LONDON TOPICS

Evening Star, Issue 22956, 13 May 1938, Page 7

LONDON TOPICS

TRADE AGREEMENT HITCHES JAPAN’S STALEMATE [From Our Correspondent.] (By Air Mail.) April 21. Despite the great anxiety of Whitehall by every possible means to trino’ off if possible the proposed AngloAmerican trade agreement, there arc now the gravest doubts whether tuis effort will succeed. What the high negotiators ; in London have in their minds is not only the potential commercial advantages which might accrue from such an agreement with America s big' business, but still more the etiecu such a trade entente might have on Anglo-American political relations. John Bull is out to cultivate the closest and friendliest possible terras with his too-long estranged transatlantic cousin Jonathan. But the best-laid plans go astray sometimes, and it seems that the stumbling block to an effective Anglo-American trade agreement is of no less. dimension than the British Empire. It is well-nigh impossible to reconcile 'what Washington, prompted by New York, would regard as a reasonable agreement with our imperative commitments to our own oversea dominions. Something. may be patched up, but the prospect at present inspires little confidence. > ■ Military experts in Berlin and Rome cannot be impressed by the potential utility *as a European factor of the Japanese end of the triple axis. The ironical position is that no official war is. ; taking place in the Far East, yet Japan and China beta ten them have thrown 4,000.000 men into the fighting, and the casualties arc- already about 1,000,000. Incalculable damage to bridges, roads, railways, and buildings hardly counts by comparison with the paralysis imposed for so long a period on all industry within a wide area. It will take Tokio years and - many millions in men and money to clean up this Oriental Augean Stable. Though summary execution' of defeated generals by the Chinese authorities has tended to make officers sacrifice their men uselessly rather than risk their own heads by ordering a timely retreat, it is becoming recognised at headquarters that it is impossible to stand up to Japan’s equipment and organisation in big set battles, and endless guerrilla operations are now developing, which constitute a constant menace, to Japan’s long communications. There is nothing reassuring in tjiis situation to Tokio’s European allies.

PRECIPICE. The Barcelona Government’s deci-.ion to: check the flight of Spanish refugees into France will enormously ease the work of the police who guard _ the lonely frontier bordering the Mediterranean between Cerberc, in France, and Port Bou, in’ Spain. This route has been much used by refugees, although little reference has been made to it in the Press, doubtless because absence of snow at the eastern end of the Pyrenees has meant less, spectacular hardships for those seeking to escape at this point. Yet the road to the frontier abounds with perils. The surface as good, but narrow, and it winds thousands of feet ■up from the valley with sheer drops, come of them fully 3,000 ft: into the sea far below. I have been driven over this road by ■ twilight in a state of panic lest there should be a skid or a collision, for there k no border, not even a fence, to prevent a car hurtling over. My driver was a young Spaniard who chatted garrulously as we ran alongside this appalling precipice. He was. not dismayed. “ Either we get over safely,” he said, “or we do not. That is all there is to it.” And on we went. AUSTRALIA’S REACTION. An exceptionally well-informed correspondent, describing Australia’s reactions to the Anthony Eden affair states that popular opinion at first was undoubtedly on the ex-Foreign Secretary’s side. He seemed ■to Australians to stand for democracy, which is the Australian faith, and to place Hitler and Mussolini as Australians would do. This feeling continues, but Australians recognise that foreign affairs are not their strong suit, in which respect they set a fine example to democrats nearer home perhaps, and so they are prepared to back Mr Chamberlain to the extent of giving his policy a run. “If he fails,” writes my friend t “ they will have no more use for him than probably will the Home country. If he succeeds they will rank him among England’s great Prime Ministers, as a statesman with the courage of bis convictions who proved of better judgment than themselves. At the moment they are inclined,, however, to regard him as influenced by • present urgencies more than by abiding principles.” My informant adds that.it k significant that privately there is eager speculation in Australia as to Mr Chamberlain’s probable successor. English visitors are keenly canvassed on that point. Australians know nothing of Sir Thomas ■ Inskip, and have heard of Sir Samuel Hoare only in connection with the .Hoare-Laval incident. They plump for either Mr Eden or Mr Winton' Churchill. Mr Bruce, so often mentioned at the time of the Cabinet crisis as a probable recruit to British politics, is never spoken of by Australians, whose tendency is to criticise the British Cabinet as mediocre; yet they recognise that we, like themselves, are suffering from the losses of the war generation, and that back-benchers, who would cheerfully have remained in obscurity, have been forced to take front bench seats. As sportsmen, the “ Aussies ”. realise that so far from being, criticised these men should be praised, for their patriotic devotion. It is unfortunately true, however, that Australians have a contempt for their own politicians. “No others,” they say, “could be worse.” Down. under, as here, the need for effective leadership is felt strongly. FRANCE’S STRONG MAN. The French Chamber has voted its confidence in the new Prime Minister. M. Daladior, by the overwhelming majority of 514 to 8. Hailed as a hew Strong Man of the' Republic, M. Daladier has chosen a small Cabinet of about half a dozen colleagues, and has been given until July 31 carte blanche to do what he likes. Collapse of the very threatening engineering strike has solved both his industrial and his defence problems, but there still remains the delicate and urgent,, one of finance. Logical though the French are, and tremendously patriotic, they have never acquired our tax docility, M. Daladier is adopting most of his predecessor’s (M. Blum’s) programme, only minus the capital levy. His small Cabinet exemplifies the theory of effective democratic control advocated the other day by Mr Arnerv for this country. It is undoubtedly a sound one for national. emergency, and .might »'

