LONDON TOPICS

Evening Star, Issue 21993, 1 April 1935, Page 7

LONDON TOPICS

GERMANY, AND THE AIR PACT ( From Our Correspondent—By Air Mail.) , February 28. Beilin's response to the Air Pact project is typical. Hero was a sincere effort by France, supported by Britain and Italy, to get Germany back in the Peace League, and stop another mad rivalry in European armaments. So far irom grasping the olive branch, Berlin evasively lingers the shoots. The French plan made the Air Pact only part of a complete endeavour for European security against another 1914. Germany accepts the Air Pact with reservations, and ignores the major issue. Having rearmed secretly contrary to her Treaty obligations, Germany is now adopting the role of a coy -and pampered prodigal who must be sedulously wooed back into the domestic folci. But the fairly patent fact is that, though it suits her to secure an interlude for strenuous preparation, the Teutonic prodigal is still hankering after the delectable husks of Jrunp kuitur. Tlio Austrian Chancellor and Foreign Minister, who have been in London on a two days’ visit, came on a delicate mission of combined high politics and high finance. They desire to sound the British Government as to security for Austrian independence and possible financial backing for important public works. Unfortunately, these two questions, about which there might be no great difficulty, are'complicated by a desire on the part of Vienna to stage a Hapsburg restoration, a step to which emphatic opposition exists both hero and elsewhere for very obvious reasons. But the Austrian argument is that only thus can a growing movement for AustroGcrman unity, which German Nazis are assiduously fostering, be hopefully combated. But Europe can hardly countenance a German attempt to adjust the loss of Alsace-Lorraine, with all its military depletion, by annexing what is left of the old Hapsburg kingdom. RETURN OF THE PEACEKEEPERS. London very sensibly resisted the incitements of the stunt Cockney press, which has no more sense of proportion than a baby, and, while according the returning Saar troops a hearty . welcome, refrained from any conquering-heroes’ ovations., I saw the Ist Essex march into Wellington barracks. They looked a smart lot of youngsters, but nowadays war ribbons begin to be few and far between. The guard turned out with a click to salute the peacekeepers’ return, and the Essex gave the responding “eyes right” - with equal snap and precision. Lots of relatives, to the suppressed horror of Guards’ n.c.o.s and the delight of full privates, rushed the gates to greet their soldier kinsmen, and officers imitated Mr Kipling’s shut-eye sentry when khaki warriors, with tin hats slung in their packs, underwent the order of being publicly kissed by fond mammas or other doting female admirers. The Essex looked remarkably fit after their German vigil, and I heard several “other ranks” airing their newlyacquired German spreolien-sie. THEATRE NIGHTS. Mr Baldwin has not enhanced his prestige with stage folk by admitting to only one visit to a theatre in a year. Few parliamentarians are great playgoers, however, and for a very obvious reason. After being cooped up most of the week at Westminster, it is far too much like a busman’s holiday, even though the dialogue is much brighter. Gladstone was a regular figure in his reserved Lyceum chair, however, when Irving was taking the boards, and Lord Oxford, like Sir Henry CampbellBannerman, liked a lively play. He was also a consistent admirer from the stalls of Maud Allan’s dancing. Lord Rosebery complained that he spent a fortune on theatre seats. Lord Read-' ing, of contemporary politicians, is the keenest theatre-goer, but he has close family associations with the stage. L.G. prefers the cinema to the theatre as a rule, and is so fond of a good film that he. has installed his own cinema equipment at Churt, and holds regular weekly seances. CHURLISH SOCIALISTS. » Mr Bernard Shaw’s remark of many years ago that Socialism would make more progress if it were not for the Socialists is recalled by the decision of Greenock Town Council to take no part in the jubilee celebrations. What they hope to gain electorally or otherwise by such a churlish attitude it is impossible to imagine. As was to be expected of a town which lias seven times returned Sir Godfrey Collins as its member, the inhabitants have promptly repudiated the decision of the town council and taken steps to raise funds for the local rejoicings. Greenock lias suffered much in recent years from the depression in its two staple industries, shipbuilding and sugar refining, but it has had its prosperous days, and does not despair of their return. As the birth-place of James Watt it has a proud position in the history of steam navigation, and it has made many important contributions to the British fleet,- 'both naval and mercantile. AIR SUICIDE. It is already evident that the claptrap romance with which London newspapers tried to invest the double suicide from a British air liner is sheer nonsense. The only points of real public interest in this tragedy is how the young women managed to force open the door of the plane, which swings outwards and forwards, against the terrifiic wind pressure that must have been bearing on it, and what peculiar action of wind friction during their fall riddled their silk stockings with holes. Obviously, however, the danger of ill-balanced or hysterical people, especially if they_ suffer from a not uncommon dramatic egomania, committing suicide by leaping from aeroplanes in flight is one against which precautions will have to be taken. The difficulty is the old one of the. railway carriage. It is inexpedient to lock the door in case some accident occurs, and quick exit by the passengers becomes vital.

