LONDON TOPICS

Evening Star, Issue 21570, 16 November 1933, Page 2

LONDON TOPICS

AIR FORGE AND NAVY MANOEUVRES [Frou Our Correspcvdent.] September 28. Though the authorities are reticent regarding the outcome of the Air Force and Navy manoeuvres, 1 gather we are not likely to hear of any drastic orders for the scrapping of battleships. This does not mean that our airmen are not satisfied in their own minds that they put the attacking fleet out of action. The difficulty is, of course, to reach any finality of decision where all the operations are make belief. All the airmen can do is to make a signal that they have dropped a bomb when they are directly over the enemy ship. From the decks of the battleship, however, it may equally well be claimed that the plane would never have reached its position of advantage had the anti-aircraft guns been firing real ammunition. From a training point of view such exorcises are undoubtedly useful, but it is questionable whether they ever decide such big issues as whether or not the battleship is obsolete. A REPUDIATED “SIDESHOW.” The proceedings of the Labour Party conference at Hastings will be much enlivened for onlookers by the presence in that seaside resort of a “ sideshow ” unauthorised and repudiated by the high officials of the party itself. The newest offshoot of Socialism bears the formidable title of the Association of Constituency Labour Parties, the name given to it by its leader, Colonel TEstrange Malone, who was M.P. for Northampton in the last Parliament. Though Mr Malone lias made a declaration to the effect that his party is in no wise hostile to trade unionism, the extent to which it is held suspect by the parent party is indicated by the precipitate action which Mr Henderson lias taken in warning all local branches against having anything to do with it. Mr Malone is perhaps hitting the Labour Party a shade below the belt in bolding his caucus in the same town and at the same time as the official party meeting. Possibly, however, he has had some provocation in having had his organisation banned before it has been given an opportunity to declare its intentions. SLUM TAINT IN MODEL SETTLEMENTS. Slum clearance is to form an important subject of discussion at the Conservative Conference- at Birmingham next month, and it is possible that a new 'aspect of this problem will receive attention at that meeting. This is the question how to keep the new “ model ” settlements safe from the danger of becoming, in their turn, the slums of the future. 'Phis matter has been receiving a good deal of attention recently by reason of complaints brought before local authorities with regard to conditions in the new, areas already constructed for former slum dwellers. Though the great majority of workers are only too glad to avail themselves of the opportunities afforded them, of living in hygienic and healthy conditions in the new council estates, there are unfortunately many cases where families are bringing the taint of the shims with them, to the detriment and discomfort of their neighbours._ Though surveillance of any description is anathema to the British mind, it seems as though some form of sanitary supervision will have to be a compulsory condition in the letling of council bouses. MR ROOSEVELT’S MEDICINE CHEST. [’resident Roosevelt proceeds from crisis to crisis with a cheery niidismay that reminds me of a worthy farmer’s wife 1 knew in my younger days. The mother of a large family, she never took alarm when any of her offspring showed symptoms of illness. She went to her cupboard, produced a bottle, and administered a dose. If the nostrum proved ineffective she sought another bottle from her store and changed the treatment, and kept on changing til! the patient was restored to health. In obdurate cases, as a last resort, she called in a doctor. ‘On the whole, her system was satisfactory, its only disadvantage being that when health was restored she was never able to decide which medicine had effected the cure, and likewise when things went from bad to worse which draught it was that had proved hurtful. Unfortunately

