LONDON TOPICS

Evening Star, Issue 20089, 1 February 1929, Page 5

LONDON TOPICS

! TRADE INSURANCES DURING | KING’S ILLNESS { , MY MILLIONS WITH LLOYD'S [From Our Correspondent.] December ID. The Prince of-Wales spent sometime at Buckingham Palace yesterday, and described his African tour in detail to the Queen, which was not possible during the few moments they spent together on his arrival in London last night. Though 11.R.H is bronzed with the African sunshine, he not unnaturally shows traces of fatigue as well as the strain of anxiety. To make ■such a record rush over 5,000 miles of laud and ocean, performing in nine days what normally takes over three weeks, is no small physical task, particularly in such circumstances as the Prince’s journey was made, with a constant haggard anxiety on his mind. The return from equatorial sunshine •to Loudon’s damp chill, moreover, is a big test on top of such a travel hustle. The mere fact of the King’s 'illness, quite apart from any graver possibilities, is inevitably causing not onlygreat anxiety, but immense actual loss, in many business directions. The only practicable way of meeting this sitnationjs by insuring the King’s life with Lloyd’s, and there has been a prodigious volume of such business during the last two or three weeks. 1 am told the premiums demanded by the insurers have varied, at different moments, from .‘ID or -10 per cent, to 75 per cent. At the present instant it stands at about GO per cent. Yet even at these high premiums the insurances effected have totalled a great many millions sterling in the case of London shopkeepers’ risks alone.

THE ACID TEST. Whatever the results of the Government's wider franchise measure, it is (joint; to liven up the General Election. Already the feminists have organised their forces to an extent which will surprise a good many rather complacent male candidates, and introduce one or two .novel but crucial questions. One of these will be raised under the regis of .the Equal Citizenship Society, buttressed by other women’s associations now engaged in preparing a monster petition to the House of Commons. This question is the complex one of equal pnv for both sexes, with particular reference to the Civil 'Service. Deeper thinking and a larger vision have greatly modified the first hostility on the masculine side, and it is probable that equal payment tor equal service may become an agreed slogan. The ladies demand it as a matter of logic and sex amour propre. Men arc disposed to welcome it as a drastic test of equal sex capacity under equal economic conditions. WALKING THE PLANK. Those who know something of the inner working of the I.L.P. arc disposed to regard the present revolt against Mr Maxtou’s leadership as more precautionary than sincere. In other words, the choice and master spirits of that Socialist society, which was one of the first to he permeated hy the astute Hod disciples of Moscow Communism, are not so much out of agreement with Mr Maxton’s views_ as dubious about the sagacity of avowing them quite so blatantly just at this moment. With a General Election in the air, wily revolutionaries prefer to keep the foot on the soft pedal. _ But Mr Maxton, to do jiim justice, is at least honest, and his convictions are too fanatical to be bridled by oxpedi.lt is doubtful whethei the 1.1;'.P. cuts much ice nowadays, but Llie fact remains that, while its views have always been tar more extreme than the orthodox Labour Party’s, its members practically .manned the one and only Labour Ministry of Mr MacDonald. HERR STRESEMANN, Some curiosity has been aroused as to the locale of this week’s meetings of the League of Nations representatives. People arc asking why the international statesmen have deserted Geneva for .Lugano. I lie explanation is an entirely personal one, and concerns Germany’s distinguished spokesman exclusively. Herr "tresemann is unfortunately in very poor health, as might plainly be inferred by those who saw him at close quarters even so long ami as the signing ol the Locarno Pact at tho Foreign Office in Downing street. Herr .Stresemami’s complaint is an aggravated kidney trouble, and, as anything in the nature of a severe dull mi'dit he fatal to him, his colleagues of the League of Nations expressly decided upon' Lugano instead of Geneva owing to the milder wintei climate. 'This is a remarkable tribute to the real esteem in which tho Allied statesmen have come to hold their. German confrere. CHANNEL TUNNEL INSISTENCE. The Channel tunnel project is as insistent as King Charles’s head. No matter how emphatically it is turned down by our groat military and naval experts, the commercial interests behind it keep returning to the attack. It was Lord Roberts who gave it its last eoiij) de grace, hut the present scheme, involving a direct broad-gauge railway from London to Pans through a fortv-milc Channel tube, and a sum of uearlv £‘200,000,000 is being quite confidently backed. The argument is that the war has changed the whole situation, that we arc firm friends nitli France, and that air developments have killed the inviolate sea principle. Ihc latter is a contention that cuts both wavs, but, apart from that, Ebeticvo the Committee of Defence will be more strongly hostile to the project than e '']’he objections olfcrcd by our loading strategists are not to be laughed aside. They say that since tno future is m the air literally there is the less reason for embarking on a costly Channel tunnel scheme that may be scrapped within less than a generation. Our present friendship with Franco is cheerfully admitted, but history repeats itself, and a famous French commander called Napoleon on do seriously prepared to land on our shores. At this epoch Franco lias an overwhelming army and an air equipment’ that is still more overwhelming. Suppose a Channel tunnel in being and trouble with Franco, ft would be easier than ever before for French’ air squadrons, by a surprise raid on the tunnel entrance this side, to hold that point d’appni until adequate French forces arrived by rail. It would need only half an hour to rush the advance divisions of an invading army through. The Imperial Committee of Defence will never sanction it. TWO HUNDRED YARDS A SECOND The'Air Ministry has set its heart on winning tho world’s air speed record and retaining the Schneider Cup in next summer’s international contest over Southampton Water, but its officials face the facts. In their view tiie existing engine and chassis of ajar seaplanes have now touched the extreme limit ol safe high-speed development. Not only