Perhaps it would be well, in order to check aeroplane suicide, to kill the myth about persons who fall_ from a great height becoming unconscious long before they reach the ground. This used to bo put forward with every show of scientific infallibility, but has been many times completely disproved in actual practice. Airmen who have parachuted, and deliberately or accidentally fallen thousands of feet before being checked by the opening of the parachute, have never experienced th least sensation of unconsciousness. I remember the case, moreover, of a woman who jumped over Clifton suspension bridge, once a favourite resort of would-be suicides. She fell from that dizzy height into the Avpn

below, where her billowing Victorian skirts buoyed her up. She was rescued conscious and quite unhurt. So the myth about unconsciousness is a delusion. A HEART CRY? Mr Winston Churchill’s brief popular story of' his life, now appearing in a Sunday paper, is disarmingly frank. 1 have been much taken with his account of his early debut as a politician, and his confession of impatience with those who said a young man’s progress should be gradual. He was then twenty-five, and remembered how Mr Pitt had been Prime Minister at twenty-four, and Napoleon commanded an army in Italy at twentysix. How did he know lie was not as good as they? “ Such,” adds Winston to-day “is youth”! He tells us that he wanted to come to the top at once, and manage things as they ought to be managed. Then follows what I take to be a real heart cry. “ However,” he writes, “ here I am at sixty, while all this mismanagement is still going on ”! Reading this candid autobiography, on» understands how Mr Churchill, in the full amplitude of his powers and experience, must feel the irk of being out of harness. Old Anno Domini is a remorseless disillusionist. FAMOUS ADMIRAL. Rear Admiral S. R. Bailey, who was acquitted at the court martial concerning the collision between the battle cruisers Hood and Renown, is one of the most popular men in the Navy. He is fifty-four, saw his first service with the Boxer expedition, in which Earl Jellicoe nearly lost his life, and was Earl Beatty’s flag commander during part of the Great War. His promotion, to captain’s rank in 1918 was at an unusually early age for British naval officers. He is a C.B. and C.B.E. A court martial in a case like the present is merely routine, though it very seldom happens that an admiral is concerned. Since 1856 only in two instances have British admirals been court martialled, one case being that of Rear Admiral Sir Ernest Troubridge, who was in command of the armoured cruiser squadron in the Mediterranean when the German battle cruiser Goeben and attendant light cruiser got away to join the Turks in Constantinople. An honourable acquittal ensued in that case. BUJTLER WHO BUTTED. Are there any such perfect butlers nowadays, I wonder, as the superb example quoted by the correspondent of a Sunday journal which is specialising in ready retorts? A great territorial magnate from South Wales, he tells us, was visiting another magnate in North Wales, and at dinner they discussed, not without some magnatorial vanity, the size of their respective domestic staffs. “At my place,” asserted the guest. “wo keep a boy specially to turn the beer on and off.” This rather nonplussed the host, and, turning to the butler, he asked: “ James, what do we do here?” That perfect butler’s instant reply was: “ In this household, sir, the beer is never turned off at all.” There is a Homeric ring about that story which dates it well back before Mr Goscben converted consols and Whitehall began to plumb the hidden depths of income tax. NEW MURDER FASHION. Some London papers treat a recent murder case, by means of plague germs, as though it were entirely novel. But germ murder is far from new. There was a case not so long ago in Spain, where a jealous lover killed bis successful rival with typhus germs stolen from a. laboratory. A doctor tells me that there is little room to doubt, human nature being what it is, germ murder is going on more extensively than is suspected, and will in time completely displace the old poisoning methods. Our equipment against the latter, built up over long experience through many centuries, is in fact becoming obsolete. Practically every known poison leaves traces and can be detected. Not so germs, and in this respect the law is now up against a very serious problem. Fiction writers are already exploiting germ murder possibilities, but. fiction is never much ahead of real life. HIGH LIFE. Some of the high life episodes in which members of the “ arty ” smart set indulge really do make one furiously to ponder. Yet it is a mistake to attach too much importance to these symptoms. The “arty” smart set is relatively an insignificant coterie, and probably half its devotees are more ov less leg-pulling imposters. A few nights ago there was a “ show ” given near Piccadilly at which a mixed company of white and black cocktail guests watched four West Coast niggers do a native dance, or so the gyrations were described. One of the dancers, I was cynically informed, was supposed to have been a pow-wow witch doctor on his native heath before he became a hall porter at the West End. He contributed the piece de resistance w r hen he breathed fire and smoke down his nose. The entertainment wound up with a war dance, in which the plumed dancers . brandished spears in close proximity to dress shirtfronts and vermillioned lips. It was all verv “ modern.” ANIMAL FAVOURITES. It was a happy idea on the part of Everyman’s Library to take a child census of animal favourites in works of fiction. Three juries were duly empanelled, one younger than twelve, one between twelve and fourteen, and one between fourteen and sixteen. First and second favourite were the same in all three cases, the easy winner being Black Beaut} 7 , Anna Sewell’s famous horse, and a good second _ none other than Lewis Carroll’s White Rabbit. Also-rans included the March Hare, the Cheshire Cat, both Carrollian favourites, be it noted, “ Rab,” of Dr Brown’s ‘ Rab and His Friends,’ R.L.S.’s faithful donkey, “ Modestine,” and Robinson Crusoe’s parrot, hut, curiously enough; John Silver’s parrot with the piratical name was not , even mentioned.' It is an interesting result, but I am in the humiliating position of having to confess that the one animal hero with whom I am_ totally unacquainted is the easy winner. To my great regret I never met Black Beauty. I think somebody might have given a vote to Bill Sykes’s bull pup. CONTRACT BRIDGE. The new contract _ bridge rules _ on April 1, though it is an inauspicious date, will & welcome. Honour bonuses will go, and slam ’ bonuses be drastically curtailed. The latter have fostered all the tiresome rival bidding systems which have turned most club cardrooms into bear gardens. Where outraged colonels call upon their God, And treat their partners like an awkward squad. t The marvel is that people still go on playing contract. It has become a dreary business of embittered post mortem and vitriolic recrimination. Tigers devour rabbits, and even turn cannibalistically upon each other. It is time we gave up taking our cardtable pleasures not only sadly but i apoplectically*

