LONDON TOPICS

Evening Star, Issue 19699, 28 October 1927, Page 11

LONDON TOPICS

JAPAN’S PROBLEM IN MANCHURIA f[Fkoii Ouk CoiiKEsro.NDENT.] September 15. Critics of our Government’s foreign policy arc waiting with the utmost interest to sco bow Japan will handle the problem she is faced with in Mancluu ia. Anti-Japanese demonstrations are widespread anti well organised, and .Japanese residents in Manchuria aio daily being attacked in the streets or bating their shops and premises stoned by mobs. The situation is a delicate one, for Japan has- lung been on the best of terms with the Manchurian authorities, and she undoubtedly wants to preserve those relations. If she can prevail upon the officials to settle the disturbance for her all will be plain sailing, but what if they deny their ability to do so? Those who know Japan well are certain that she will not copy or.r example at Hankow, and offer conciliation in face of mob violence. Sill AUSTEN’S WINTER HOME. Sir Austen Chamberlain’s selection of a winter homo at St. _ Eloreut, in Corsica, is arousing envious thoughts in the minds of many Londoners. 'J o cpiit the din and bustle of the twentieth century metropolis and hark back, as on a time machine, to the quiet somnolence of the middle ages, is a joy that many of us would like to experience. Though few places are left in Europe where medieval surroundings arc still unspoilt by modern eyesores, Corsica is one of them. Ancient customs still prevail—you have the romance of bandits lurking at your back door—and the old-world towns and villages are set in the most delightiul mountain and coastal scenery that the eye can picture. Fortunately perhaps, Corsica is not easy of access, and that is why it remains unspoilt. Sir Austen, while ho retains the Foreign Secretaryship, is not likely to be much in residence at his winter home. The panorama of the southern coast of the island is familiar to largo numbers of travelling Britons, though few of them actually sot foot upon its shores. One of the most frequented steamship “lanes” to a great number of our chief overseas ports passes close inshore of Corsica. The _ passage through the Straits of Bonifacio is one of the most memorable “sights” of a voyage to the East. The ancient town that gives .its name to the straits stands perched upon a mighty bnlf-col-ored cliff, the back windows of many of the houses literally bulging over the precipice, inviting their occupants to perforin high-diving feats into the deep bine sea far down below. The architecture simply reeks of medievalism, and houses built; when Napoleon chrclt in the island are frowned upon as upstarts by the hoary Methuselahs that surround them. A WHITE METROPOLIS. So much is written and spoken of London’s grime and blackness that most of us accept the description and never use our eyes to verify the charge. It therefore came as a surprise to mo the other day to discover how gross a libel it really is. Loudon, I now declare, is the whitest of all the really great cities in the world. 1 have seen most of them, and none of them cun compare for whiteness with our own metropolis, if you jiuhtc it from its skyline as seen from the Thames. While spires, white domes, white facades—oven white water, if the sun happens to bo shining upon it at the right'declination. Perhaps it is the inordinate washing which the city has received this summer, or perhaps the economics in fuel which its citizens have learned since the coal strike, but the whiteness is there for everyone who cares to see it. TOO MANY DOCTORS. While the medical employment agencies have on their books the names of scores of qualified doctors for whom they cannot find work, tho big London hospitals arc unable to liml enough of the right typo of men to fill their vacancies. ’The explanation is that most of the men who arc unable to get positions in hospitals are those who have passed through northern universities. The medical secretary of a London hospital tolls me that there is always a post awaiting the man who has been trained in a London medical school and has a good degree. “As a matter of fact,” lie said, “ Guy's, Bart’s, and St. Thomas’s Hospitals could not got all the men they wanted last year.” Tho overcrowding of the profession was caused by the rush of women after the war. 'There have been a- number of new fields opened to the young doctor, but there is still' a lack of jobs, so a large number of thorn are looking to the dominions. THE LAST OF LIMEHOUSE? Since the decision was made this spring that .the slums of Limehousc would have to go to make way tor model dwelling places, the “ fishy ” population of that well-beloved resort of novelists lias taken cm a new aspect. “ Fishy ” is an accurate adjective. It i.s not generally known that fish curing is the staple industry of the honest members of Limohonse. _ Each working household divides its backyard spaces between cage birds and smokehouses for fish. What these lishcurers will do for a living when great blocks of flats rid them of their backyards i.s beyond knowledge. They are angry about the very threat of the scheme. As tor Limohouse’s more sinister denizens, they . arc already migrating, stealthily, to foul another part of London—Aklgate, to bo precise. The noisome gaining dives so long a feature of Ponnyfield’s Causeway (Liraehouae proper, that is), are closing down. Chinese restaurants are also disappearing. If Aklgate is chosen as the new Limohonse, what will tho city police have to say to a China ’Town so far divorced from the waterside; so near to tho city’s business heart? There will ho stirring times ahead when Limehouse is finally cleaned up. JAPANESE INDUSTRY CHALLENGED Britons are so beset by trade rival* these days that it is quite consoling to hear from time to time that other folk arc “ getting it in the neck.” Tho Japanese, I hear, arc being badly hit in their important camphor industry by the synthetic article, which, of course, comes from Germany. Tho camphor trade is a monopoly of tho Japanese Government, and heretofore they have virtually controlled tho markets of the world. The hulk of it is distilled from tho wood in tho Island of Formosa. One large factory there which I have seen was apparently turning out camphor in sufficiently largo quantities to kill off all the microbes in the world, and to have enough left over to make the world’s* supply of celluloid toys also. From ike efficiency which I saw bulging from every corner of the establishment, I imagine that the Japanese will be able