even be the wisest in normal conditions too. M. Daladier, who thus becomes a sort of short-term French Mussolini, is an old Rugger player, and boars a remarkable physical resemblance to the Duce. COURTESY. Russia is placing a more stringent control on the quantity—and, ideologically speaking, the quality—of foreign travellers who seek to visit Moscow, and undesirables now in the U.S.S.R are being watched with more than usual attention. There is a good story, for the truth of which I can vouch, going the rounds in London political circles at the moment concerning the efforts of the Ogpu to. keep a check on . visitors. All foreign Ambassadors have been, provided with secret service police “ shadows ” since an attempt was made, a few years ago, to assassinate the German envoy, and on one occasion the . Japanese Ambassador, hurrying to keep an appointment, jumped into a taxi, leaving his patient Ogpu agent stranded at a street corner. Noticing the agent’s dilemma, the ambassador stopped the taxi leaned out, and raised his hand. Smiling blandly, he called out; “There is another seat in herel Would you care to accompany me?” MR ARTHUR HENDERSON. -Mr Arthur Henderson, who, with the approval of the Parliamentary Labour Party executive, is about to leave for Czechoslovakia and Hungary to study the problems of political minorities—and that means the agitation of “ exiled ” Nazis—will ■ meet Dr Benes, Czech President, in Prague, and Admiral Horthy, the Hungarian Regent, in Budapest. Mr Henderson is the son of the late Arthur Henderson; Labour’s Foreign Secretary, and, stimulated by his tether’s example, he specialises wholly on foreign affairs in Parliament. He has travelled widely—last year he was in Australia—but he tells me that this will be the first time that he has visited either Prague or Budapest. As a back-bench spokesman of international problems he is good, though he does not compare with either Mr Hugh Dalton or Mr Philip Noel-Baker, both of whom are Labour front-bench experts on foreign affairs from the Socialist angle. The Labour Party is sadly lacking in well-informed. commentators on this all-important topic. Mr Headerson's excursion may bring a little more first-hand knowledge to their ranks.

