LONDON TOPICS

Evening Star, Issue 21621, 17 January 1934, Page 2

LONDON TOPICS

U.S. DICTATORSHIP [From Our Correspondent.] ■> .November 30. It is now. fairly evident, that President Roosevelt’s dictatorship is approaching a breakdown. When he first took over, and launched his campaign, there ...was a backing of immense enthusiasm. Failure of Ins policies to achieve the results optimistically hoped for has changed the whole outlook. A deadweight of critical and even furious opposition now exists, and will make itself felt with hanipomhg results directly Congress assembles again. The President and his Brain Trust have lost The advantage of attack, and been driven on the defensive, whilst their critics hold the initiative. This fulfils the prophecies of those who, from the very start, said America Inched the national entente and , discipline necessary for so drastic and’daring ah experiment as President Roosevelt is making. During the coming months we may see strange developments in ITS.A. PARTISAN TWADDLE.

Party politicians resemble the Bourbons in neither learning nor forgetting anything. They are now acclaiming, Socialists and Conservative Diehards alike,' the . Government’s, reduced;, byelection majorities as proof positive that feeling in the countryTs'Setf-.dead against the National group! How any sensible human being could possibly expect that electoral feelingwould remain .at the same level now ns when the General Election took place, and the country saved itself by swamping the Socialists by the biggest electoral ma jority ever recorded, it is really, hard to imagine.' It would be as rational to expect a prim a donna to- he”, always on her top note;-; Ministers realise this, if their critics pretend not to, And are quite confident that, if it came to another General Election on the existing issues, their majority in the House of Commons would not be appreciably smaller than it is now. SAMPLE? Students of modern democratic tendencies may find food for furious thought in Newfoundland’s example. According to the unanimous report of Lord Anmlree’s Royal Commission, the affairs of our oldest colony have been brought ‘‘by greed, graft, and corruption,” to such a pitch of insolvency that it needs “a rest from party politics,” -and had best be controlled from London by Whitehall experts. This ignominious abdication, sugared by a grant in aid at the expense of the British taxpayer, Newfoundland may be constrained to accept. Though precipitated by the economic blizzard, the Crisis is, the Royal Commission tells ns, due to “ the prititical abuses of a generation.” Newfoundland has been ‘‘ exploited for personal and party ends.” This spectacle of democracy at the double-cross roads, some may hold, has an urgent moral that conics right home to roost. Does -it explain why some people are so eager to get back to party politics here too ? TRUE FRIEND. The letters of the Earl of Oxford and Asquith to Airs Harrison are quite the talk of the day. Close as was the friendship subsisting between theni, it is, nevertheless, a little difficult to understand the copious correspondence which the late Prime Minister inmintained with the lady who has non/published his letters. One who knenv him well expressed the view to me ‘to-day that Asquith chose this method of putting on record his fleeting thoughts on many subjects, well knowing that the letters would be carefully preserved. Certain it is that he did not hesitate, to ask for their production and to make use of thorn in his ‘ Memoirs and Reflections. , He found in Airs Harrison one who was essentially a “good listener.” She was always sympathetic, and visited him regularly during Ins last illness to read to him at Jus bedside. Many of the letters were written from Downing street, others from the front bench in the House of Commons at a time when the late Prime Minister was immersed in the conduct of the war, and might well find it a positive relief to unburden his soul to one whom he knew to be a true friend. A LONG VISTA. At what precise stage does a middleaged man become an old one? Some people might say at sixty, a date on the human highway winch has tiie same ominous aura that Mr Hilaire Belloc attributes to the tenth milestone from Rome in the days of the legionaries. Yet this week Mr Churchill, but yesterday reckoned a perhaps too sprightly youngster, keeps Ins sixtieth birthday. It seems absurd to count Winston among the elder statesmen., and certainly he does not look it, though ins life has been more compact with.high adventure than that of any other distinguished contemporary. He has fought in more wars than most beribboned generals, been in more Cabinets than ‘ most white-haired Privy Councillors. He was an M.P. at twenty-six, a Minister 'at thirty-two, and has held nine different Cabinet posts. 'To-day it would puzzle most people to cast liis horoscope, or even to say whether politics or literature will be his lasting memorial. Winston's memories include lighting on the North-west -Frontier, in the Sudan, in Cuba, in South Africa, on the Western Front. He has not forgotten the thrill ol Ins lone ride over the desert to join Kitchener on the. eve of Umdurman, nor charging, a civilian with a whip, into the Dervish hosts with the Death or Glory Lancers. He heard Death whistle in his ear down the veldt railway cutting, as the Boers sniped him, and saw vultures hover as he escaped from Pretoria. -Between crowded House oi Commons nights ot exultant triumph and black depression came the writing of books, the painting of pictures, and the building ol walls. There was the day he ordered the Grand Fleet to sea on his own responsibility, and the midnight he listened to the Admiralty clock ticking off the seconds to Dor Tag. Not a badly upholstered memory to have at sixty, while still young enough for dreams that make ambition virtue. MAN WHO FOUGHT U-BOATS. Though perhaps unknown by name and personality to the general public, Admiral Sii; Alexander Duff, who lias died at the age of seventy-one, played a vital role during the Great War. He mined tbs II.N. as a cadet fifty-eight years ago. hut saw practically no acme service alloa't until the Germans signalled Dor 'Tag. In 1914 he went to sea with the Grand Fleet as second in command of a battle squadron, and ater, when Lord Jcllieoo became First Sea Lord, was put in control and in-, spirutioh of the anti-submarine work.’ At that, juncture the German U-boats,, by their, ruthless disregard of tradition and humanity in their “ spurlos versunken ” campaign, were causing the gravest anxiety to the British- Government. It was Admiral Duff', the pro-, found tlicorlsl. whose brain directed ami-organised the practical measures