for Mr Roosevelt, he has no doctor to call in after lie has exhausted the combinations of his own medicine chest. - “ GRAVE CONTEMPT OF COURT.” The Nazis, even more than the Bolsheviks, appear to believe in surrounding their judicial tribunals with theatrical flourishes. Tolling bells, flashing searchlights, and whirring cinema cameras furnished the effects for the legal spectacle, which opened in Leipzig the other day. Prom the descriptions coming to hand the settings of the Reichstag fire are even more spectacular than those which formed the background to the Moscow proceedings in the spring, if the courts of Germany and Russia require such tawdry trappings to make them impressive, we have the more cause to he thankful that British justice still requires no 'adornments of her fair fame. The more one hears of Leipzig, however, the more regrettable it is that London shouldhave allowed herself to become even unofficially entangled in this case. Whatever may be our , feelings towards the Leipzig tribunal, it cannot be denied that the mock trial in Carey street was a grave contempt of court. CHILDHOOD IN RUSSIA. • There are signs of returning sanity in Russia. After fifteen years her commissars have made a discovery that has been known to the rest of the world for as many centuries —that fairy tales and books of adventure are good for the young. No longer are the immature minds of Russian children to be fed on Communistic pabulum alone. Once more Russian children are to be allowed to travel the world in company with Gulliver, Robinson Crusoe, the ‘ Little Tin Soldier,’ and all the other international heroes of infancy. It is a big step forward, and, having acknowledged their error, it is in keeping with their character that the Bolsheviks are now bent upon rectifying it lavishly. A new department is to be set up for mass production editions of Defoe, Swift, Andersen, and even the less offensively bourgeois tales of Grimm. Good times are ahead for Soviet children; but what about the Crusoeless generation that has grown up under the ban just removed? SEEING FOR OURSELVES. 1 imagine there is little likelihood of the Prince of Wales realising the ambition he is said to entertain of paying a visit to Russia and to Italy in order to get first-hand impressions of the new systems of government that are being worked. The Prince himself is no doubt fully aware of the obstacles which would be put in his way if he seriously entertained such a project. But it is quite characteristic of him that he should want to see things for himself. And though such a project may be quite impossible so far as the Prince of Wales is concerned, the idea is one which might usefully be taken up by some of our politicians. M. Her-_ riot paid a visit to Russia, and apparently no great harm was done. There is much that our statesmen might learn in the matter of battling with the unemployment problem if they sot themselves out to study Mussolini’s methods in - Italy. And even Russia and Germany might teach Whitehall something if Whitehall wore not too proud to learn. UNASSUMING MAGNATE. Sir Herbert Austin, the motor magnate, will probably stimulate controversy with his plea that some system should be evolved that will enable women to be taken out of industry, thus helping to solve . the unemployment problem for men. Sir Herbert Austin, though one of the outstanding industrialists in this country, is also one of the most unassuming. His principal hobby is work, which lie accomplishes mainly with a stub of. pencil. Tic can do more with this stub of pencil in the way of designing pieces of automobiles than a whole staff of draughtsmen equipped with boxes of drawing instruments. Anyone visiting liis factory, who did not know him by sight, might mistake' him, in his old coat, for one of the less-important employees. _ This erroneous impression would be confirmed by a casual chat, for Sir Herbert Austin, like his fellow-manufacturer Sir William Morris, is entirely devoid of “ side.” SZECHUAN EARTHQUAKE. News of great natural calamities travel slowly in China. The first accounts of the great earthquake of 1921, which levelled mountains into plains in Kansu and took toll of innumerable human lives, did not reach the central provinces till many weeks after the disaster, though the shock rocked cities so wide apart as Tientsin, Hankow, and Canton. It is more remarkable, however, that knowledge of the Szechuanesp disaster should have been so long delayed in coming to the world. Kansu is a" world apart, connected only by caravan routes across countless miles of sparsely inhabited territory. Tlvo Min River, on the other hand, is an important tributary of Chinn’s great artery of communication, the Yangtse. It seems almost inconceivable that a district so near to Chengtn, and regular steamboat routes to Central China, should have suffered such a catastrophe unknown to the world for a month. The only explanation seems to be that the

Chinese are so much accustomed to interruptions of communications “ for military purposes ” that they thought nothing of the prolonged silence in the Min Valley, SHAVIAN GAS. Mr George Bernard Shaw, who is to deliver the final discourse in a series of six forming the autumnal lecture course of the Fabian Society, seems bent upon shocking this now most highly respectable organisation. From the syllabus of his lecture, drawn up obviously by himself, it appears that Fabian principles are to be scarified by Shavian satire. He regards man as an unpolitical animal, and sees the one hope of his final attainment of real civilisation in “ the thrice-blessed invention of poison gases and high . explosives,” which ultimately, wheii at the disposal of all men, will make “oppression or even irritating rudeness too dangerous to be practised.” In the meanwhile, he will urge all who hate cruelty to agitate with all their might for the discovery of a painless but infallibly and instantaneously fatal gas, capable of being manufactured by everybody. He sees in our domestic gas supply, laid on from house to house, an invaluable advance in this direction, and suggests that “ we owe a great deal to the'clisinterested experiments carried on daily by our suicides.” TORN HALOS. A sporting friend, who .has been spending a late summer holiday in the Isle of Wight, declares that cricket flourishes joyously there. The island bristles with well-kept village greens, and almost every village has its cridket team, which does battle with rival hamlets. the local sides frequently including one or two visitors of approved repute as players. Lord Evesham, who has just completed his hundred wickets for the season, is a regular member of the St. Helens cricket side during bis summer residence. But my friend discovered that the islanders are in no way intimidated by oven the most famous county recruits. Their village bowlers, often a blacksmith or a boat builder, soon settle their hash on a natural village pitch. Jack Hobbs, the famous Surrey and England crack, plays regularly when on holiday at BembrTdge, and his top score so far is 26.