CHALIAPINE. The death of Chaliapine was, like his life, in Homeric vein. “ Where am IP I do not know this theatre! 1 cannot sing here!” Then, as his last words, “Wake me if Rachmaninoff calls!” When the great pianist came the greatest operatic artist of our time could not recognise him. His doctor’s comment is Chaliapine’s aptest epitaph. “ All. his life he used, his strength as though he were pulling up trees by the roots!” It was that capacity for dynamic energy that made the Russian cobbler’s son the colossus that he was. Thoso who knew Chaliapine personally off the stage, realise that the sublime artist was also a, tremendous personality. His consummate artistry, for he was at least as great an actor as a'singer, brought the former Volga boatman several fortunes, which He squandered with regal generosity and the usual bad luck of the artist iif commercial ventures. But money was to Chaliapine a negligible counter. Art and friendship were his fierce volcanic hobbies, and he lived only for both. For him they constituted Life. He drained the cup to the last sparkling drop. * My memory embraces a tremendous gallery of famous pepole, but I recall none, not even Ellen Terry herself, who so compelled the affection of responsive hearts. There was not a trace of exhibitionism about Chaliapine, yet no matter what the social or artistic setting, his exuberant personality dominated it. He could do the most outrageous.things on occasion, such as conducting from the stage over the head of an uninspired conductor who could not keep pace with Chaliapine’s sense of imperious crescendo,-but his hypnotic artistry never failed to carry off even the most awkward contretemps. If you knocked at his. door he did not say “Come in,” but “Come to me!” 1 once spent a morning with him at a Turkish baths. It was like hiking on the hill tops with Jupiter. Without an apparent effort on his part the whole establishment, revolved . round him. Chaliapine ■ loomed like a Slav diety through the vapour room, and did not allow his joie de yivre ■ to be dashed even by the disconcerting fact that his masseur rejected champagne for beer. We have parted with a maestro who had the soul of an inspired child. “ SUICIDE CORPS.” Most of the London papers get their war news through American sources. This perhaps' explains why Fleet Street has adopted another fatuous cliche. We hear repeatedly,, from both Spain and China, of “Suicide Corps.” This phrase may excite the imagination of emotional "flappers or confirmed film fans, but it arouses only the derision of men who know something about serious warfare. It can mean only either that troops are foolishly sacrificing themselves or that the general morale of the armies to which they are attached is, below par. G. 8.5.,, whose ‘ Arms and the Man ’ reveals amazingly shrewd .military, intuitions, has pointed out that the trained soldier’s first duty is not to throw away his life in any vain. operatics, but to .do his best,to preserve himself as. an effective fighting man. ' If troops have to hold vital positions to the last gasp in order to . save a crucial situation, they _ are merely doing what is the soldier’s obvious duty. . 'lf they sacrifice themselves in vain, when extrication might be possible without jeopardising vital interests, it is. not . heroism, but bad soldiering. No real prestige, civilian or military, attaches to the word “ suicide.” MORE ARMY CHANGES. Mr Hore-Belisha is not allowing himself to weary of well-doing at the War Office. His energetic spirit, which can be as volcanic as any old-style brigadier’s. on occasion, is still . gingering things up. • He has squashed the ban on false teeth and eye-glasses for one thing. It has hitherto-been the hard and fast rule that a man joining up, whether with a commission "or in the ranks, had to have no more than so many false teeth. Henceforth even a complete artificial denture will be no necessary bar, if the would-be soldier’s physique is' up to _ Army standard in other respects. Similarly, no longer will a man be turned down on account of wearing glasses. The latter reform Mr Hore-Belisha made, despite the consternation of the Old Guard, on logical grounds. Eye-glasses are no dis-

ability in the case of serving officers Why, asked the War Minister, shouli they bar those about to become such IYet old campaigners may doubt how a soldier with spectacles would get on in a deluge, and how a warrior with false tooth might faro on iron rations! To bite through an Army biscuit with a dcuture would bo something of a feat. NO FADDIST. Dr Robert Hutchison succeeds Lord Dawsbn.- of Pena as president of the Royal College of Physicians. Lord Dawson has held the honoured post ■ for seven years. The new president, who studied medicine in Edinburgh, Strasbourg, and Pans, is a giant of 67, with.a great reputation as a specialist in dietetics and children’s ailnients. Ho married a daughter of the late Very Rev. Dr Moore-Ede, and has two sons. His London address is in Devonshire Place, but his home is at Goring up the Thames. Over 6ft in height, and of sturdy physique, Dr Hutchison has a caustic humour and original views, which, have often delighted students to whom he lectures. He is consulting physician to London Hospital, and also to the Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital. A strong opponent ot all forms of faddism, Dr Hutchison specially derides the popular theory of compulsory physical fitness as exemplified in Nazi and Fascist countries. He contends it must make the nation a tired one, and that enjoyment is the vital essence of all physical recreation, which should therefore be entirely voluntary, NOT SO TEMPORARY! Their visit to the Regular Army’s headquarters at Aldershot last week afforded King George and Queen Elizabeth a pleasant break in the Buckingham Palace routine of London’s busy season. Their Majesties received a hearty welcome from all ranks, and were keenly interested in everything their military hosts had to show them. In particular were they thrilled by the display given by some of our up-to-date dinosaurs of the Royal Tank Corps, great fire-spitting monsters, who can crash across rough country at an incredible speed, and incidentally at an incredible consumption of petrol. Among the personnel they met was one brilliant ex-civilian Brass Hat. This officer, Brigadier A. E. Percival, is an old Rugby boy, and, before the war, was-with a business firm in the City, and played cricket for the gentlemen of Essex. He served with great distinction in the war, won the D.S.O. and Croix de Guerre, and is now Chief of Staff at Aldershot. He is a keen sportsman, a good man at polo, tennis, cricket, hockey, and squash, and a notable instance of business brains making good in the Army.