that so effectually checkmated the 0hoats. bo England owes something to tliis gallant and capable old seaman’s memory. BUSY DIVORCE. Various explanations are advanced lor the lug increase in our divorce petitions. Last year’s total was 4,638, and the tendency is steadily upwards. in some quarters it is argued that the figures justify modern changes in the law, indicating that in the past, before sex equality was established in divorce. many wives, who form the vast majority of petitioners, suffered under a grievance. An experienced divorce court practitioner gives me a different view. When Parliament extended the grounds for divorce. on the sexequality plea, and also made divorce cases virtually secret, it gave an immense stimulus- to domestic upheaval. My. informant states that some divorce actions involve deliberate collusion by husbands, who would object to a charge of cruelly or desertion but do not mind one of infidelity, under pressure by wives who are merely anxious to marry another man. furnished offices, London has long been perfectly familiar with furnished Hats, hut the fullyfurnislied business office is a novelty. It is one, however, that is rapidly being developed. The new furnished office, on" which, principle many huge new blocks of buildings are being let, is complete to the last detail. Not only is it carpeted, furnished, and equipped with all manner of up-to-date gadgets used by business people, but staffed as well. You walk straight in, take your office chair at your well-stocked office desk, press the electric bell push, and a competent shorthand-typist appears with a note book and pencil ready to start.- 1 believe even the office-boy is-thrown in. Only he is usually a girl, the latter being warranted not only a non-whistler, luit much less addicted to reading on urgent office errands. MR SHAW’S LATEST. Mr Shaw, who was in a box with Mrs Shaw, enjoyed a wonderful first-night audience’s reception of his new play, ‘On the Rocks.’ It is yet another political satire, right up to date, and full of brilliant talk with little action. It looks like being a far bigger stage success than ‘ The Apple Cart.’ But one can never judge what the normal London audience will think of a Shaw play from the first night. Air Shaw has such a devoted following, who always crowd to these festivals, that the enthusiasm is apt to be deceptive. 'On the Rocks ’ gives me an impression of splendid finality of- judgment by the author, but will upset the unco' democrats. Because it is really an extension of the earlier Shavian epigram about Socialists and Socialism to an argument that democracy might be.all right if it were nht for the Democrats. An hypothesis which seems to, me unimpeachable.