DARK BLUE AJAX. \Vlnln +llA iMin/Ji + c oiirl aI/3 Dliiac* aai*_^

While the pundits and old Blues concentrate expertly on niceties of style, swivels, and stroke personalities, tha genial British public’s interest in boat race practice centres on number 6 in the Oxford boat. Mr P. R. S. Banks, of Oundle and Christ Church, is now seated behind stroke, and is a massive young man whose rowing weight is 14st 11b. Though not the heaviest of a heavy-weight crew, his strength is such that he has already, in practice, smashed six oars at £2 10s each. The mere expense, in a race,, every stroke of which works out at over £2 from. Putney to Mortlake, is a bagatelle, but it would be a tragedy of the first dimension if number 6 broke an oar on the great day. That has happened in the past, and cost the crew concerned a victory. With the special hollow steel oar with wooden blade now supplied to this Dark Blue Ajax, Oxford may hope to avoid this contretemps. The baffling problem for: the Cambridge coach who this year has the Oxford crew, in hand is how Banks manages to get this breaking strain on hi* blade. _ Even allowing that. he . has an exceptional' physique, and brings hi* strength to bear with unusual severity on his oar, it seems almost incredibla that, with the rest of the crew plunking away at the same instant and th« boat moving swiftly along, one man should be able to exert such an abnormal pressure on his single blade. Thi* has raised a suspicion that perhaps number 6, as is the function of a good bow rower, but not of any other member of the crew, gets his stroke in just a fraction of a second ahead of tha rest. If he does so, it is not detectable by the closest scrutiny, and it would place a terrific strain on'Banks.' Is a famous lady novelist at last being justified in that classic ecstacy: “ Th« Oxford crew rowed fast, but faster than all rowed number 4