to keep their own, end up in any struggle with the hi ml of synthesis. The logs of camphor wood, which grows in abundance on the mountain stones of the island; are broken into chips and heated in retorts. The vanor then is released into lingo wooden towers, where it cools <iml falls down in crystals, which look very much like snowflakes. Even the visitor to the factory becomes highly camphorated before be leaves the premises, and the workers are therefore naturally satnratd with the drug. Camphor is un excitant. and it is perhaps for this reason that the crafty Japanese have combined the industry under one roof with that of an opium refinery. Workers who exhibit symptoms of over-stimulation—-who arc what Americans term “ getting fresh”—may he switched over to the other department, where the narcotic atmosphere will restore their equilibrium. LONDON’S SQUARES. Many Londoners are feeling considerable anxiety about their squares. These lovely oases of Old World calm amid the hustle and roar of modem metropolitan traffic arc too near the heart of most of us to permit of their being molested with impunity. That the Incorporated Society of Auctioneers and Landed Property "Agents is turning its attention to them is, perhaps, inevitable, but none the less regrettable. To most of us the less attention of that ■sort they receive the belter, and the report that suggestions for their development are to bo brought before a Royal Commission is displeasing. 'The proposal to build underground garages beneath the squares is ingenious, and, of course, might solve the problem of where to park tiio ever-increasing number of business men’s cars. One cannot help wondering, though, whether the trees would like it and whether their well-being will be taken into consideration. IRISHMEN AT SCOTLAND YARD. The- death of ex-Snperintendent John M'Carthy, a former Scotland Yard chief, reminds one of the iaet that there arc few Irishmen now in the higher detective ranks at Scotland Yard. Not so long ago every man at the yard seemed to ho a native of the “Quid Country.” In the days of the Fenian scares Irishmen were useful in tho Secret Service, and, passing to other branches, they were always ready to bring over their brothers_ and cousins. The yard man is ('.hanging in type as wll ns in nationality. Public school and university men abound. Strange to say, there arc few Scotsmen in the higher positions of tho service, though, judging by the accents one hoars, there is an abundance of them in uniform in the streets. Why Irishmen should make, such good detectives and Scols'nien such poor ones suggests several other interesting questions. I believe tho Scot sitting on the North Polo is less of a myth than the Scot in tho political branch of Scotland Yard, and yet that is exactly where one would have expected to find him. A COSTLY CORNER. About £200,000 for a, forty-two years’ lease is the price required for the site in Piccadilly Circus on which stand the London Pavilion and several shops. This ground lease has just been placed in the market by the executors of the late Mr Frederick Huttor, who died in May last, but it is probable that some difficulty may be met in finding a purchaser. The freehold of the site is held by the London County Council, who holds it tenaciously with a view to possible future street improvements. This being so, the purchaser will have to make use of the Pavilion and shops as they stand, for, even if he bought out the present sub-lessees ho would not be allowed to erect any now building on the site. Under such circumstances a price which works out at something like £ls per square foot seems fairly steep for a lease of forty-two years, even though the situation's one,of tho most envied in tho West End.