LONDON TOPICS

Evening Star, Issue 21628, 25 January 1934, Page 15

LONDON TOPICS

TALKS WITH GERMANY

WHILE THE CAR WAITED

OUR AIR STRENGTH

MUSSOLINI AND GENEVA

SEA SERPENT?

THE IRISH FREE STATE

OXFORD’S LUCKY VICTORY

WHITE SLAVE DELUSIONS

SHIPPING AND SUBSIDY

CAMPERDOWN PEERAGE

QUIET EMPIRE-BUILDER

MILITARY ANOMALIES

[From Odr Correspondent.]

LONDON, December 14

I am told that the diplomatic conversations with Germany are pursuing a norma] course. That that country will send her representatives back to Geneva is recognised as impossible, but if an agreement is reached elsewhere, no one will cavil on points of procedure. The difficulty of the situation is increased by the fact that Germany is not interested in armaments merely, but is eager to revise the whole of the Versailles Treaty, including the possession of colonies. There is thus little prospect that by the time the Dirasmament Conference is due to meet again any substantial progress will have been made. ’Hie nations of Europe have now to deal with a country of whose citizens a large proportion remember nothing of the war except as a time of privation, and whose leaders disown all responsibility alike for its causes and its results.

The Fascist Council’s decision regarding Italy’s continued adherence to the League of Nations is obviously the sequel to Mussolini’s recent speech. Unfortunately, violent political prejudice surrounds," in certain unco’ democratic circles, all that Mussolini says and does. He will now he accused of stabbing the League of Nations in the back, whereas perhaps he has merely administered a tonic. In effect, Mussolini savs to Geneva: “ Get on or get out!” " If the result is to disperse the clouds of casuistical shilly-shally, and infuse a little of Italian Fascism’s admirable realism into the League’s doings, Mussolini will prove not an assassain, but a good physician. It is high time Geneva ceased to be a sort of political edition of Mr Maskcluie’s hall of mirrors, and got down to brass tacks. Pious platitudes, if one may parody a classic phrase, are not enough.

■On the face of , them, the Notes exchanged between Mr De Valera and Mr J. H. Thomas do not seem to have greatly changed the situation between the Irish Free State and ourselves. The despatches, however, do make one point clearer than it has been before. That is that our Government has no intention of allowing Southern Ireland to keep on spinning the coin. Mr De Valera’s suggestion that the Free State submitted to the 1921 Treaty under compulsion and because it was sented with the alternative of immediate war ” is refuted entirely by Mr Thomas, who points out that acceptance of the treaty was confirmed by-suc-ceeding General Elections of the tree State people.

WHAT MR DE VALERA WANTS. There were, in point of fact, two General Elections in which Mr De Valera was defeated soundly because he opposed the Treaty, and in the interim, before he again came into power, a contented Free State took its proper place at two Imperial Conferences.lsow Mr De Valera wants to wash put the whole of that, and suggests putting the issue of republican status ; before another General Naturally our uovefhmeu? says “ Npv” .and nutting the negative into the verbiage of an official despatch, shows, more clearly than heretofore what is to be our policy. Ireland made _her choice oh the -1921 settlement, and there w ill be no recognition of any departure from that .decision engineered by Mi De Valera

For sentimental as well as practical reasons we must .deplore the desperate necessity that compels British shipping to ask for a Government subsidy. Hitherto the Red Ensign, which is the symbol of our ancient mercantile marine, has held its own successfully on the world’s oceans against all forms of artificial foreign rivalry. But now we are faced by a threat to the very existence of our vital sea shuttles ot Imperial commerce. Our history is founded on the sea, and the Great War was not the first time our seamen saved our national life. Hard though it is, whilst national economy is still a supreme issue, to think of subsidies, we cannot allow ourselves to be forced into the anomalous position of an island without either ships or sailors. And most people would infinitely rather be taxed to subsidise our great shipping industry than to create a beet sugar business.

OFFICIAL SECOND THOUGHTS. The more light thrown on the Mons affair, the plainer it becomes that it was a ranker’s epic, but a brass hat s bungle. The latest Official War History, collated from the latest available evidence, completely vindicates SnnthDorrien’s Le Gateau stand with the Second Corps, and infers that not only French, but Haig as well, had the wind up badlv. There is a hiatus in the official documents, rather suggesting deliberate suppression to coyer tracks, but it is now clear that, with the approval of French, Haig withdrew the First Corps, without adequate justification, and thereby left Smith-Dornen with the added handicap of an exposed flank. Full credit for the Marne victory is now given to the British Army, but both Foch and d’Esperey are criticised for tactical mistakes that robbed it of'its full strategic fruits. SmithDorrien’s stand at Le Gateau, for which he was censured, will rank

amongst the finest ami most gallant achievements in British military annals.

