LONDON TOPICS

Evening Star, Issue 19779, 1 February 1928, Page 11

LONDON TOPICS

CUR BACHELOR FRINGE

[Fkou Cue Coseesi’ondbnt.J

THE DUCHESS’S HUSBAND

How tragically true is. that jejune axiom “Time flies!” It is still the settled Fleet street cliche to call King George’s sons “the young Princes,” and hero is the Duke of York, the only one who is not a bachelor, but still not the eldest, actually celebrating this week his thirty-second birthday. Even courtiers who have Victorian memories must reluctantly admit now that some, at all events, of the younger members of the Royal Family are beginning to get middle-aged. The Duke has seen a lot of the world, “ its cities, councils, governments,” even for a prince of thirty-two, and it is no reflection on his own personality if he .is known as “the Duchess’s husLandi” This is, as the theatre, the cinema, and the bookstall show, not to mention Imperial Parliament itself, a feminine, if not a feminist, age. And it is the charming Duchess, who smiles so prettily and dresses so smartly, that most fascinates the interest of womenfolk. The Duke’s birthday, too, is a reminder that his elder brother, our debonair bachelor Prince of Wales, is gaily approaching the forties. A handsome and popular Heir-Apparent, who maintains his firm celibacy at middle age, is unprecedented in history. Yet H.R.H. may answer all critics, even the most romantic feminine ones, by quoting an illustrious predecessor, who sleeps in his own Abbey Chapel below his puissant lance, and perhaps, next to Richard Coeurdo Lion, is the most dramatic figure in all the gallery of English Kings. Prince Hal was only twenty-five when he came to his father’s throne, but he was a confirmed bachelor, though no woman-hater, and soldiering, ■ rather than lovemaking, engrossed his mind even after he became King. It was seven years after his accession that, as part of the Treaty of Troyes, after immortal Agincourt, ho married the French Princess Kate, founder of the Tudor Dynasty. But even then King Henry V. was only thirty-four. So H.R.H. has little time to spare. 500 YEARS BEFORE.

And, talking of King Hal and glorious Agincourt, where a war-worn 15,000 English vanquished 100,000 French, including the flower of Gallic chivalry, how strangely history repeats itself. Ex-servicemen of the Groat War, if they turn up their old school primers, will find queerly familiar names even in the brief pages of Collier’s School History. King Hal was marching from Havfieur to Calais when he found the French barring his path at the little village of Agincourt. His march had been delayed by finding the bridges of the Somme destroyed and the fords defended by sharp stakes. But after some days of reconnoitring an unguarded spot was discovered at St. Quentin. How familiar those names sound nowadays—exactly 500 years later. And the historical parallel is strengthened by the military facts. Just as the British Army’s forte was rapid musketry, so King Hal’s amazing victory was due to the deadly rapidity of the fifteenth century English archers. CANTON. Canton, the scene of the latest Red outburst, is the greatest city in China. Tens of thousands of its inhabitants live in their boats on the, river, drink its waters, foul as they are, and never seem to suffer thereby. In the native city itself the streets are narrow, and the congested nature of the dwellings is such that any fire, covering even a 'small area, necessarily affects the safety of thousands of inhabitants. The southern Chinaman is a, different person entirely from the northern. If a southern Chinaman wore to see snow or frost he would be terrified to death. Although the “coolie” is a hard-work-ing man, many of the toughest characters in China are to be found in the hack streets of Canton. If a European were to wander off into that part of the city given up to their habitat it is more than probable that he would never be seen again. Canton is comparatively close to Hongkong, and a great deal of commercial business takes place between the two cities. TYPICAL CANARD.

