LONDON TOPICS

Evening Star, Issue 20020, 10 November 1928, Page 11

LONDON TOPICS

[From Oub Correspondent.] September 27. SOCIALISTS SEEK SLOGAN. The Socialist Party is, I understand, racking its brains to find out a suitable slogan with which to captivate the electorates in the next General Election. Such a suitable slogan is evidently very hard to find. The country will rend in pieces any which promises higher taxation to suit peculiar needs of their own followers. What is required is some catch phrase that will appeal to the working classea-and admit of some kind of argument. So much ground in the realms of reform has been cut under foot by th ■ last Budget that the Socialist Party organisation is at a loss to decide on what particular lino of policy it can appeal to the public. I am told that it is now considering one which would give parents extra funds for their children’s upbringing; another to remedy at one fell stroke the problem of unemployment. But the Socialists cannot distinguish between Utopian ideals and practical politics, and until they can they will find a difficulty in arriving at a suitable slogan. UNIONIST DRIVE. While the Liberals are talking about making a national survey of the electorate, and getting into personal touch with every elector, including the five and a-half million new women voters, the Unionists have been quietly at work for the last three months. L have seen the details of the organisation, and it is rather startling in its thoroughness and ramifications. The whole country has been carefully mapped out, and in every constituency there are “ streetcaptains,” “ district captains,” and *' group captains.’’ Each canvasser is given a certain number of houses, of which she (the workers are generally women) has to collect the details, and where she has to deliver literature and talk persuasively. The information record.d is astonishing in its detail, and embraces every member of the house hold above nineteen. Already half the country has been covered in this way, and the reports are said to bo encouraging. The Socialists, by the way, are reported to be practically stationary in the industrial north, particularly in Northumberland and Durham. NO ENTENTE IN SIGHT.

Though talk of an approaching Lib-eral-Labour entente is becoming increasingly popular, 1 am assured by politicians who ought to know that it has no basis of hkelihood behind it. Mr Snowden’s somewhat casual invitation to the Liberals to co-operato is not considered even to be a straw which shows which way the wind is blowing. In the fust place, even granted that it is certain that the moderates will be able to rule the Labour roost, there is still a great deal in their platform that is fundamentally repugnant to Liberals. Then, Mr Snowdon, though an outstanding leader, is no better able than any other one of his colleagues to speak with authority for his party, which appears just now to be particularly truculent in its feelings towards Liberal candidates. Apparently the only common ground is the mutual desire to oust the Tories. As Labour thinks this can best be achieved through the retirement of Liberal candidates from the field, the possibilities of cooperation 'are remote. A RADICAL COAL MAGNATE. Mr F. A. Szarvasy’s speech at the meeting of Amalgamated Anthracite Collieries, Ltd., is being loudly acclaimed by Liberals as an unexpected acknowledgment of their industrial policv'Tor the coalfields. The speech is certainly deserving of the most widespread attention, for it not only offers the astonishing spectacle of a city magnate advocating the nationalisation of raining royalties, but it is also the official statement of policy advocated to a combine which owns more than three-quar-ters of the anthracite production of the country. Mr Szarvasy is convinced that great benefits would accrue to the industry by single ownership of mining royalties, as this would avoid the present conditions under which coal is produced and marketed at a loss, because such procedure is cheaper than shutting down the mines altogether. Ho does not advocate that the State should confiscate the royalties, but that it should buy them up at a reasonable price and then proceed to necessary reforms. It will be interesting to see how other coal owners respond to these radical suggestions. AYE. AYE. SIRI Mr Bridgeman has been as good as his word, and Captain Dewar, who with Commander Daniel was dismissed from his ship and severely reprimanded over the Admiral Collard incident on the Royal Oak has now been given another ship Ho is posted to command the battle cruiser Tiger, which helped Admiral Beatty in the Lion to sink the Bluchcr and straff two other German sea raiders in January, 1915, but is now gunnery ship at Portsmouth. This appointment, which certainly fulfils popular expectation, affords Captain Dewar ample time, before reaching the age limit, to qualify for Admiral’s rank. Of the two other main actors in the melodrama at Malta, Admiral Collard is now on the retired list, and Commander Daniel has left the Royal Navy for a city job. Only the marine bandmaster’s Lite is obscure. Captain Dewar, who belongs to a family of sailors, i» a great gunnery expert, so his Tiger post is -appropriate. Perhaps tiie grave Sea Lords had a quiet chuckle, when they made the appointment, over the fact that the Tiger was {.tarred in the epic naval film ‘Carry On.’ THE FRACTION ON MILK.