CASUALTIES SINCE THE WAR

There is a good deal of comment on the remarkable sang i'roid of the Transport Ministry in face of the amazing statistics quoted during the House of Lords’ debate on road casualties. Since the war, a period of fifteen years, it is now disclosed that we have had two million casualties on our roads, and the death roll totals 75,000. In the past ten years, apart from the far larger number more or less badly maimed, 13,000 children have been killed. And London contributes the majority ol these casualties. What would be interesting would be to have reliable figures of the corresponding casualties m other countries. We might then see whether there is any special explanation for our peculiar liability.

An intelligent airman friend, who is by no means a one-sided disarinist, tells me he regards the agitation for more planes witii grave suspicion. According to him we are just on the eve of revolutionary changes up aloft. Planes using heavy oil fuel are coming. and their performance will be such, once they are developed, that the existing petrol planes will be definitely outclassed and consigned to the inevitable scientific scrap heap. My friend argues that, by holding our hands at present, we shall save money that will be far more profitably and efficiently expended, when the time comes, on a new class of aeroplane equipment. The more we spend now the less we shall be able to afford then. Our plan used always l to be, in naval matters, to bide our time, and come in on the crest of the latest design. To be rushed into air expenditure now will merely enable manufacturers to make use of antiquated equipment. AMERICA’S WHOOPEE.

The celebrations held in the United States to commemorate the passing of Prohibition suggest that, even though they are no longer dry, the Americans still have a dry humour. The notion of holding a mock lynching of Prohibition may or may not, in view of recent events, have been a tactful one, but to have the coffin drawn by a camel was certainly a bright idea. Probably it was inspired by a picture post card which has had a considerable vogue in this country, but 1 am told a far wider one-in the United States. This work of art displayed a camel,, with the succinct’caption, “A camel can go seven days without a drink, but who the hell wants to be a camel? ” Thus ends, in ribaldry, a social experiment which has cost America a prodigious total in millions sterling, an appalling casualty list through alcoholic poisoning, and a wholesale spread of the vicious graft system,

YELLOW AND WHITE!

Scottish whisky distillers are up in arms. They have discovered that, not content with undercutting Lancashire cotton goods and Yorkshire woollen goods .in the world’s markets, the Japanese are now seriously competing with our Scotch whisky exports. When this trade first began the Japanese whisky was of a fiery quality, not likely to hurt the genuine article’s trade. Then the Mikado’s subjects took to mellowing their rice product with a certain admixture of the genuine stun, but later they have actually set up the most modern distilling plant in their own country. The latter departure follows a visit, three years ago, by a few Japanese to ia fanions- Scottish • distillery. At the time; the Scottish distillers thought it was just a casual visit of curiosity. Now they know better.

A London paper is regaling its Cockney readers with melodramatic descriptions of the Undenvoild. Admirably written, these /articles are no doubt serving their purpose. But it will be a pity if the picture drawn of London’s White Slave traffickers causes neurotic girls to go in constant dread of having a hypodermic injection squirted into their arm by some Transpontine stranger, and finding themselves shipped off to a foreign haunt of vice. There have heen recurrent scares about mysterious women, the alleged agents of the White Slave industry, who go about sticking hypodermic syringes into suitable young women. And this notwithstanding that Scotland Yard laughs-at such stories, which a famous lady doctor has also taken pains to -pilloty as a physical impossibility. Anyone who has ever had 41 injections M knows that the process cannot be done offhand and unawares.

With the death of the’ fourth Earl of Campordown, the peerage bestowed on Admiral Duncan for his victory over the Dutch fleet becomes extinct. It was originally a barony, and was raised to an earldom in farmin’ of the admiral s son The peer who has just died had been settled for many years in Boston, and his visits to this country were rare. He declined any share in the estate of his late brother and immediate predecessor, and made no use of the title. The brother was an industrious, though not a prominent, politician, who in theory held strict views as to the rights of landowners and, and in practice was one of the most considerate and generous. At his death, fifteen years ago, the estates, in so far as they were not entailed in favour of the Countess of Buckinghamshire, went mostly to Lord Cnmperdown’s estate agents in Worcestershire and Angus, and Sir John Seymour Lloyd received a large share of the personality.

