LONDON TOPICS

Evening Star, Issue 21885, 23 November 1934, Page 13

LONDON TOPICS

[Fbom Ocm Coebespokdzk*.} October 11. THE PRIME MINISTER. Everybody tells me that the Prime Minister has benefited greatly by his long holiday, and almost complete rest across the Atlantic. Probably there was never-much wrong with Mr MacDonald’s general health. He has a sturdy Scottish constitution, and he has all his life been a keen walker. But the eye trouble got on his nerves rather badly, as well it might, and this reacted on his general health. It was made a firm condition by the Prime Minister’s medical attendant that he must give his eyes complete rest from print while on his holiday, and, hard as such conditions must be for so habitual a student of books, ho has faithfully complied with doctor’s orders so far as humanly possible. The resultant improvement is marked, and the Prime Minister is more jjhan ready for the work that lies immediately ahead. CONSERVATIVES’ LOYALTY TO MR BALDWIN. Conservatives who attended the Bristol conference have returned to town fully satisfied that the party is 99 per cent, solidly behind Mr Stanley Baldwin and the National Ministry. Despite the narrow majority on the India vote, this was made clearly manifest whenever an opportunity offered. Mr Baldwin’s personal hold of his followers is really astonishing. Self-effacing to shyness, never seeking either aclvertisement or limelight, Mr Baldwin has nevertheless somehow made himself as influential a personality in the Conservative ranks as even Disraeli. Perhaps it is by virtue of this very English lack of personal aggressiveness, and his steady refuel to be rattled by any situation. It is a notable triumph of the strong, silent man. CONSERVATIVE ANXIETY FOR INDIA’S FUTURE. There can be no doubt about the urgency of Conservative misgivings on the subject of the White Paper scheme for India, in view of the'result of the ballot at Bristol. The opponents of the White Paper have tried again and again to secure a straight vote upon the Indian issue, but means have been found to sidetrack it through amendments postponing the discussion, or dragging in confusing questions of party or personal loyalty. Nevertheless, every vote that has been taken in the representative assemblies of Conservatism lias shown a bigger proportion against the official policy. But now the usual muzzling amendment has been carried by a margin of a mere score of votes out of a thousand, in face of this it is hard to sec how the officials of the party can continue to treat opposition to the White Paper policy as merely factious and personal. WOLF DONS SHEEP’S CLOTHING, Plain blunt citizens, in so far as party politics interest them at all, will certainly be puzzled by what has just happened at the Labour Party’s conference. We were led to believe the piece de resistance was to be a battle royal between the more impetuous spirits of the Socialist League, whose avowed policy is swift revolution the moment a parliamentary majority is secured by hook or crook, and the trade unions, who cherish much the same ultimate ambitions, but think it best to ca’-canny a bit. Ihe battle royal turned out to be a sham fight, and though the Socialist League’s proposals were swamped on a vote, the conference promptly took Sir Stafford Cripps, the league’s own Hitler, to the bosom of its own committee. CYRIL ASQUITH. Liberals who still believe in the possibility of a revival in their electoral fortunes, and, indeed, regard that as perhaps the only safeguard against