THOSE ICELANDIC DEPRESSIONS. It , may be remembered that some months ago very careful weather observations were conducted at about sixty "stations in the Far North. This scrutiny was mentioned in this column at the time it was being planned. Experts at the Air Ministry are now most meticulously studying the reports received, and 1 hear they are exceedingly pleased with the results. They even go so far as to prophesy that by an adequately attentive study of Polar conditions it wiil in future be easy to tell tlie weather conditions in this country and Europe generally for a week in advance with comparative certainty. Whether this offiieal theory is unduly optimistic I cannot pretend to guess. All Ido know is that during the last .year or two the meteorological experts have frequently been sadly at sea in predicting even the next day’s wather At the Air Ministry, however, they now believe they have discovered that, conditions south are obviously settled by Polar conditions. LONG LINKS. Instances keep cropping up of what seem amazing human links with the past. It has now-been placed on authentic record that our cavalry at Mens in 1914 included a horse actually shod by a smith who shod another horse that charged with the Heavy Brigade at Waterloo. This apparent miracle is explained by the fact that when he put the shoe on the Waterloo charger he was fifteen years ot ago and the charger was a veteran'of thirty-six, whereas the smith was in his eighty-fifth year when he shod the Mons horse. I have myself spoken to an old gentleman who as a youth rowed out into Torbay and saw Napoleon, cross-armed and traditional, standing on the rear gallery of H.M.S. Bellcrophon, known to contemporary bluejackets as the " Bully Ruffian.” But after all, as I heard a distinguished professor of history point out not long ago, it needs only ten very old men’s lives to take us back to William the Conqueror. PEPYS AS UNDERGRADUATE. The centenary exhibition of books, pictures, and documents relating to Samuel Pepys which had been arranged by Messrs Bumpus Ltd., of Oxford, street, does not include tbe MSS. of the famous diary, and for a good reason. When the good Samuel left bis library to Magdalene College, Cambridge, he expressly provided that if a single volume should be lost the whole collection would not merely be- withdrawn. but actually transferred tp a rival college! The college authorities naturally enough do not wish to let the famous shorthand script out of their sight, but have kindly lent the college register of the period, which, sad to relate, contains, the following entry;— October 21, 1653. Pepys and Hind wore solemnly admonished for having been'" scandalously overseen in drink ye night before.” STORY OF THE KING. Though they keep a scrap book for all Ific odds and etuis of gossip published about them, the members of our Royal Family never attempt to contradict anything that appears unless it is really libellous. But, though it may, therefore, be safe ground, 1 cannot think tlie ‘ Nautical Magazine,’ without absolute authority, would venture to print the fact about King George’s tattoo mark, it appears that, when a middy on the Bacchante, and serving on the Far Eastern station, our future King succumbed, as so many other youngsters have done, to the decorative fascination of Indian ink, and had a small Chinese dragon tattooed on one arm. Most of our gallant admirals, who date back to about the same middy period, wear similar ornamentation. It serves to remind us how time flies, and tilings change, if we recall that, in King George’s early days afloat, muz-zle-loading guns wore still, mounted on naval ships. THE IMMEMORIAL EAST. Major C. E. Radelyffe, soldier, sportsman, club habitue,' has written an entertaining volume of smoke-room yarns. As he was a ' Life Guardsman at the time, and in charge of the escort concerned, wo may take this story as authentic. Amongst the Royal visitors for King George’s wedding was the Shahzada. Ho was immensely taken with the appearance of his Life Guards escort. So much so that he

offered to buy /the squadron, troopers, chargers, plumes, baldricks, and all from Queen Victoria, He wanted to take them back home with him/ This was not his only fancy - He offered George Edwardes to buy the entire Gaiety Theatre beauty chorus. Major Radclyfle’s comment on tin's is that " In those days 1 fancy their combined price would have been a bit more than even an Orient?!; Prince, would like to part with.’'- There is a real beau sabreur touch about that.

EXHAUSTING REST. London shopkeepers are- going, in more and inure for window demonstration. Anyone with an afternoon to spare might profitably make a round tour of the West End, extending even so far as Ludgate .Hill, and study how all sorts of goods are made, packed, and handled, as demonstrated by welldrilled , window mannequins. But I have already seen enough of these shop window exhibitions to realise how much tact , the shopkeepers must use. it is tlie easiest thing imaginable.; for a demonstration to defeat its own, object rather badly. Take a recent ease. One shop decided to place in its window a patent foot rest and have it demonstrated .by a good-looking young woman. It was a great success at- first. A big crowd assembled, with noses glued to the glass, to watch the young woman exhibit the foot rest ir, two different positions. She did this four times a minute—24o an hour. After an hour or two she began to look like a marathon runner on the last lap.