LONDON TOPICS

Evening Star, Issue 19127, 19 December 1925, Page 24

LONDON TOPICS

THE PBIKCE'S HUIITIHG November o. The outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Leicestershire has resulted in the suspension of all hunting for the time being. This is a great disappointment to the Prince of Wales, who was looking forward to much bunting in the Shire during the season. Happily, no such embargo as yet affects _ the Whaddon Chase area, and the Prince, I bear 2 has accepted an invitation to throw in his Jot with this bunt for the time being. Ho will be no stranger to tho Whaddon Chase, for last year and the year previously he went out with them frequently. His hunters have been sent on from Leicestershire, accommodation having been secured in the Linsiado district. It is quite probable that the Prince will be out also with tho Bicester Hounds, for their meets are well within tie Whaddon Chase range. One advantage of the Whaddon Chase hunt is its accessibility to town. The Prince will be able to get back to town with much greater ease than when hunting Leicestershire. It was whilst hunting in this district that the Prince on one occasion met ■with a mishap which resulted in a fractured shoulder. WINSTON AND THE PACT.

It may surprise some people to know that in the whole Cabinet Mr Chamberlain’s Locarno Peace Pam has no stronger backer than Mr Churchill. He lias scon more real fighting tlian most full-fledged generals, sampled most big and little campaigns on tap in his time, and sometimes been accused of. Napoleonic ambitions. Yet tho truth is, though tiie personal adventure draws him, Mr Churchill's whole mentality loathes war. This is no sudden conversion duo to exchanging a cavalry shako for a Treasury bag. Even as a subaltern galloper he denounced it, A PROPHECY. In bis vivid book, ‘The Ma lab and Field Force,’ Mr Churchill made two remarkable statements. One was that “Hie philosopher must observe with pity, and the philanthropist with pain, that the attention of so many minds should bo directed to tlio scientific destruction of the human species, but practical people in a business age wiQ remember they live in a world of men—not angels—and act accordingly.” The other statement was that, if ever we were “ foolish enough to allow our little Army to bo ground to fragments between Continental myriads.” we should deservo all tho misfortunes inevitably ensuing. That was written twentyeight years ago, MUSSOLINI. Remarkable rumors have been current in’ London ever since the Locarno Conference about the health of Signor Benito Mussolini. The famous Fascist “ Duco ” and Premier of Italy, yho has just contributed a signed article to one of our Sunday journals glorifying Fascisto and its leader, attended the Locarno meetings, arriving after everybody else was tlmre. He seemed to bo more than slightly irritated by a reception that apparently foil far short of his own Cwsarian expectations. Attentive observers thought that the Italian statesman looked mentally overwrought, and declare that in some significant respects he reminded them of Lord Northclifl'c during his latter stages. FRANCE’S CAPITAL LEVY. Having got rid, of M. Caillanx, who with all his faults con Id see the consequences of a capita] levy, M. Painlevo is proceeding to form another Cabinet, which cannot avoid pledging itself to some sort of a compulsory levy on wealth. Already kites are being flown, however, to suggest that nothing_ will bo done in a Hurry, and it is naively suggested that the imposition of such a levy must bo anticipated by an important addition to the number of French Civil servants. In the city, as a consequence of to-day’s reports Jr ora Paris, it is believed that M. Painlevo is real I}' planning a policy ol laisso;: faire rather than face the storm oi unpopularity that would burst if genuine taxation were proposed. It, is_ significant that, although the financial year is three parts gone, French taxpayers in many districts have not yet received their income tax demands for 1924, suggesting that the Treasury is hesitating to enforce even existing taxes. Unless M. Pai.alove announces a much bolder financial policy than anyone expects, there seems no prospect be!ore Franco hut further inflation. TEE PERSIAN WAY.