The great milk dispute has come to an end, and the public—after being peculiarly apathetic to the many rumours of war which it occasioned —is now saying that it has been “ much ado about nothing.” The farmers have given up a little of their demand, and the milk dealers—who feel they have been extraordinarily condescending—have agreed to pay nine-forty-eighths of a penny more per quart. As a matter of fact, they will only pay one-forty-eightb of a penny extra them selves, for the remaining eight-lorty-eighths are to be passed on to the public. Naturally no negotiations or round-table conferences have been carried on between the dealers and the consumers, so the latter will have to bear the brunt or give up milk. In

practice, I fancy, the public will have to pay a little more and the dealer will stand to make a profit. Eight-forty-eighths is, to say the least of it, a very vulgar fraction, so it will probably be called a farthing—or a halfpenny, THE DUCE’S SUCCESSOR. Nobody is greatly astonished to hear that Italy is to be ruled by a Secret Council, in fact, if any surprise at all is manifested it is on the score that the Duce has not adopted some such system long ago. That Mussolini has been content to hold the whole structure of Fascism in his own hands for so many years, is, of course, the greatest phoof of his unbounded assurance of his immunity from the many dangers that surround him. He is, of course, a confirmed believer in destiny, and much of his nonchalance in face of his would-be assassins has been due, 1 am told, to the absolute conviction that fate had appointed him to carry on this mission. He has . now decided that the time has come to deputise his task in case the Dictatorship becomes vacant “ by holiday or other eventualities.” Is the decision due to some intimation from the oracle that his houi is approaching? A MYSTERY ISLAND. Bouvet Island, that mystery spot of land in the Antarctic over which Britain and Norway have a difference of opinion, is again in the public eye. This time it is because the Norwegian authorities have decided to erect _on the island a wireless meteorological station for the benefit of South African and Australian farmers, and are now sending out a ship .with tho comnononts. Nobody really ’ knows anything about Bouvet Island, but both Norway and Britain respectively think it belongs to them._ Tbo_ Colonial Secretary, when questioned in Parliament this summer about the matter, seemed very sure that tho Union Jack had neen hoisted on Bouvet nearly a century ago, but ho admitted that he was not quite so certain whether the island existed at the present day, whether it is one, two, or three isles, or whether Thompson Island was a neighoour or the same place. When the wireless is installed, and-Bouvet becomes vocal, wo shall look to tho island to explain itself and settle tho controversy. MOTOR CARS FOE RUSSIA. The Soviet’s invitation to foreign concessionnaires is already reported to oo meeting with acceptance, and I hear that one of the largest motor manufacturing concerns in America is arranging to run a factory near Moscow. That Russia offers almost virgin territory to the motor car builder will be admitted by all who have been within her borders. The first thing that strikes a visitor to Leningrad or Moscow is the almost complete absence of motor traffic in the streets, the only cars belonging to the Commissars. In the country places—those far away on Volga’s shores or across the steppe—the motor car is still a thing of magic, to be stared at with dread. That, however, will probably remain the case for long to come, for Russia, excepting in the vicinitv of her towns, has no roads better than eoggy cart tracks, and the best time to travel is when everything is snowed under. ’ ' HUSH-HUSH MECHANISM. At a time when so much is heard about the disastrous effects of modern noise on human mentality it is queer that the silent typewriter should seem to hang fire. There are several good makes of silent machines now on the market, but typists appear not. to take kindly to them, so habituated are they to the clatter of keys, and employers make no great demand to have them adopted in their offices. A device for working typewriter keys by electricity is the latest contribution to this movement, and its comparatively noiseless working, duo to tho slight pressure required, may help to silence tho wheels of indoor commerce and literary work. In America the silent typewriter is making better headway. The use of any other sort of machine on U.S. railway trains is prohibited.