must the horse-power ol the engine be much increased, together with such modifications ol engine construction as that further strain may necessitate, but it must be harnessed to a remodelled chassis if the six miles a minute limit is to bo exceeded. All sorts ol (puto unforeseen difficulties and problems arise when a human pilot has to contend with a velocity equal to ‘2ooyds a second. Much valuable inlonnation on t.bi.s bead was acquired during the latest Southampton Water tests, and makers are now at work - designing the record-breaking seaplane. LUCK OF THE NAVY. The announcement that the cruiser Melbourne has been sold for breaking up on tbo Clyde for £25,000— which sum was erroneously reported as £2,500 and even £25 in’ some newspapers—is an interesting sequel to a decision taken on the bridge of that ship early on the morning of November y, 19TI. The Melbourne and the Sydney were then escorting Australian transports to Huropo, wli*m they intercepted strange wireless calls which led to the discovery that the Linden was attacking Cocos island. Captain Mortimer Silver, in the Melbourne, senior officer of the. convoy, increased speed at once, and turned towards tho island. Then lie remembered bis responsibility for the safety of the troops, and sirnailed the Sydney (Captain John Closisop) to proceed to Cocos at lull speed. The Knulen was lound and dcstioycd. Captain Glossop was decorated, and when last year tho Sydney was paid oft it was decided to preserve her in Sydney Harbour Captain Silver’s chivalrous action passed almost unnoticed, though it was a line example of devotion to duty. The Melbourne is now on Iter wa to tho breakers’ yard. She did good work all through the war. but was never so famous as the Sydney, though the. honours of the latter might have been hers lor the taking. BRIGHT UNDERGROUND. The new Piccadilly tube station cost just over half a million, and can cope with fifty million nassenws a ,v»nr. Wonderful shoo windows lit h v dimzb-ur electricity surround the sides of tho station, and as you take your ticket and prepare to board the escalator von will catch glimpses of gorgeous gowns, shimmering gartered hose, and other allurements. Tho Mayor ol Westminster, who “’opened ” tho new station this week, is a tall, handsome man of the type the novelist calls “ soldierly.” He is a chartered surveyor, educated at .-Marlborough and Lausanne, served with the Northumberland Fusiliers in the war. af+«d as staff, canto in. and with' tlrn Ulster !)rvi=mn +| lo D. 5.0., M.C., and ‘Croix de Guerre.