A friend who knows Teheran better than Piccadilly tells mo that the Persian coup d’etat “asked for itself.” Ahmed Mirza, the deposed Shah, n portly youth 'with dreamy eyes and voluptuous Parisian tastes, left his kingdom to a Regency, and tho new dictator. Riza Khan, once a groom, more closely approximates to Aga Khan, founder of the dynasty 129 years ago. That worthy, and ambitious eunuch whoso 70,000 eyeballs torn from enemies’ heads, is still a Persian record, was murdered by ins palace guards. Persia is a land of exotic sconery and exotic people, both slightly theatrical in their beauty. Its Omarian fatalism of laissoz fairc inclines it to welcome strong-handed rulers. Constitutionalism is far too fatiguing—and prosaic—for Teheran. It requires someone vivid to give it the law. and the prophets with a dash of bright scarlet. VANDALISM. For ardent Christians the vandalism at Damascus partakes of positive impiety. it was to the street called Straight, down which, by the way, trams have been running for over fifteen years, that the namesake of Ananias was directed, by the Divine voice, on his fearful mission to St. Paul before tho Apostle’s conversion from a persecutor of Christians to their groat exemplar. No other street in histoiy is srniplary august with Divine utterance of its name. Unfortunately it is the oldest quarter of Damascus, dating back before human annals, that the French gums shelled for so many hours, and the damage wrought is irretrievable. An archamlogical tragedy has been achieved by the overbearing rathlossncs sof military tete montce. COFFEE STALLS DE LUKE.

Tt was simply bound to conic. 'Hio London all-night codec stall lias now bowed Li the inevitable, joined in the general onward march of triumphant science, and installed a. wireless aerial. So tar only one of these, nocturnal alfresco restaurants is so equipped—-a beautifully burnished one at Clapham—hut the rest will soon follow suit. And so it will soon ho quite the usual thine;, with the strange assorted company who frequent these republican lintels, to hs-fen-in to the Savoy Orehesira while taking the midnight cup of coffee, and meat pie. I. believe seine of the more, enterprising spirits at West .End cab rank shelters installed crystal sets long ago. But. the coffee stall brings broadcast ing into the homes coon of the homeless. A quaint' thought hill, true as death. FI; A ITER AVI TV I A FETTLE.

.A city man. wiiii whom I travelled to town this morning at an unusually early hour, called my attention to a flapper, dressed en suite in brown, holding her satchel in both hands before her. and leaning against the closed portals of a famous shorthand and. typing school near Russell Square. She was an exceptionally bright and pretty little girl, hut any doubts about my middle-aged city friend’s philandering habits were promptly squelched. "See that sg i r! V ’ ’ he said earnestly. “.Make a name for herself some day in the eil.y. Waiting every morning for doors to open! .Always merry and bright i Never untidy or late or grumpy! A l< to governor of Bunk of England.

some day! Sure thing!” This piece ol romantic deduction intrigued my journalistic fancy. But later, by one of those flukes that sometimes happen, 1. sat at tho next quick-lunch table to that model flapper. Site was terribly upset, hut her girl friend was roost sympathetic. “ Oh, well, dearie,” she said, “perhaps ho has a cold! He’ll bo there to-morrow morning—you see,” VANISHED WALKERS.

This last week-end I walked wifhono companion from Dorking _to Friday street and back through Abingor Hatch to Gomshall. Tt is perhaps the. finest footpath stroll in all England, and just now brilliant with the glory ol dying autumn. We had ample amends for muddy paths in the deep crimson russets of the woods, only just beginning to reveal thmr winter skeletons. At •Abinger Match wo were welcomed at the preity inn like unexpected phantoms. ‘‘ There are no more walkers now,” said the elderly waitress; ‘‘this is a death-trap when the motorists are week-ending.” But onr way lay through meadows, and down sunken i,racks, inaccessible to mechanism. And as we left the ancient village we looked hack, across dim woods and fields, to see the stocks and whipping post gleaming white in the full October moon in the churchyard.

My friend, and T could not help moralising on (he loss fh.at modern city hie brings in its habitues. My friend recalled a famous journalist who once declared that the air of Fleet street at -I o’clock in the morning was the finest in the world. With the moonlight ghosting the ancient rustic gravestones, the autumn mists veiling the ro]li wooded countryside, a few stars faintly gemming dte night sky. and an owl hooting macabrely out ul the darkness of the middle distance, we could not accept the Fleet street, dictum. Despite motors and honking horns, Surrey still holds, for footpath students, “ enough peace to fill a nosebag.” And the human spirit still gains more serenity fro'm the .solemn stillness of the English countryside than for all the roaring barrage, of Fleet street’s strenuous panting presses.