LONDON TOPICS

Evening Star, Issue 19757, 6 January 1928, Page 3

LONDON TOPICS

ROYAL SHAM OF BUSINESS [Fkom Oub Cobekspondbnt.] November 24. We realise that democracy has travelled far when we see a grandson of Queen Victoria on the directorate of Lever Bros. But,, after all, what is there incongruous in the association of Royalty with soapP The late Lord Leverhulme, always on the look-out for promising men, must have been impressed with the business qualities of the Marquess of Carisbrooke when he invited him to join his board, and Lord Leverhulme made very few mistakes. Lord Carisbrooke, who is forty-one this week, is, of course, the eldest and only surviving son of the Princess Beatrice, and brother of the Queen of Spain. From Wellington he passed to the Britannia, and after six years in the Navy transferred to the Grenadier Guards, with whom ho served throughout Armageddon. Lady Carisbrooke is the sister of the Earl of Lonclesborough.

A LEGATION LEGACY

Sir William Max-Muller’s impending rcsignntiop of his post as first British Minister to Poland reminds me that at the Legation in Warsaw he is the custodian of a legacy that must be almost unique. In the early days of the war a resident in Poland—l think of English descent —bequeathed a solid silver dinner service for the use of the first British Minister at Warsaw and his successors. The will was made at a time when it seemed by no means certain that Poland would ever be, reestablished as an independent nation. I once lunched with Sir William at the Legation, and was thus In a position to appreciate the remark of tho English schoolboy who, visiting a great mansion as a member of a cricket team, said: “A jolly good lunch; but fancy having rotten tin plates in a decent house like this!” Like him, I prefer earthenware. It was a vivid reminder of the absorptive power of the British Empire that after tbs war its diplomatic representative was the son of a German-born father, and that the military attache was Colonel Carton de Wiart, of Belgian descent. RUSSIA MISSES THE TURNING. Russians in London arc bitterly disappointed in tho news which has been coming through from their country during the past few days. Earlier reports of tho progress of the Trotsky revolt had revived in them many of the hopes which had been dormant for several years, and they again felt that Russia might bo at the crossroads. But now it is plain that Trotsky Ims failed. Deprived of his home and even the less important offices he held,, his supporters committing suicide, Trotsky s fall appears to be complete, and the Soviet machine is still lelt pitilessly grinding tho hearts and the souls out of the people. The ill-succcss of tho revolt, however, brings home to English people something of the extreme difficulty which laces any leader or party desirous of putting a period to the tyranny of the commissars. The relentless regime and insistent propaganda have shaped the population of Russia into a supine, mass, with no heart for further strife or upheaval. To them deprivations and hardships are an unavoidable aftermath of the war, and not one in a thousand of them believes that conditions are better or oven as good as elsewhere. To them a now uprising affords no hope of better times, and is full of the possibility of a return to the days of terror still so vividly in their memories.

MR CHARLES iMASTERMAN

Mr Charles Mastcrman’s death has come as a shock to older parliamentarians, especially to those who remember him twenty years ago cm a back bench below the gangway-—a thin curate-like figure in a tight-fitting black frock coat, and looking like the Rev. Robert Spalding transferred from ‘ The Private Secretary.’ He had an abundant flow of emotional eloquence with a sub-acid flavor sometimes directed against his leaders. When he was called to the front bench as junior to Mr John Burns, that Minister vowed to “ kick the sacerdotalism out of him in three months.” Ho failed, but lor all that the relations between Mr Burns and Ids curate, as he called him, were good. Mr Masterman’s failure to retain his seat or gain another on becoming a Cabinet Minister broke Ids spirit, and though he sat during the last Parliament he was no longer the man he had been, ili-health and ill-success reacted on each other, and during recent years he had been obviously failing at the age of little, over fifty. PEERESS M.P.S. Lady Iveagh is the third peeress to sit in the House of Commons in succession to her husband. The others are Lady Astor and the Duchess of Atholl, the latter, however, not in immediate succession. Mrs P.hillipson also succeeded her husband. All these are on the Government side. A lew years ago Mrs Wintringham, a Liberal, was elected to the seat vacated on her husband’s death, indeed, to lollow a husband seems to be the easiest way of getting into the House of Commons. All the party managers complain that it is difficult to get constituency committees to adopt a woman candidate, however much they may declare themselves in favor of the equality of the sexes. The local leaders fear that women are not generally popular with their own sex, in spite ol the general idea to the contrary. POLITICS AND ART.