Over a year ago a report was published across the Atlantic about the British Navy having got round the Washington Naval Pact by most artfully, without exceeding the stipulated number of capital ships in the fleet, increasing the elevation of their gun turrets. Though the story was denied, it was accepted as true in America, and the American navy forthwith increased its gun power by just the system mendaciously attributed to the British Admiralty. It has now been stated, by a responsible American statesman, that the canard, which added materially to the American public opinion that frustrated all attempts to roach further disarmament agreement at Geneva, had no weightier basis than some Englishman’s boast at a dinner party in Loudon. There are several morals to- this deplorable comedy, which has caused America to break the Washington Pact, and one is that service people should refrain from log-pulling on professional topics. Some silly junior officer has by his idle chatter done much mischief. A FINE SOLDIER. It is hard to believe that General Sir Arthur Holland is no more. I recall him when he was commanding the Ist Division in the salient at Loos. He had a wonderful eye for artillery work, and was always concentrated on the likely points of German gun positions. I remember his chagrin when the French authorities requested him not to smash the towers of Wingles as the Germans had smashed those of Loos. His commentary on American ammunition could scarcely have been given repetition at Washington. The “heavies” in the fosses in and around Loos which had to use the Yankee shells knew how much effect they had on the German trenches. Four out of five were “duds.” Sir Arthur was a debonair soldier, interested in all things, in everybody. He was always ready to give the junior officers credit for what they did; but, a soldier of the old school, he very seldom recommended any officers for honors, holding that it was the normal reqnircinent of the British Army that they should be both efficient and courageous. Men of Gloucester and South Wales, as well as of Scotland and the Midlands, served under him, and all will deeply regret his somewhat early death. WAR LOSSES COMMISSION.

After about twelve years’ work the War Losse.? Commission will dissolve itself to-morrow. It was appointed to determine the amount of compensation payable in respect of land, houses, or other property taken by the Government for war purposes, and to do so more cheaply than through the law courts. Its first chairman w.as Sir James Woodhousc, afterwards Lord Terrington, and Mr Edward Short and Lord Mcrrivalo have been associated with the committee. The only member who has sat from start to finish is Sir Matthew Wallace, a well-known Scottish farmer, who is famous in the cultivation of new varieties of potatoes. The Commission has distributed a good many millions of public money, but it lias refused a still larger sum, and it deserves well, of the community for a task quietly and efficiently done. LAW LORD’S ACCIDENT. Lord Shaw, of Dunfermline, I hear, had a narrow escape the other day in tiondon. Forgetting that the Haymarket is a one-way street, he had to jump back suddenly to avoid an approaching motor car. with the result that he slipped, fell all his length, and had bo roll out of the way of the car. But

he picked himself up, walked to his. club, and had his luncheon, none tho worse for his adventure. It is. one which most men of his age—he is ,in his seventy-eighth year—would find sen-, ous. But Lord Shaw is a sturdy veteran,' and carries on his work as one of. the judicial peers with a vigor, physical and mental, which many younger men might envy. Ho has a lively pen, winch finds scope occasionally in his judgments and also in a couple of reminiscent volumes which he has recently produced. OUR LOST COAL MARKET. If Britain can regain her Scandinavian coal market, which she has been losing owing to price cutting by Poland, who introduced her coal there during tho strike t last year, the. output in the Yorkshire coalfields will be increased by over 41,000,000 tons a year. Scandinavia is a natural coal market for Britain, and before the war this country sent nearly 10,000,000 tons a year to Norway, Sweden, and Demark. The market, in fact, was exclusively Britain’s. Now the exports to these three countries have fallen to 5,000,000 tons a year. ' Though Polish \oal for Scandinavia has to be carried 070 miles by rail to tho seaboard at Danzig, the railway rates are 2s a ton less than they are in Britain for the carriage of Yorkshire coal to tne Humber. The Polish miner, too, Is paid only a third of the wages that the British miner receives. The Polisii merchants,- however, have found that it is uneconomic to continue sending coal to Scandinavia at the ■ present price, and there are signs that they will evacuate tho market, which geographically belongs to this country. LORD IDDE3LEIGH. A notable maiden speech by Lord Idclesleigh in the House of Lords on tile Films Bill suggests that the young earl, who is still in the mid-twenties, inherits an ancestral Hair for politics. He is the grandson of the first carl, best known as Sir Stallord Northcote, a Devon worthy who, as a statesman of Victorian days, had grievous trouble with those brilliant parliamentary guerrillas known tho the Fourth Party, about whom. Mr Winston Churchill, m his life of his father, has much to say of admiring interest. His maternal grandfather was hardly loss famous in his time, being none other than the witty and pious Dean Farrar. His father’s career, after Eton and Balliol, was literary rather than political, and he was responsible for one or two novels that used to be well read. Politics is reviving in the third generation —like tho Biblical curse 1 GUNNER ORGANIST.

