IN THE SERVICES.

Vocational training has proved so advantageous to men in the Army that el for Is are bciiig made to introduce it on the same lines into the Navy. At present the Admiralty is not favorably disposed towards the scheme, not as regards principle, but because the number of men voted lor the Navy is based .solely on manning requirements. It is urged, however, that a percentage, even though it ho a small one, might bo spared for the last few months of their active service to give them some chance in the Labor market when time expired, and deputations are to wait on Jlr ' Bridgcman after the_ holidays to see whether any concessions can be obtained. Cutter ick, the principal Army centre, has again done wclL Of the fast batch of sixty-six men trained, the majority were directly successful in obtaining employment, and only twelve found themselves, lor the timo being, unprovided for. oHOVEL FATIGUE BARRED.

One of the big professional seedmen toils me of nnlaule changes in gardening habits. Nowadays, _ the average suburban amateur is giving up those herbaceous borders, lormerly _so popular, and . abandoning other forms _ of horticulture that involve much digging over of the ground. The popular fancy now appears to he for rockeries, and there is a. growing demand for plants and shrubs suitable for this purpose. To my amusement, the expert “ blamed it on' the war.” The immediate connection between herbaceous borders, alpine plants, and the Great War seemed to 1)0 somewhat difficult to establish. But mv informant declared quite emphatically that ex-service men have gone in' largely for gardening, only they refuse, after their experiences shovelling Belgium into sandbags, to do any more spadework than absolutely necessary. POSTER ART. The art groundlings have been so enraged bv Epstein s sculpture for tho Hudson memorial in Hyde Park that they seem to have overlooked other even more provoking symptoms of modernism in art. A\ Jiieh is, of course, merely a conscientious return to primevalisni. The underground has been the pioneer in really artistic railway posters, and now advertises Whitsuntide attractions by several • new APKnight Kanfl'er studies. These absolutely invite the heathen to rage. Tbov are Hie lirst really convincing note of modernism in poster work. Two smaller posters are attractive in design and color, though quite amusingly medieval and heraldic in conception, but a larger one, inviting trippers into the connirv, seems to mo to lail badly. I The treatment is deliberately primitive, I and the trees look like rows of let--1 turns with faded strawberry-ice trunks, I while the central farm is straight from i Noah’s Ark. I hoard one bewildered city man declare it looked like a salad. JO URN A LIST 1C IGNORANCE. I am afraid few journalists realise bow thoroughly unpopular fleet street is with cena.iu people. And it is all due. not to essential wickedness, but to lucre slipshod carelessness. The Army will never forgive that familiar cliche about “ the busbies of tho Guards. 1 ' To a soldier it i.s as bad in mis up the uniform of the Guards with that of Ibo Hussars and Horse Artillery, us it is, in the sportsman's eyes, to babbie about the “ crack of tb» nlie ”on the September moors. la ihe smnn way R.A.E. pilots grind their teeth when they read about “ the ClftlH ham .Junction of the air.” And the Tower wardens, the oldest uniformed force in London, recruited exclusively from Army sergeants and ranked_ as .sergeant-majors, turn green every time they are called “ beef-eaters.” Tho latter were the St. James’s Palace custodians of the Royal buffet. It is like calling a D.S.O. in evening dress “ Waiter.” AN UNKNOWN RITUAL. Talking of the Tower wardens reminds we of a quaint ceremony known to comparatively few people, and never witnessed by tho public. It is enacted religiously every night when the outer gate of the Tower is locked. The chief warden goes ceremoniously to the guardhouse, carrying tho key of the gate. Although ho is only a R.S.M. in rank, the guards officer in chargo salutes 'him, by virtue of that key. The chief warden demands an escort, and proceeds towards the gate. Tho sentry challenges: “ Haiti Who comes there?” The reply is: “The key.” “ What key?” responds the sentry. “ King George’s key,” is the reply. And then the sentry cries, “ Pass, King George’s key, and all’s well.” After locking the gate, more ritual follows Hie return to tho guardhouse, where 1 lio guard turns out to salute the ancient key, and the ceremony ends with a chorus of “ God save Kins George y.’i