LONDON TOPICS

Evening Star, Issue 21499, 25 August 1933, Page 10

LONDON TOPICS

FUTURE PREMIERS [From Our Correspondent.] July 20. Mr Walter Elliot’s persuasive defence of his administration of the Ministry of Agriculture reminds me of an interesting discussion 1 heard the other evening in a gathering of Parliamentarians. The subject of their speculation was who, among the younger politicians of the present day, is most likely to be a future Prime Minister. Mr Elliot’s name was bracketed with that of Mr Oliver Stanley, who has greatly enhanced his reputation by his handling of the Road and Rail Bill. Both have brains, industry, and popularity with their colleagues. Health may have an important influence on their future, arid in that respect the odds seem in favour of Major Stanley. _ Among the backbenchers the favourite was Mr W. S. Morrison, the tall and good-looking young Hebridean who sits for Cirencester, and was recently appointed chairman of the Unionist unofficial committee. RUSSIAN TIMBER. The plausible and adroit M. Litvinolf certainly saored during his , London visit. He alone seems, of all the internatibnal emissaries in. London for the Economic Conference, to have got his pigeon. But-there is trouble brewing, it is stated that, prompt on the raising of the Russian embargo, orders have been placed with Moscow for practically all the timber we need. These imports will be dumped here at a price quite outside the economic possibilities of British timber producers. The latter, mayily Canadians, are energetically protesting, and arguing that the conditions are grossly unfair, and contrary to Ottawa’s decisions. Russian timber is not only slave-hewn to a large extent, but actually assisted by longterm loans from this country. Naturally, dominion business people fail to understand this policy. LOOKING UP. If shipping activity is a reliable barometer to general trade conditions, then things really are beginning to look up in this country. Lloyd’s Register for the quarter ended June 30, just published, shows an increase of over 35,000 in ,tho new tonnage under construction in our shipbuilding yards, as compared with the admittedly low figures for the previous quarter, and an increase of nearly 7,000 on the tonnage for the same quarter of last year. The present total under construction here is 287,602 tons, of which 19 per cent, is for registration abroad. On the other hand, the tonnage being built abroad is about 44,000 less than last quarter, and the lowest recorded since December, 1909. Total world construction at the moment is 732,495 tons, of which just over. 39 per cent, is being built .in Britain and just over 60 per cent, abroad. All things considered, this is not so bad. FIGHTING THE ’FLU, It is hopeful news that the National Research Laboratories have located the influenza virus. What the periodical epidemics cost us, not only in human life, but in a legacy of serious ailments, nobody can quite estimate. The arrest of the criminal bacillus will almost of a certainty be followed by the discovery of the best means of both prevention and cure. It is still the fashion to jeer at medical science, ' but it . has achieved notable modern miracles. The treatment of such scourges as diphtheria and syphilis, for example, and the gravity of their results, have been transformed. The same research ’ workers who have now found the ’flu virus were successful in grappling with canine distemper. Wo may reasonably hope that in the near future some effective anti-flu serum will be available, as well perhaps as more certain methods of avoiding ’flu epidemics. SURRENDERED ARSENAL. Until a little while ago there must have been hundreds of perfectly honest and well-meaning citizens who clung with boyish affection, but without any licence of the law, to rusty old colts or bulldogs. To such the police of the country have given fair warning. Surrender the contraband and no questions asked, has been the motto throughout the spring and early summer, and now comes the Bill to make further hoarding of these weapons a severely punishable offence. How much the public has come to realise the duty of this abandonment of firearms may be gauged from the veritable arsenal which the police have acquired since the first call to surrender was issued. Figures given recently in the House of Commons show that between April 12 and May 31 of this year the chief constables of England and Wales have collected from the public 16,409 firearms. Tho armoury consists of 12,622 pistols and revolvers,- 3,706 rifles, 73 antique firearms, and 8 lethal weapons of unclassified typo. In addition there have been surrendered 25,891 rounds of ammunition, together with 90 shells, grenades, and bombs. Among the unclassified weapons, presumably, is the machine gun, which got mislaid during demobbing, and was not long ago handed in at a Newcastle police station. It has now gone back to its rightful place at the War Department.

JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN’S WIDOW

A few days ago there was an interesting little party held in Dean’s Yard, at the house of the Speaker’s chaplain, to meet Mr Morgenthau, the gentleman who was United States Ambassador at Constantinople when the Great War Started. The hostess on this occasion was Mrs Carnegie, wife of Canon Carnegie, the cleric who has the responsible duty of opening the daily activities of Westminster members of Parliament with prayer. London hears little about Mrs Carnegie nowadays, but she was well in the limelight formerly as Mrs Joseph Chamberlain. It seems a mort of years now since “ Joe ” was the most compelling .and vital personality in English political life, yet hero is his widow still quietly amongst us. Guests at the Dean’s Yard party were privileged to see several notable Sargent portraits, amongst them one that bridged the years, and brought back vividly the pioneer of tariff reform. DUCAL COMING-OF-AGE. The young Duke of Northumberland, head of the historic house of Percy, attained his majority this week. A godson of His Majesty, he has the responsibility • for continuing a great tradition. But the Percys have always been animated by a loftiness of purpose. The family trace their descent from one of the Companions of the Conqueror, and their very name derives from a village in Normandy. They have been settled at Alnwick since the early fourteenth century. The dukedom was created in 1766, and His Grace is the ninth duke. The dukes have always been prominent in public affairs, and have generally been Knights of the Garter. The sixth duke was the First Lord of the Admiralty, whilst his son, the seventh duke, was summoned to the.

House of Lords during his father’s lifetime in one of the baronies which go with the dukedom. The Duchess of Northumberland is a sister of the Duke of Richmond, and a notable hostess. Prior to her marriage she was chatelaine of Goodwood for her father—a responsibility in the days when Goodwood was Goodwood, and the Sovereign and his Consort were guests for the racing week. RAILWAY HUSTLE. Improvements to running lines and junctions, some of which have been in hand for more than twelve months, will enable the G.W.R. to save 2,543 minutes daily in its summer service, which started on July 17. The new time-table contains' innovations likely to make travel history. It is the first to show an air service operated by a railway company, and an appreciable development in Sunday services. New records in speed for particular journeys will be set up.' The Cornish Riviera express, for the first time in history, will bo scheduled to do the 225 J miles run “ non-stop ” from Paddington to Plymouth in under four hours. The revised timing of 3h 57min is lOmin quicker than at present, and 3min quicker than ever before. The Torbay express will cover the 173| miles Paddington to Exeter in 170 mi fastest schedule ever introduced. The Cheltenham Flyer will be accelerated by five minutes on its run between Cheltenham: and Paddington, but the running time between Swindon and Paddington will remain at 65min for the -11 \ miles, an average speed of 71.35 m.p.h.—a world’s record “ start to stop ” run for a steam train. CERTAIN LIVELINESS, The R.A.F. are staging mimic warfare this week. An elaborate manoeuvres plan has been _ arranged, and bombers and fighters will operate over a wide area north and east of London. Though London escapes the main aerial uproar, squadrons of machines will swoop overhead, and day and night wo shall have the maddening throb of aeroplane engines. This is accepted goOd-hunionredly as a necessary evil. Wo must have an R.A.F., and • it must get training for its job. But some people realise that the exceptional disturbance of this one weqk in the year may shortly become the normal condition of all the year round. Private and commercial aviation develops at a rapid rate, and no adequate steps are taken _ to control what must soon become an intolerable infliction. Wo are going to repeat in the air on a far worse scale the lamentable bistory of our mechanised roads. THE MAFIA. Capital punishment has been reimposed in the Argentine owing to the menace of a criminal organisation stated to bo an offshoot of the Mafia. Not the least remarkable of Mussolini’s achievements is the total suppression of the Sicilian Mafia, which had defied all such efforts for many years. But though Mussolini’s_ action was thoroughly justified, owing to terrorism and blacbmail, the original Sicilian Mafia was a most patriotic, and far from a criminal, movement. It dates back to the Sicilian Vespers, which rid the island of the intolerable tryanny of the Bourbon military occupation many years ago. Italians resent the imputation that the Mafia was originally an evil thing, or that criminal societies hko the Black Hand, broken up by the American police not Jong ago, had any direct association with it. When the Black Hand chief returned home to Palermo he was shot a few minutes after landing. ROYAL BUSSER. King Feisal is one up on the Prince of Wales.- So far as my memory goes, unless be went up the line with the Guards on “ Old Bill ” during the war, the Prince has never ridden on a London, bus.. King Feisal Jhas, and,