Sir Martin Conway, M.P., who was entertaining a number of distinguished artists at dinner in the House of Commons this week-in order that they may see the St. Stephen’s Hall, paintings, is one of the most versatile of men. There is hardly a mountain in the world worth climbing that he has not climbed, and the books he has written or. the subject arc classics. He is an equally great authority on Flemish, Dutch, German, and English art, and his early volumes are treasured by collectors. Once at a loss for a copy of one of his own books, and asked to pay three times the published price for it. Sir Martin solved the problem by writing a new edition. A few years ago the Soviet Government gave him authority to make an inspection of the galleries of Russia, and he was able to report that their treasures were intact and well preserved. Sir Martin is a versatile talker on every conceivable subject, and, though he still does a little climbing, his favorite hobby now is tinkering with the old Kent castle in which he lives. THE AMATEUR IN SPORT. The presentation of a £IO,OOO house to “Bobby” Jones by American admirers in recognition of his prowess on the golf links draws attention to the different viewpoints from which the vexed question of professionalism is regarded by various sports. A few years ago the Scottish Rugby Union declared Neil Macpherson a professional because, in common with other members of the Newport team, he had accepted from the townspeople of Newport a. gold watch, valued at twenty guineas, in celebration of the fact that the team bad gone through a whole season unbeaten. The sequel t,6 that nine days’ sensation was that the International Board passed a resolution that in future no Rugby player should accept a gift the value of which was more than £2. Per contra, I do not remember the M.C.C. intervening in the matter of presents to amateur cricketers. There was a big national testimonial to W. G. Grace, and I recollect a considerable present, which included a motor car, to Archie Maclaren when he retired from the captaincy of Lancashire.

EMIGRATION FOR MINERS. The decision just announced of the Federal Government at Ottawa to concentrate next year on British emigration to Canada will find, I hear, ready acceptance in Government circles at home, if only practical means can be taken to assist the miners who are now unemployed and the many who are likely never to go down a mine again. Emigration is admitted to be the great solution of this pressing difficulty, and there are many mining areas in Canada at present undeveloped for lack of capital and labor. A leading Canadian official gave me some wonderful figures of the richness of the untouched coal lands in Alberta alone, which should justify the Government at home cooperating whole-heartedly with the Canadian authorities in putting emigration in the forefront of the nation’s practical programme for next year. From what I can hear, Mr Baldwin is very sympathetic to any scheme—despite its cost—which will ensure to Canada a preponderance of British-born to swell the rising tide of its population. PROGRESS OF THE GOLD COAST. One of our Imperial possessions least heard about, but most progressive, is the Gpld Coast. Great strides are being made in developing the remarkable native university at Accra, which is being town-planned into a scientificallydesigned city of its own; while the trade has increased within the past eight months by over 20 per cent, of the corresponding returns for last year. Progress is likely to be even more rapid when next year the deep-water harbor of Takoradi is built to replace the rough roadsteads hitherto used by ail ships. Vessels will be able to load at the quay, instead of having to ship their goods and passengers from surf boats and lighters two miles out to sea. The harbor is expected to bo completed by March of next year, and Mr J. H. Thomas has been invited to open it. A film company is at the same time sending out a unit, and it is possible that the details of the life of the colony will thus become more widely known. SPURIOUS OLD BRANDY.

The genuine wine and spirit merchants in London are considering what action they can take to prevent the public being outrageously robbed by the brandy fakers in France, who fill carefully sooted bottles bearing impressive labels with spirit a few years old and sell it to this country as vintage brandy. A label on a bottle of brandy bearing 1848, 1856, or any other date conveys nothing unless it is purchased from a reputable firm. There are about twenty-live of these genuine firms, and about 8,000 fakers and agents of fakers. It is estimated that 99 per cent, of the brandy sold from bottle in hotels, restaurants, and dance clubs as vintage brandy is spurious spirit, usually between three and ten years old. Some of the genuine firms are contending that the only way to circumvent the fakers is for the French Government to make itself responsible for the brandy produced at Cognac and Jarnac, just as the Portuguese Government guarantees the vintage of port. It is suggested that a Government stamp should be affixed to each bottle guaranteeing that the brandy is actually as old a,s it is declared to bo on the label. The brandy ramp is a scandal, for there are hundreds of people in France making fortunes from labels and sooted bottles, BRITISH TYPEWRITERS.

A chance comment by King George bids fair to effect an industrial revolution of uo small importance—a not uninteresting object-lesson in these truly democratic days for those who think Rovnlty merely a figurehead in the historical pageant. Wc all know how, at last year’s Industries Fair, His Majesty voiced his astonishment that our Government departments should be using foreign typewriters exclusively. Since then the demand for a British machine has been immensely stimulated. Not only has Whitehall paid due heed to the Royal expression of opinion, hut overseas dominions have placed large orders here, and private firms at homo have displayed a similar disposition to “ buy British.” From New Zealand alone the British factory is now making £50,000 per annum. Nor does the matter end there. It is suggested (fiat a safeguarding duty on imported machines would stimulate the industry without increasing the price of typewriters to the public, just as in the case of the motor industry. SPURIOUS “STRADS.” Some idea of the enormous number of faked Stradivarius violins in the world can be gathered from a pamphlet a German linn lias sent to London advertising “Genuine Strads ” from 3s 6d each. Stradivarius violins can he copied in such minute detail that it is possible for an expert only to distinguish a genuine one. These experts are the men who have seen thousands of violins during their lives, and been intimately conceted with the making of them. There are so few genuine Strads existing to-day that many of the experts are familiar with nearly all of them. Stradivarius made many models, and used all kinds of wood, so that a musician cannot expect to see one or two of these famous fiddles and he qualified to distinguish them in future. There is uo one feature of a Strad. which distinguishes it from other violins. The only difference is the subtlety of the workmanship, and so clever are the imitations on the market to-day that this cannot always bo immediately detected even by the expert.