LONDON TOPICS

Evening Star, Issue 20958, 24 November 1931, Page 17

LONDON TOPICS

PMHU.EH FOR MIDAS [From Odk Correspondent.] October 1. What will happen, if, ns seems more than probable, all the countries in the world, except perhaps France and America, forsake the gold standard? This is a question on which a mere journalist must venture delicately, but 1 have heard it briskly discussed by city people who do understand something about it. If gold ceases to be the currency standard of tho world, what will it be worth? Will the huge stores accumulated by Franc© and America become merely museum mineral specimens valuable only as ornaments? The Macedonian . succinctly 7 told the Eastern King, who showed him his gold store, that it would bo worth nothing if there came one with hotter steel. Will the same apply to French and American gold, if there come traders with better goods? LOOKING BACKWARDS. Mr Buckle’s latest volume of Queen Victoria’s letters, published this .week, is a staggering reminder of half a century’s metamorphosis. We had unemployment troubles fifty years ago, but after an interview with the Home Secretary the old Queen records with satisfaction that there are “ 30L) fewer paupers in London.” No less significant is the change in tho Royal attitude to politics and statesmen. Lord Salisbury alone exhibited no terror of Her Majesty, who really led Mr Gladstone a dog’s life, never disguising her distrust and dislike oi him and his policy. She vetoed a passage in her Speech to Parliament which referred to the Home Rule Bill as a measure for the “ bettor ” government of Ireland! Never was there such a stickler for Constitutional etiquette, and woo to the Minister who infringed it. In tho old Queen’s letters King Edward is always “Bertie” and the Kaiser “ dear Willie.” Tho latter’s tone to his grandmamma was servile. He was overjoyed when she made him a British colonel—“one of the famous, thin red line.” Despite her antipathy for the G.0.M., the Queen liked Mrs Gladstone, recording her approval much as a society dame might l of an exemplary charwoman. Owing to rheumatics, the Queen walked with a stick. The Sultan of Zanzibar wanted to make her a birthday present of a special one, on which Colonel Feildiug, to whom the suggestion was made, wrote that, though tho Queen probably would not accept a highly-jewelled one, she might accept just a useful stick, perhaps with her initials in diamonds I The old Queen succinctly waived any restrictions. LORD BYNG. Police opinion was hostile to Lord Byng when he was put in charge at “ the Yard.” He leaves it with the respect and goodwill of most men in tho force. Handicapped by bad health and subordinate jealousy, he carried through an unpleasant task with courage and fairness. A growing canker of police graft had been largely, if not entirely, removed. Lord Byng saw service in the Soudan and on the Veldt before winning renown at Vimy and gaining promotion as full general _ at Cambrai, where the tanks were first used with any real effect. One nasty night in Franco I was witness to a little episode that was very characteristic of Lord Byng. The Third Army commander had the habit of going about just behind the line almost incognito, with an old mackintosh covering his general’s badges. At a rather hot corner, whilst the Gormans were shplling, he saw a windy transport sergeant kick a frightened horse. Lord Byng stepped np ? silenced the n.c.o.’s indignant profanity by revealing his rank, and gave the man a fine object lesson. First comforting and patting tho restive horse, with all the skill of an old cavalryman, he quietly led it where the sergeant wanted it to go. “Now, carry on, sergeant,” was his crisp injunction. AUSTRALIAN AUTHORS. Australia as a literary nation is occupying the exhibition hall in Australia House this week with a display of 2,500 books, and Sir Gilbert Parker assisted Messrs J. C. Squire and A. P. Herbert at the formal opening. Considering that tho undertaking has been carried out at a distance of 12,000 miles from tho headquarters of tho Literature Society of Australia, the organisers, the British people will be impressed at the resources drawn from. This is the first exhibition of its kind held in London, and is representative to include prose and verse inspired by the war. Historic samples are George Barrington’s ‘ Voyage to New South Wales,’ in, two volumes, dated 1803, and a translation of the Bible begun in 1833 and not finished until 1846, when the tribe concerned was extinct. Adam Lindsay Gordon, tho ill-starred poet of bush and racing fame, and Mary Gaunt, the intrepid woman who went alone to West Africa and was treated as a deity on account of her fair hair, are also contributors. ■ SELLING BANANAS. A famous advertising agent who lunched on the Baltic Exchange yesterday, discussed salesmanship. According to this export, a young man often makes a better salesman than the older man, though tho latter is able to hold a connection together better. He said one of the ablest exhibitions of salesmanship he had seen recently was given by a man of about twenty-three selling cheap bananas in a country market from tho back of the motor lorry. He invited six very small children to stand on the tailboard, gave them each a banana, and offered a prize of another banana to tho quickest eater. While they tucked in ho invited the spectators to note their faces and then take bananas home to their own children. Ho collected an enormous crowd and was taking £4 an Four in sums of about a shilling each. DOYEN OF ENGINES. Tho oldest railway still in sen - ice, certainly in this country and probably in the world, will retire in three years’ time. This venerable doyen amongst locomotives is called the Ryde, and runs between Brading and B&nbridge on tho Southern Railway’s Isle of Wight extension. Built in 1841, and numbered IS, the Ryde looks almost as archaic as the Rocket, and has been more photographed by visitors from ail over the world than any Hollywood film star. Despite - its ago number 13 is