some form of dictatorship if and when the National Party breaks up, are watching with great interest the Hon. Cyril Asquith. The late Earl of Oxford’s fourth son is now forty-four. He had almost as distinguished an Oxford career as his illustrious father, like him is' a barrister, and resembles him in many ways. Not only in. looks and mannerisms but also, in a singular clarity of mind. His voice is not so finely resonant, but he is a most effective and cogent speaker, with very much his father’s style, and he is a firm Liberal. He is being pressed to stand at the next General Election, and many Liberals hope he may adopt a political career. In which case he might easily become a second H.H.A., and perhaps lead Liberalism back from the wilderness again. His particular hobby is botany, whereas his elder brother, Herbert, who served with the Guards in the war, prefers shooting and golf. “BLACK MICHAEL’S” GRAND- > SON. Earl St. Aldwyn, grandson and heir of the statesman known to Victorians as Sir Michael HicksBeach, was twenty-two this week. He celebrated the occasion overseas, for he is making the traditional grand tour. He is one of the most popular young men in society—welcome everywhere, whether at a dance or a cocktail party. His lordship, like his father and grandfather before him, is an Etonian, but, unlike them, can never be a member of the House of Commons, nor, as was his grandfather, Chancellor of the Exchequer. Lord St. Aldwyn succeeded to the peerage when he was less than four years old, his father, the late Viscount Quenington* having been killed in action in Egypt a week before the death of the first earl, who never knew of his bereavement. Lord Quemngton’s death resulted in the present earl and his sister, Lady Delia Hicks-Beach, being left orphans, for Lady Quemngton, a daughter of the late Mr Dent Brocklehurst, of Sudeley Castle, had died only a few months previously. NEW THAMES BRIDGES. Waterloo Bridge is not the only new structure impending across the. Thames London reach. The L.C.C. have accepted a £310,000 tender by a famous engineering firm for a new bridge at Chelsea. This is to be a steel suspension bridge, 700 ft long and forty wide, with accommodation .for four lines of traffic. It will take three or four years to complete this new Chelsea landmark, and require three thousand tons of high-tensile steel. So_ we may expect to see the Chelsea bridge in active use some time before the new Waterloo Bridge is finished. The latter will be an arched structure, on quite a different design from the Chelsea one, but a far more important and picturesque addition to the London amenities. But Father Thames ceitainly cannot grumble that ae are neglecting him. He even has one comparatively new bridge—that at Southwark—which is redundant and takes hardly any traffic at all. One of these fine days'London Bridge will come in for reconstruction. It is hardly adequate to modern needs. STILL THE CALL. It is remarkable that tho> flow of cadets to our merchant service training ships, notably the Thames’s H.M.b. Worcester, shows a slight increase. This in spite of the evere depression in our shipping industry, and the fact that we have vessels sailing from London and Liverpool and other ports with fullyfledged master mariners signed on as ordinary forecastle hands. I am told that the popular excitement aroused by the great new Cunarder. for one thing, has stimulated youthful ambition for a sea career, and the superintendent of H.M.S. Worcester, who is Captain Steele, V.C., asserts that no difficulty is experienced even now in finding jobs for suitable cadets, on passing out, with the big shipping companies. This is in sonic degree due to improved system of promotion for ships’ officers in the principal lines. But nowadays the quarterdeck man in the merchant service has to achieve a much higher general standard of edu-

cation than - formerly. Whether they are Better sailors is another story. EX-KAISER’S FAVOURITE GRANDSON. Prince Louis Ferdinand,- who is now on a visit to London, is a tall, handsome young German with an intellectual head and face, the austerity of which is usually defeated by a most charming and good-humoured smile. He is the second son of the ex-Crown Prince, popularly known amongst ex-servicemen as “ Little. Willy,” and the report is that Be is the ex-Kaiser’s favourite grandson. Should Nazi Germany ever grow tired of Herr Hitler, the one-time house painter and lance-corporal of the Great War, and decide to revert to monarchy, Prince Louis _ Ferdinand might be the chosen. Hohe'nzollern for the big job. . He must be somewhat of a democrat., For two years he worked as a fitter in the famous Ford works in America, when he made his workmates call him simply “ Dr Ferdinand.” From fitter he has been promoted to be a sort of trade ambassador fot, the Ford car. He talks most European languages with remarkable facility, but his English is strongly Americanised in form and accent. BRASS HATS AND FROCKS. It is strange how L.G.’s picture of the Army, men in his memoirs differs from the late Sir William Orpen’s in ‘ An Onlooker in France.’ Sir William met both the big commanders and the big politicians, and his judgment should be impartial. He tells us that at the Peace Conference all these “ frocks,” as Sir Henry Wilson called the politicians, seemed to him very small personalities compared with the fighting men he had known. “ They appeared to think so much —too much—of their own personal importance, searching all the time for popularity, each little one for himself, strange little things. One was almost forced to think that the frocks won the war. The war was over, the Germans a long, long way from the coast or Paris. The whole thing was finished. Why worry now to honour the representatives of the dead, the maimed, the blind, or the living that remained?” Bitter words from a civilian. BLUFF AND BREEZY, Admiral Sir Roger Keyes’s naval memoirs, in the typical bluff and breezy Navy style, make interesting reading, but add little to what we already knew. He pictures old Jackie Fisher as a grim autocrat, a friend to his friends and a relentless foeman to his foes, who took the quarterdeck manner to ibis Whitehall desk. Ho once told a high official who was responsible for submarine contracts to keep paper and red tape methods out of his work or his wife would be made a widow and his home a dunghill. But at the moment our needs were pretty desperate, and Lord Fisher knew the bureaucratic mentality. Sir Roger backs Winston’s Gallipoli adventure, and contends, with good reason, that properly launched and supported it would have been a huge success and shortened the war by years. Sir Roger does not like the pacifists much, and holds that our race touched its zenith of prestige in 1914-18. DIPLOMACY AND SPORT. Nothing will persuade the majority of cricketers that it was not direct or indirect action by the Government, through the persuasive voice of Mr J. H. Thomas as Colonial Secretary, which dictated the M.C.C.’s policy in the recent cricket, tests. Though we have had the usual and doubtless technically correct official denial, I am inclined strongly to agree with this theory. Now comes a suggestion that the Foreign Office may have intervened to secure an absence of recriminations following the America’s Cup fiasco. It is said that Mr Nicholson, the designer, of Endeavour, who admittedly nurses a big grievance, wanted to unburden himself about American yachting manners on his arrival here from New York, but sud-