Mr Thomas Armstrong’s appointment as Exeter Cathedral organist in succession to Dr Bullock, who is coming to the Abbey, is a compliment to tho St. James’s Chapel Royal. Ho was one of the “ Children of the Chapel Royal Choir” from 1907 to 1913, when lie entered King’s School, Peterborough, and later became assistant organist at Peterborough Cathedral. 'Among his treasured possessions is an inscribed watch from Queen Alexandra, received by all the Chapel Royal children” who sang at the funeral of the late King Edward. During the war Air Armstrong served as an officer with the guns, but resumtd his musical work when demobbed, and was organist first at Manchester Cathedral and then at fashionable St. Peter’s Church, Eaton square. Exeter’s Cathedral authorities evidently believe in encouraging young talent. Dr Bullock .was only twenty-nine when he was appointed organist there, and Mr Armstrong is just that age now. PUBLICITY. It is hard for the ordinary person to imagine what it must be like to be a famous celebrity known to all tho world. The flattering tribute of universal recognition and general gaze must certainly have both its drawbacks and its embarrassments.. One may hazard a safe guess that the Prince of Wales, for example, sometimes sighs for inconspicuous mediocrity. J3ut others besides members of the Royal Family suffer from this perpetual publicity in all their daily movements. It elm need the other night that I was paying a second visit to that wonderful animal film, -‘Chang,’ on the occasion of Mr G. B. Shaw’s first visit. He was booking his seat at tho Polytechnic just in front of me, and, because outside his prefaces and platform talks “G. 8.5.” is one of the most modest mortals alive, it seemed to mo that ho was almost shy under tho consciousness. that everybody, from the lady booking clerk to the hall porters and all the cinema fans, was whispering “That’s Mr Shaw.” AERIAL REVIVAL. Our official air authorities arc hopeful that, British prowess having been vindicated at Venice in the contest for the Schneider Gup by a team of R.A.F. machines and pilots, the defence of that trophy may not be left entirely to the service. The Air Ministry would like to see private enterprise throwing itself with real enthusiasm into this competition, both in the matter of machines and pilots. But Liouienau Wcbser’s fine achievement has done more than bring the Schneider Cup to England. There is a marked revival in private activity so far as aerial affairs are concerned, and one result may be that wo shall have the King’s Cup raced next year on an adequate scale. Landings are now available for flying dubs, including those at Hull, Nottingham, Glasgow, and elsewhere in the North and South, which should make practicable a course right round Britain, which has not been flown for six years. A BISHOP’S TRAVELS. Dr Aland, the suffragan Bishop of Kensington, seems bent on. emulating his diocesan’s record as traveller, for when he and Airs Aland leave for South Africa in February . they will only be carrying cm the peripatetics of Dr Winningtou-lngram, now returned from a world tour. This will be the third visit which the bishop. has paid to the Union, for he is much interested in the Mission of Help, with which i believe his daughter, Miss Dorothy Maud, is actively concerned on- the spot, and he went out at first in 1902 as a pioneer. Four years later he went again,, and now, after, a Jong period, with the World War intervening, ho is going once more to see how the enterprise fares. The bishop is m great request in the West End of London as a preacher known for Ms vigor of utterance and strength of conviction, and is to bo heard at drawing room meetings, before he leaves, with the intention of enlisting sympathy in the work of tho mission, which has had distinguished support in tho past and is thriving steadily, in spite of upheavals; racial or otherwise. SWITCHING OVER.

Not u whisper Ims got into print so far of nn amusing episode connected with a visit paid, sometime before Parliament met again for the autumn session, by Sir William Joynson-Hicks to Weston-super-Mare. The local enthusiasts were determined to honor the Horne. Secretary fittingly, and .duly paraded with a brass band and Reception Committee to welcome him on his arrival at the.station. Unfortunately their wait ,vfas all in vain, so far as the illustrious' statesman Mars concerned. He did not materialise on the expected train, and presently word came that Sir William was motoring to the meeting place from the country house where he had been week-ending. But the local enthusiasts and the brass band were not to be beaten. It happened that the Waratah Rugger team were arriving in the town that evening for a match next day, and,' alertly switching over, the Horne Secretary’s brass band accorded the • astonished Aussies full honors.