One of those quiet workers to whose efforts the expansion of Imperial trade is largely due is about to retire. Mr Harrison Watson, the chief Canadian Government Trade Commissioner, has been for forty years the guide, counsellor, and friend of all who sought to sell Canadian products here. When he h n gnn he acted as the organiser of the Canadian section of the Imperial Institute, and it was as a direct result of liis success in this tiphere that the dominion Government decided to established the Trade and Commerce Office In London. Mr Watson has taken a leading part in raising Canadian exports to this eountrv from £12.500,000 to £34.000.000. Such a feat argues personality, oersiiasi'-enps's.- and perseverance. and Mr Watson combines all three with a profound knowledge of every phase of Canadian development His work has affected everv town and village of Britain, and the Gnvernmeni will find it difficult to fill his place.

I suspect that a good many ox-lance-corporals, especially of the unpaid variety, read with poignant interest the fact that a lance .lack of the old Naval Division, who made his will during the war in that capacity, has left £173,000. But there wore many battalions of Kitchener's Army who boasted their millionaire privates. At least, by comparison with comrades to whom the weekly pay of 3s 6d was well worth two smart salutes, they ranked as such. I remember one such gentleman, who was gently rebuked by his

company officer because be had not made the full Army allowance to his young wife. “ All right, sir,said the private, “ if you think she ought to have the extra half-crown a week I’ll make it, but. I’m allowing her £2,000 a year whilst I’m away.” What afforded me real joy on pay days, however, was watching fervent trade unionists, who had joined up, saluting for their 3s 6d after a week’s hard training that would have made a navvy sweat. ,'

Some of the Pal battalions had very wealthy men in the ranks. I remember one bright young gentleman, who belonged to the Liverpool Pals, ahd was training at Knowsley, Lord Derby’s Lancashire seat. He always went through the weekly pay-day ritual with the utmost punctilio, waiting his turn in the well-disciplined queue, and sometimes having to repeat his salute, on receipt of his 3s 6d by request of a censorious R.S.M. All the time this full private was standing in the line, saluting, and stepping hack again, a sumptuous limousine, with the engine full 1 on, was' waiting for - him outside the park. By' its side' stood a smart chauffeur, iu perfectly cut unifonu thatmade his master’s look Jike a suit or slops, I often wondered how much petrol was consumed by that car whilst its owner was duly drawing his private’s pay. I am afraid that sportsman never returned from the great adventure.

I begin to develop a platonic affection for the Loch Ness “ monster. AVhich is more, 1 warrant, than the unlucky policemen are doing who have been told off for sen try. duty over the elusive monstrosity. The shores of Loch Ness in December can be intensely inhospitable. Almost laughed out of the headlines at first, the “ monster ” has now, though rather sceptically, received official attention from tlie' keeper of the British Museum Zoology. We are told, moreover, that a century ago a sea snake, 80ft long and answering very closely to the vague description of the Loch Ness “monster,” was caught off the Orkneys, and souvenir samples sent by an eminent authoress to Lady, Byron. Merchant seamen have been prejudiced against the present “ monster ” by the fact that a retired naval commander has resuscitated him. Merchant skippers cannot abide lI.N. men. And they reject the sea serpant superstition generally, attributing it to the hallucinations of Liverpool Trish firemen recovering from a hectic spell ashore.

I have not seen many more oneside llugger games than Tuesday’s ’Varsity match at Twickenham, and the amazing thing is that, though Cambridge had nine-tenths of the attack, Oxford won by a goal to a try, 5 points to 3. For that result the Dark Blues may thank their lucky stars and Owen-Smith, whose display at full-back, in spite of slight concussion at the very start of the match, was masterly, it was also epic. At many moments the game developed into a duel—the Cambridge team versus Owen-Smith —■ and that athletic young South African cricketer, with the ice-packed brain, never turned a hair or surrendered a foot. He fielded kicks at all angles, with the Cambridge pack in full cry right on him, as though taking sitters in the slips. Even the Light Blue ranks of Tuscany could scare forbear to cheer.

Forward and at half Cambridge overwhelmed Oxford. There was far more devil in the Light Blue pack. Three of them became temporary casualties through excess of zeal. And Jones and Bowcott made rings round Jackson and M'Shane the latter never combining well with Jackson, and Jackson never showing, despite his Scottish cap, anything like the form of Grieve, whom they dropped for him. It was a chance snapped up by Cranmer early in the game that gave Oxford a winning goal, and, though they mostly lived and rioted in Oxford’s half and twentyfive, Cambridge could never get more than the unconverted try scored by Dick after a good run in the first half. The, Light Blue backs wasted many good chances, however, by feeble attempts to drop goals. What the excitement was like, with the scores so close and Cambridge always pounding at the Oxford line, may be imagined. Many old Oxonians must have put a terrible strain on their hearts. For a ’Varsity match I reckon the penalty kicks totalled a record.