does so regularly. An enchanted Fleet street friend, who could hardly; credit his own eyes, recognised His Majesty as a fellow-passenger one fine afternoon on the top deck of a No. 6. King Feisal was attired in a grey lounge suit, with soft Trilby hat to match, and was obviously “ seeing London from a democratic angle. This is a favourite hobby with our Irakian guest, who likes to get away unostentatiously, with only a single member of his suite, and board a bus at a venture in Piccadilly. Whether he travels east or west is all one to His Majesty. The busy London street scenes, the buildings, and markets, and even the suburbs are all full of vital interest to him. LAST OF THE B.E.F. There is some controversy as to the first .man of .the! Old-Contemptibles to set foot in France in 1914. But there is no question, I am told, who was officially the last of the old B.E.F. to leave the war zone. That distinction belongs to a well-known West End actor, Mr Cedric Hardcastle. In 1921 it was the duty of Mr Hardcastle, as the official valedictory of the British Army, to baul down the Union Jack at St. Pol, where he had also been one of the British officers to mount guard in tbe temporary chapel over the coffin of the Unknown Warrior before those historic remains were transferred for burial in Westminister Abbey. The St. Pol flag is preserved, in his old theatre basket, along with other mementoes of behind-the-line concert parties. BACK WALLS AND BUDGETS. If Mr Neville Chamberlain imagines ho has exhausted all our fiscal possibilities. he ought to consult some German authority. Where Herr Hitler rules the roost, the dog tax is not any paltry sum. such as we impose, but a. stifr £4 per dog. Nor is this all. Germany levies a £2 tax on all domestic cats. It happens that I inhabit the London suburb, of somewhat declining social eclat, of which Henry V. might have said that its cats, of whom there are more to the square tile than, anywhere else on earth, “ have the voice in hell for excellence.” Our nights are one long moonlight sonata punctuated by the sound of tempestuous window sashes and the splinter of crockery. Old residents have developed a feline bodyline theory of which the M.C-C. has not the faintest conception. . A referendum of ratepayers, I feel certain, would enthusiastically support Mr Chamberlain in levying a cat tax here. A RUM EPIC. Presumably the advent of President Roosevelt has written “ finis ” to the epic of Rum Row. We have heard strange tales of America’s illegal liquor traffic, out of which thousands of people made big private fortunes in its heyday. A friend of mine, who soldiered in the war with the Buffs, met a former sergeant at the Savoy, some years after the armistice, who invited him to a little shooting at his place in Scotland. He was a retired rum-runner. But ‘The Real M'Coy,’ a biographical work by an American writer, gives us an amazing picture of America’s nowvanished Big Business. It turned peaceful havens into Dantesque hells and law-abiding citizens into thug pirates. Amongst those who embarked incontinently on rum-running adventures were, it appears, a high police official and an evangelical pastor! The latter used a missionary ship, and kept its name— Messenger of Peace! JAZZ! A campaign of economy amongst West End hotels and restaurants has caused some upset in the jazz band world. Managers are seeking to economise by cutting down the costs of their musical entertainments, and at least one famous jazz conductor is seeking fresh woods and pastures new. I have been given some astonishing figures about the earnings of jazz band conductors and instrumentalists. It ig said

that at least three conductors haye been making, between salary and side shows like gramophone records and broadcasting, as much as £4OO a week, which is equivalent to £20,000 a yienr, and that there are plenty of star instrumentalists on the £BO-a-week \list. If this is the case, one can imagine that managers, who have been through some fairly thin times, must be looking for ; some economies in their jazz departments. But the jazz experts resent any talk of “ cuts.” ARROWS AS RENT. At Sotheby’s auction rooms this month there will be sold some most interesting family pictures. These are a series of old family portraits, _ real patrician ancestors, and the sitters were my lords Baltimore. George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, who gave his name to .the famous American city, obtained a charter of lands north of Virginia, and his portrait is listed for the hammer. The sixth Lord Baltimore, Frederick, who is last of the list for sale, died just before the War of Independence. These noblemen were known as “ proprietors of Maryland,” and owed an annual rental to the King of England. That rental was, however, of the peppercorn variety, consisting of. two Indian arrows. One of the portraits is by Sir Godfrey Kueller, and another by Gerard Soest—a not very serious contemporary rival to Vandyck. WANTED. Few birds have known such ups and downs as the parrot. Kot long ago, when a malady with a fearsome scientific name was, all the go, the parrot was a social outcast and a suburban pariah. 'He was suspected of being a germ-carrier or host. That scandal has now been lived or talked down. A West End producer advertises • for a parrot. He is running a, drama of high seas, and wants to give a touch of realism to the dialogue. He has interviewed several birds, all gifted talkers, but unfortunately land-lubbers, with no sea lingo at their command. Surely there must be, somewhere down by the East India Docks, an old shellback. who has a parrot who. would fill the job to perfection. Most of the seagoing parrots it has been my privilege to know were, like Shakespeare’s soldier, “ full of strange oaths.” Now is the chance for one of these to play Hamlet at the West End.