denly and abruptly changed his mind. Even though this may have followed a wireless message from Mr Sopwith, ;ib does not imply that offiical influence ha* not been brought to bear. PAINTER OF ROYALTY. It went without saying that Mr Philip He Laszlo \tould paint a full-length portrait of Princess Marino. During the past thirty years this Court artist has painted more Royal portraits than any other man living. Almost all the crowned —and also - recently ; uncrownedheads in Europe have sat for him. Amongst other illustrious sitters he has had Pope Leo XIII. He works with incredible rapidity, and makes lifelike portraits. But the advanced Bohemians of Chelsea would call him merely a photographer. in .colour, not a great painter of portraits in their sense. In art and literature, however, the Royal taste is perhaps more suburban than highbrow. This is one of many homely touches that make for the _ immense popularity ,of our Royal Family Its outlook reacts to the views of the many, not of any exclusive coterie of art. All the same, it would have been rather thrilling to have had a few Royal portraits by Augustus John. Ha could perhaps have done for Prince George’s Princess what he did for Madame Suggia. . THAT MONSTER. When the Loch Ness monster made its sensational debut the opinion of an old sea captain was quoted. ~ That opinion was that the monster is a seal,or perhaps a number of them, which would give an impression, when they swam on the surface of the water in procession as seals will, of some monstrous snake-like animal cutting acros* the Ness. Local views scornfully rejected this hypothesis, partly perhapg because mortal men love to believe the incredible if possible, but partly also because the monster was a first-class business proposition from the visitor book point of view, which is the same as that of the box office in the theatrical world. But now the films taken at Loch Nesa of the monster’s manifestations have been scrutinised by a score of zoo and museum experts'. The verdict is unanimus. The monster is a grey seal. Sa the story about its carrying off a sheep is sheer folk lord LIFE IN KENYA. Almost I am persuaded to pack up and book single fare for Nairobi. A young friend, who recently took up a £lO-a-week job out there, assures ma he is living on what would at home be a £l,ooo-a-year scale and saving money.- “ I have a really first-class valet,” he writes, “ a good cook, two waiters, and a chamber boy, which, with food and quarters, costs about £7 a mouth. Golf costs 30s a month, tennis 20s, and Nairobi Club 20s. Drink is exactly the same price as at home, and cigarettes and tobacco much cheaper. _So I can easily run a car and have a bit over for entertaining.. What I really miss here is the walking. Even on the outskirts of Nairobi it is unsafe to walk at night owing to lions and leopards. The former are perfect gentlemen, and would not intentionally hurt anyone unless frightened; hut the leopards are perfect fiends. And there is always the odd chance of a ‘ broke ’ native with • knobkerrie.” BOMBS FOR BILL. The burglary epidemic is producing the inevitable crop of quack remedies. Some of the quacks, however, are prodigiously loud ones. I saw a demonstration of one patent device that ought ta make burglaries a popular feature with week-end house parties. It is a wooden missile about the size and shape of an orange, which on being thrown explodes with a bang and flash that recall our old friend the Mills bomb, though the effects are far less devastating. di the burglar happens to be an ex-service-man and to have served with the_ bombers it will make him fancy he is back with the jolly old Suicide Club again. Snowballing Bill Sykes with these burglar bombs should be great sport for our bright young things on long winter nights. It would be bound to disconcert the burglar, and might even scare the cat out of a moiety of its lives, but I cannot say bow it would affect ( the ceilings.