LONDON TOPICS

Evening Star, Issue 19773, 25 January 1928, Page 12

LONDON TOPICS

THE INDIA COMMISSION [Fbom Cue Coeeespondent.J December 1. Mr gteplien Walsh, M.P., has the sympathy of all parties in his keen disappointment at finding his membership of the India Royal Commission vetoed by his doctor. It should be understood that he is not ill, but it is deemed inadvisable for him to undergo the long journey and the stay in a hot climate. With the exception of Miss Ellon Wilkinson, Mr Walsh has fewer inches than any member of the House of Commons, but his thick-set little frame is lull of pluck, moral and physical. He has shown it on many occasions in telling his political friends unpalatable truths. He was a great favorite with the soldiers when he was at the War'Office, and the interest he acquired in military affairs then still remains. His Lancashire common sense would have been a valuable asset to the India Commission.

The hope is that, now it is an accomplished fact, the India Commission may function satisfactorily, influential Indians are not all extremists, though a majority arc undoubtedly progressives, and the impartial character of the Commission, from which experts have been carelully excluded, under a chairman of such unimpeachable breadth of view s Sir John Simon, should commend it as an honest attempt to sum up the position judicially. There is much comment in London on Mr Lloyd George’s absence from the Commons debate on so vital a topic. This certainly implies no criticism on his part of the Commission’s personnel, but naturally gossip attributes it to his personal feud with Sir John Simon. It would have been a gracious act, however, to have buried the old hatchet on such an occasion, and given his lieutenant a valedictory blessing. The intolerant demonstration against the Commission by Mr Ramsay MacDonald’s “Red” squad afforded i striking example of deplorable ignorance. These “Red” M.P.’s would, if they could, enforce a bag-aud-bag-gage policy in India, dear out all the British officials, and leave “ India to the Indians.” Their simple philosophy regards their own street corner catch-cries as panaceas of universal application, and they cannot envisage for a moment either the probable catastrophe such a policy would mean to “India and the Indians,” _or the certain disaster to the industrial proletariat of this _ country. Similar foolishness was" voiced by some Radical MJVs soon after the late Lord Morley went to the House of Lords as Indian secretary. The peers, led by Lord Lansdowne, severely heckled Lord Morley, “My lords,” was all Lord Morley said, “democracy hath its simpletons—no less renowned than aristocracy.” ORDNANCE COMMITTEE VRESIDENT. ’Among those who will read with interest of the appointment of a new president of the Ordnance Committee at Woolwich from January 2 next is the Prince of Wales. The officer chosen for this responsible post is Rear-Admiral E. W. Wohley Hope, who was the Prince's captain in the Repulse during the four to 'West and Booth Africa "and South America in 1925. A soldier, Major-General R. RXirwan, was the last president of the committee, which is concerned with ordnance for all three services, and in accordance with the usual routine it will be hold for the next term by a : naval officer. Rear-Admiral Hope is ’the son and grandson of admirals,_ and ’the sea tradition may thus be said to 1 have been bora in him. His father died as admiral superintendent of Devonport Dockyard when the new president was only two years old. Specialising in gunnery in 1901, RearAdmiral Hope did so well that he was kept on experimental duties at the Gunnery School from 1905 to 1909. In 1911 he was commander of Lord Jcllicoe’s flagship at the Coronation Review. During the war ho served in the Intelligence Department until he took command of the cruiser Dartmouth in the Mediterranean and Adriatic. His turn for promotion to flag rank came in July, 192 G.

POISONED DUST BY AEROPLANE.

During this year the Canadian Government has, J understand, been experimenting with the use of poisoned •dust, distributed over forest areas by aeroplane, to put down dreaded spruce bud-wonji. Reports Irom forest areas in Nova Scotia state that many caterpillars ,wcrc killed bv the dust. The insecticides employed wore calcium arsenate and lead arsenate in the form of a very fine powder, which •was distributed during the flight by means of a hopper in the forwaid compartment of the ’plane, and swept back in dense volumes by the wind ot the propeller This covers the foliage for 50ft on either side of the ’plane s flight, the height kept by the ’plane being about 20ft to 30ft above the treetops. An acre of forest is* co\eicd each three seconds. In the Southern States of America a similar treatment was attempted to kill the insects on the cotton plants. EVEN WOAD!

Political economists, in their interminable controversies over export and import fallacies, must derive fresh impetus from Dr Rendel Harris s discoveries. ft seems that even the medium for that blue dye which was worn bv all fashionable ancient Britons, as ‘by the Shavian Osar’s inimitable private secretary, was not an indigenous growth, but first _ imported to this country by Egyptians. Thus the English habit of taking our sartorial clue from abroad _ is established as dating far hack into the mists of history. It is news to me that wood is still though by only one known grower in England, his only rival and neighbor having this year gone out of the business. It is interesting to find that the etymological origin of ‘‘woad, a puzzle even to the new Oxford tuctionary, is probably 1 "'ad, because woad was made up into balls o. wads for commerce. And the _ wadsman’s trade is perpetrated m innumerable ancient English place names, including not only Wadham College, but historic Glastonbury. KIPLING PRICES. The prices which are now being paid for early editions of Mr Kipling’s works must make some mouths water. Many years ago I knew a compositor in a provincial newspaper office who used to carry copies of the Indian railway edition in his pocket and during his supper hour put them up against his “case for convenient reading while lie ate his meal. These paperbacks made the daily journey till they became too dogeared and ink-stained for further use. Having cost only a _ few pence, they wer© regarded by their owner as of no monetary value, though he was a keen and early appreciator of their literary interest. No wthey fetch anything from £2O to £3O each. A BOOM. Not only much welcome employment for British shipyards, but a boom in Imperial commerce is likely to attend the Canadian Pacific Company’s present developments. This famous concern is building ten new ocean steamers, five biff passenger boats, and five refngeiator steamers. The former will augment the regular transatlantic service between this country and the dominion, and will be classified as “ The Duchess type. The vessel launched this week by the Duchess of Atholl is one of them. The smaller refrigerator boats are tor trade work between Canada and Lonand will carry mainly dairy pro-