still quite efficient. It can still put a load of 40 trucks, .equivalent _ to 400 tons, up a trying gradient against the best of the young engines. In an engine nearly a hundred years old, which has worked all its life, this is a big tribute to British workmanship. Ultimately the Hyde will bo sent to London on permanent exhibit. HOMING PIGEONS. The fall in sterling is a real tragedy for English people who are voluntary exiles abroad. Since the war thousands of families with slender fixed incomes—-half-pay officers and retired business men—have flocked abroad to escape alike the weather and the cost of living at homo. Whole colonies of them have settled along the French and Italian Riviera, in Corsica, and other quiet Mediterranean spots. With the shrinkcases their only course will be to pack gees are in desperate straits. In most age of the pound these financial refuup and return home. Many pleasant little Continental villas will now be closed down, and perhaps we shall see fewer house agents’ boards in- Bayswator and West Kensington. ADEAU TO BLIGHTY. Times have changed with a vengeance. I recall when the departure of a troop train from Waterloo was a poignant drama. One day last week I saw elate young-soldiers, whose tropical khaki and sun helmets contrasted oddly with city people in heavy coats and returning seasiders shivering _ in holiday flannels, entraining lor foreign service in the East. They were as glad to be leaving Blighty as the old B.E.F. warriors were to get back to it. There was no disaffection in the Army ranks. After smartly handling the regimental baggage, Gay Gordons ,and shm Hussars nursed innumerable small babies, but smiling broadly all the time, I noticed more than one city man square his shoulders and gaze enviously at the lucky youngsters who are getting-away from an English winter and a currency crisis. PLAYING THE GAME. Mr E. H. D.'Sewell, the well-known sporting journalist, has written a most useful and very readable book on ‘ Rugby Football To-day.” It contains amongst other things an interesting chapter by Mr R. P. B. Davis, K. 0., of Cape Town, on our present Springbok visitors, and another, by Mr Sewell himself, on how to beat them. That is a tough problem in the case of a side, as completely together as a club team, whose backs are fast, dodgy, and adventurous, and whose forward pack averages well over 6ft and 14 stone. It is tragic to note, from the lists of past international and ’Varsity sides printed at the end of the volume, how many of our best Rugger men fell in the war. Of the England and- Scotland sides that played in the Calcutta Cup game in 1914, eleven of the thirty were killed. Of the Scottish side against Wales in 1913, ten out of fifteen fell. Rugger is a man’s game. BRIDGE REVISIONS. We are threatened with another revision of auction and contract bridge rules in the New Year. It is a pity the Portland Club did not adout the sug-

jgestion made by my friend, Mr J. J. Brebner, when first contract was officially recognised, and model their rules, not on the American lines, but on the original contract game as first played in Europe. It is far simpler and quite’as sporting, and has none of the' American incitements to freak bidding. “Vulnerability” is the one commendable Yankee innovation. One writer urges a drastic change. He wants dummy’s hand to ho exposed before the initial lead. That, in my judgment, would be a fatal error, heavily handicapping the brisk bidding .which is the main object of contract.