LONDON TOPICS

Evening Star, Issue 21099, 11 May 1932, Page 5

LONDON TOPICS

A GOLD DUEL [From Our Correspondent.] / March 21. The Treasury as well as the city suspects something more than spasmodic private speculation behind recent manifestations by the pound sterling. Elaborately and influentially concerted action is plainly indicated. If this is correct, as it almost certainly is, \vc may see a dramatic duel of finance over the gold standard. Most nations are now, like ourselves, off gold. Unless gold remains, however, tho international currency symbol those huge reserves in tho French and American coffers, totalling something like fifteen hundred millions in British pounds, will bo worth no more than their purely metallic value, it is therefore urgently the interest of gold hoarders to force us back on the gold standard, and to contrive everything possible to make our existing detachment awkward. It is probable special legislation will shortly be passed by Parliament to facilitate checkmating such manoeuvres. It may be yet a little premature to shout about tariffs not having raised prices. London newspapers run by whole-hogger Protectionists are enthusing over this fact, but sensible folk realise that a tariff must inevitably mean at least slightly higher cost to the consumer in most cases. That might quite conceivably be far more than onset by increased employment and nr ol '® trade, particularly if the politicians had tho courage and wisdom to insist on drastic cuts in national expenditure at the same time. Wo. have not had time vet to feel the real effects of a tariff. But the mystery of the stable price level after the slump in sterling still remains. It is probably due to the exorbitant margin of retail profit after the war. I hear the Food Council is alertly watching for any symptoms ot profiteering, but so far has found no genuine case.

L.G. AND WAR FINANCE. My impression is that when lie takes to the pen Mr Lloyd George weakens his renown. He lacks that literary gilt that Mr Churchill and ao many political contemporaries possess. He never rises above bright journalism. Ihe gist of his book on reparations and war debts is that it was a mistake to audit the accounts of the Great War i'rench commercial hegemony has robbed ueimany of all capacity to pay monstrously exaggerated reparations, and American insistence on Allied war debts has kdjod the European goose that laid golden American trade eggs. But this, attci all is merely the casual philosophy or the man on the bus. L.G. can he brutally frank, though. Mr Mellon and Mr Baldwin, discussing war debts, ho likens to a weasel and its quarry.

MERCHANT SERVICE CONDITIONS The Officers’ Federation of the Merchant Sea Service is getting up a petition amongst its members for a public inquiry into their pay and conditions of employment. Some 12,000 sea-going officers belong to this organisation, and already over 8,000 have signed the demand. Merchant officers have many o-rievanccs besides very poor remuneration and verv arduous duties in and out of port.- One complaint they advance is that they are not properly represented on the National Maritime Board, which has considerable say m tlie conditions of the merchant service. Hio federation wants to get closer touch between its members, who man the bridge-deck of our steamers, and shipowners generally. It is hoped that, as a result of the present move, some organisation may be established on winch owners and officers are jointly represented. TH£ MUGS. .

Sophisticated Irish people take a decidedly cynical view of Dublin’s sweepstakes, They regard it as a hoaven'sent device for levying tribute on England. When the London newspapers talk about London’s amazing luck in the draw, level-headed Hibernians snide scraphically. They know that, with mathematical precision, the luck or the draw averages itself out so that most prizes go where most money is put up. If England gets the lion’s share of the prize money that merely means that England finds also the lion’s share of the camouflaged tribute. An educated Irishman, who bears a famous name, said to me: “I have never spent a penny on the Dublin sweep. I am content that England has now practically undertaken the upkeep of our hospitals.” SANG FROIDI

A former Secret Service officer, who has been writing bis war reminiscences, claims that tmr Intelligence was the best of the lot. I have heard that asserted before, by people whose words commanded respect, but I always doubted it. Wo had a certain pull no doubt by reason of our foreign trade ramifications, but our traditional weakness as linguists must have been a handicap. Very few of our people tally a foreign language really like the natives. This ex-Sccret Service man tells one story that seems almost incredible. He says that on one ocacsion during the war German officers landed from ft U boat on the coast of Devon, and. before returning to their lurking craft, actually dined at a West Country hotel. If that is true, it must rank as the cold-blooded thrill of the war. . , One is prepared to believe, however,, that the Admiralty’s Intelligence work may have been better than the Army’s. The latter made most elaborate preparations for the Third Battle of Ypres, including minute mapping of the terrain across which Lord Plumer’s Second Armv had to advance. I wont over the top "with a kilted battalion, and amongst the assorted impedimenta carried by some of tho sturdy Jocks were two or three huge pontoons. These were to enable the troops to got across the Zillibckc Diver without difficulty or delay. Porting pontoons in No Man’s Land under artillery and machine gun fire is no joke. I can still hear the language those stalwart Jocks used, as they dumped the pontoons and stepped across the tiny rivulet dignified by the name of Zillibeke. NEXT ARMY TATTOO.

Plans aro already complete and preparations in hand for this year’s Aidershot tattoo —perhaps the most wonderful open-air spectacle in the world. The downfall of the Socialist Ministry must have made tilings much simpler tor the tattoo organisers. Because the late Cabinet, with its pacifist 11 tail ” always wagging belligerently, had to in sist that there should be no attempt to restage famous battle history, unless the date was nearer n.c. than A.D., so as to avoid the iaintest offence to foreign amour propre. What this year’s tattoo will give us, beyond tho installation of the first infant Prince of Wales and the Battle of Inkcrman, is still an official secret. But Jnkcrnmu should afford good scope for cfiective display. It was u a soldiers battle. TWELVE HUNDRED MILES. This year’s air race for tbq King’s trophy will take place early in July., It will cover a course of 1,200 miles, of which 750 will be flown on the first

day and the balance on the second. London will be the starting post and the finishing post as well. Entrants must be of British nationality, lly an all-British machine, and bo genuine individual competitors, not representatives of companies or syndicates. They must also have flown solo at least 100 linurs. The second day’s racing will bo the more exciting. It will bo confined to the fifty competitors who on the first day achieved the best handicap times. 7’he others will drop out of the contest. A bigger entry than ever before is practically assured.