dues and foodstuffs. Altogether, the ten vessels ot this fleet represent an outlay of quite £5,000,000, and will all be built in British shipyards. From all quarters comes evidence that our great Western Dominion is entering on a new boom period that may go far towards assisting complete post-war recovery by the whole Empire. OLD TIMES. Dartmoor Prison has interesting historic associations. Originally built to accommodate prisoners of war—both French and American—the site was chosen on thedonely moors as being the most convenient for ships beating up Channel, Plymouth then being the first port of call. At Princetown Prison many of these men died, and were buried in a field adjoining the small churchyard of the parish church. This has been reverently kept, and monuments have been erected to their memory. Shortly after King Edward came to the throne the parish church was beautified and restored, and American contributions made possible a very fine west window in memory of the longdead American prisoners of Avar. In the prison itself the'chapel is a fine one, owing much of its beauty to the work of the prisoners themselves. The walls are covered with the work of a leading artist, himself a prisoner there for a long term of years, and are a fine example of artistic merit. An Anglican clergyman who did temporary duty at the great prison on the moors tells me that the prison itself, though built over 100 years ago, is a fine building, and that the men incarcerated there—save for the climate—get as good a time as those in any other prison. There was a time, some twenty years ago, when a succession of escapes from parties working outsidedue to sudden fogs sweeping oyer the moors—caused a considerable stir. Yet not a single convict who escaped remained uncaptured. The precautions taken on a wide area around the moors gave little hope to any refugee. On one occasion—the very first when a theatrical party visited a prison—there was a serious riot among some of the worst convicts, who were denied access to the show, in which two warders were most seriously injured. These prisoners wore the special uniform in which yellow played a conspicuous part, as the mark of the worst typo of mein And, very strangely, every one of this band of desperate characters wore spectacles. NOISE WRECKS. Professor Henry J. Spooner, the authority on industrial fatigue, who has devoted himsolt to the study of noise, is so concerned about the pandemonium which reigns in most- of the big cities to-day that he declares that we are becoming a world of nervous wrecks. “I claim,” he says, “that GO per cent, of the traffic noises could be eliminated. The clanging, rumbling, screeching tramcars are the worst offenders. They must ruin hundreds of people’s nerves. Too much noise is made by hooters and by the grinding of gears. Ramshackle vehicles ought not to be allowed by law. This question of noise as the insidious cause of shattered nerves will have to he seriously dealt with. If people only knew how" health is mined and life shortened by the din which makes a hell of all the larger cities to-day they would be astonished, as 1 am, that no country has yet taken up seriously this vital problem. Designers of machinery must devote their attention to better balance in order that many of the industrial noises which .now make thousands of nervous wrecks every year may bo remedied.” THE NEW CHESS CHAMPION. Those who remember Alekhine’s play during the London tournament of some years ago, and have followed his performances since, will be neither surprised nor grieved to hear that he is on the point of wresting the world’s chess championship from Sc nor Cupablanca. The latter lias held it for over ton years, having ousted the German, Dr Lasker. Alekhine is a Russian by birth, but lias recently become naturalised as a Frenchman. Ho is. besides, qualifying for the Bar. a wise step, since there i.s no branch of professionalism in which the rewards arc so few or so small as in chess. 1 believe the .Buenos Aires Club i.s heartily relieved at the prospective end of the match, for it had been paying the players £2 a day each for expenses, and in view of the caution shown on both sides the play was too dull to be worth tiro money. Alekhine is shy-mannered, a striking contrast to the self-confidence of his Cuban rival. It is not surprising that after the mental strain he has undergone lie stipulates for at least a year’s interval before lie has to contend again for the championship. POST-WAR FRUIT. Already the stimulating activities of our Overseas Trade Department are being justified by results in the case of onr mandated territory in Palestine. A cargo of 5,000,000 Jaffa oranges has just reached this country from the Holy Land, and is the first big consignment of the season to arrive here. So, indirectly, the much-abused Versailles Treaty, and the decisions of the now almost forgotten Big Four, will play their festive part in onr Christmas celebrations. And there is a far more important and interesting aspect of these Palestine developments than any chance connection with Santa Clans and our { Yuletide dessert The restrictions im- ) posed by Spain on British coal imports have been, if not serious, at least hampering. ft may well be that the authorities in Madrid, in the light of increasing competition from Palestine with the Spanish fruit trade, will decide to reconsider their light-hearted embargo against our staple product.