TWENTY MONTHS A PRISONER.

Though Mr Stanley Wilson’s obituarists dwell chiefly on his youthful celebrity in connection with the Tranby Croft baccarat scandal, he had other even more exciting experiences much later in life. He was carrying official despatches during the war as a King’s Messenger, when nis ship was torpedoed by a submarine. He threw the precious papers overboard, but the airtight bag kept them afloat, and the submarine commander salvaged them • complete. As a result of this awkward misadventure the Foreign Office despatch bags have since been purposely holed so that they will promptly sink in water. As a sequel to that affair Mr Wilson spent a year and eight months in Austria as a prisoner of war. A keen sportsman and considerable owner of racehorses, Mr Wilson was a sort of enfant terrible as a member of the House of Commons, and his often daring interjections more than once led to what parliamentary writers call ■ “ a scene,” But he was personally not unpopular with the sporting crowd, and owned one or two notable winners in his time. TIED DIVISIONS. There is a precedent for everything that happens in the House of Commons, and there is the correct parliamentary procedure to apply to every emergency. There was nothing unprecedented, therefore, about the division tie on Mr. Oliver Locker-Lampson’s Jewish Citizenship Bill. It was so,long ago since a division last resulted in a dead-heat that there must have been few, if any, members present who knew anything about the procedure to be adopted in such a contingency. When announcing the result of a division, it is customary for the , tellers of the winning side to take their station to the left of Mr Speaker as they face him. The other night all four tellers were worried as to where they should stand. But the clerk was prepared for the emergency, and motioned to Mr Locker-Lampson to take the leftward position audi announce the draw, whereupon Mr Speaker gave a casting vote in favour of the Bill going forward. Actually, there was,no choice about the matter. For the Speaker to have exercised his easting vote against the Bill would have doomed it. To vote in favour allows the House to exercise its discretion at a later date. Where there is no possibility for revision, as, for example, an amendment on the report stage of a Bill—the Speaker’s duty would be to negative the proposal in order to preserve the status quo. That is exactly what happened on the lost occasion of a tiedi division, which occurred in July, .1910, on the report stage of the Regency Bill, which was introduced following the death of King Edward. CARBIDE. The British company which proposed to set up' a carbide factory in one of Scotland’s most picturesque Highland glens has finally abandoned the project. This follows a third rejection by the House of Commons of the enabling Bill, a decision -which arouses fierce conflict of opinions. On • one side ,are the serried’ ranks of the sentimental ists, and on the other the massed forces of severe realists. Yet there are some experts who believe the Highland desecration was never an essentia) part of an efficient productive scheme within these isles. Sir Thomas Inskip, Defence Co-ordination Minister, lias received an assurance that, between the company’s Norwegian monopoly and the Port Talbot factory, which will make use of steam-generated electrical power, this country will be completely independent of German supplies for this vital chemical product. So all is well that ends well. We ought, however, to be entirely self-supporting in this matter, and not have to depend on sea-borne supplies at all, in days when shipping is exposed to attack on. under, and above the water. This could be achieved, with added home employment, ’ without industrialising natural beauty spots ONE-MAN SHOW. Another one-man picture show will be held at a West End gallery shortly. The artist who is exhibiting his work is Mr Philip Connard, R.A. This will be bis first one-man show for a quarter of a century Mr Connard’s paintings are familiar to the multitude, not only by reason of interesting examples in .the. Tate and other English art galleries, but still more perhaps m reproductions, which are to be found almost everywhere. He also did the mural decorations at Windsor Castle and at the Indian Viceroy’s residence at New Delhi. An interesting fact about Mr Connard is that he is the

son of a house painter, and was himself at first apprenticed to that calling. But he had higher art aspirations than that career envisaged, and his success has more than justified his ambition to paint pictures rather than houses. Amongst his one-man exhibits will be a mural relief inspired by the hornbills at the London Zoo. The St. James’s Park pelicans will be jealous.