LONDON TOPICS

Evening Star, Issue 23317, 13 July 1939, Page 12

LONDON TOPICS

MOLOTOV LESS AMENABLE THE MOSCOW DISCUSSIONS ROYALTY WELCOMED [From Quit Courespoxdent.] [By Air. Hail.] June 29. Official optimism regarding the Russiau negotiations is not quite the hardy plant it was. M. Molotov is loss amenable than M. Maisky, his Ambassador on the spot, in accepting our bona tides, and has firmly turned down all the diplomatic formulas suggested by the French and British Ambassadors in Moscow. backed up by Mr Strang, our special envoy. The real snag is not an easy one to surmount. Moscow regards the territorial and even the idealogical _ integrity of the Baltic States, which are her buffers against Germany, as being fully as vital to her as is to France and Britain the independence of Belgium or Denmark. We are quite ready to include these States within our anti-aggression pact, but the difficulty is that they themselves repudiate any such guarantee as likely to jeopardise their position of strictly impartial neutrality. Can a country be “ insured ” against its will? Moscow bolds that it can and should, but in Downing Streets and the Quai d’Orsay more conventional views prevail. MORE FENIANISM. By grossly exaggerating the terrorism created by Saturday night’s 1.11. A. outrages at the West End, London’s stunt Sunday journals play right into the hands of the miscreants concerned. Several powerful bombs were exploded in the Piccadilly neighbourhood between 10 o’clock and after midnight, and, besides doing considerable damage to bank and shop premises, more or less severely injured a number of inoffensive persons. Shock and bits of flying glass caused these injuries. Naturally, there was great excitement in the immediate locality, which was crowded with theatre and supper people, hut there was absolutely no panic. One man was nearly lynched by the infuriated crowd. Ho turned out to be the wrong man. These outrages follow Dublin’s ban on tho I.R.A. and Ulster’s drastic ne.w explosive regulations. Evidently tho I.R.A. chiefs consider the conditions in this country rather safer than in their own. Possibly tho lynch law symptoms may have some reactions on tho forthcoming “ cat ” debate at Westminster, THE WELCOME HOME. With that theatrical sens© of timing which it so rarely displays, the sun came out over London after a day of gloomy skies, just in time for the departure of the King and Queen from Waterloo in tho procession to Buckingham Palace. I had tho good fortune to bo only a few feet away from their Majesties as they stepped from the Royal train, and one’s instant reaction was that of interest, not unmixed with envy, at the bronzed appearance of tho King and the fresh glow of the Queen. Whatever else tho tour of the New World has accomplished, it has certainly proved to be a healthy and bracing experience for the Royal envoys. There was a bigger turn out of distinguished! personalities at Waterloo than was the case when the King and Queen left last month, and th© Prime Minister spent several minutes chatting cheerfully to the ex-Queen of Spain, who was among the very lar.ge company of ladies awaiting the Royal party. When th© King said good-by© to Mr Chamberlain in May it was noticed that the- Premier made a gesture which quite clearly said there’s nothing to worry about. Now their greeting was the cordial handshake of two men who have seen tho accomplishment of a great mission without undue political disturbance in this troubled part of the world. . Waterloo Station is situated in a somewhat poorer part of London, but it was noticeable, as when the King and Qpeen left London, that tho residents on the south bank of' the Thames were not to ho very much outdone by the panoply of Whitehall. Flags crests, and pennants were arrayed from the windows in brave profusion, and I noticed two Union Jacks temporarily half concealing notices such as “ Bed and freakfast.” Despite the ceremonial which accompanied th© station reception to their Majesties, several of the railway workmen were well to the fore, and half a dozen employees, who had been on duty sweeping the scarlet carpet on the platform, were standing only three or four yards away from the military figures and the Queen’s ladies-m----waiting. Yet the most democratic touch came as ever from the American Ambassador. Catching sight of an acquaintance among the journalists on the platform, he strolled across and shook hands. “ I say, I read that story of yours,” ho remarked, it was very good.” Then back he went to engage the Homo Secretary an amiable conversation. PORTUGAL’S DISQUIET. Sir Walford Selby, our Ambassador to Lisbon, has nob returned to London for nothing. It is understood he brings communications of first importance from Dr Salazar, the least-talked-of, bub certainly not the least able, of European dictators to-day. Portugal is much concerned about tbe growth within recent date of propaganda in the country, and it is believed that Dr Salazar desires to emphasise Portugal’s firm and strict adherence at this juncture to her old alliance with Great Britain. That dates back handsomely for over 500 years. Dr Salazar is credited with having recently made strong representations on this same subject to General Franco, who probably quite appeciates the cogency of his, neighbour’s arguments. Sir Walford Selby is, in looks, manner, tailoring, and training, the diplomat in excelsis. Ho might walk straight on, at any West End theatre, and be quite _at home in any modern play featuring “ His Excellency.” Dr Salazar was a professor of economics at, Coimbra University before his sudden summons, 13 years ago, to rescue his country’s finances. Since then he has achieved miracles of sound financial rebulding and good government generally. Portugal is proclaimed, by impartial foreign observers, to be one of the best administered States in the whole of Europe to-day. Hence Dr

Salazar’s tremendous popularity with his own people despite his apparently despotic rule. For 10 yearshe has combined the post of Premier with the portfolios for Finance, War, and Foreign Affairs. In this respect, therefore, as a statesman Admirable Crichton, he surpasses even Signor Mussolini. Faced during the Spanish trouble by almost equally disagreeable alternatives —a neighbouring Bolshevik or Fascist regime—Dr Salazar steered Portugal through anxious times with firm and skilful hands. Last year Portugal spontaneously paid him special honours on his tenth anniversary as Dictator. E.P.D. There are points of material difference between the Government’s excess profit proposals as outlined in the White Paper and the old wartime E.P.D. The latter was fixed at 80 per cent, on all excess profits above £2OO, husbandry and professional earnings excluded, as averaged on pre-war figures. The present impost applies only to concerns making not less than £200,000 a year out of armaments alone, and is fixed at 60 per cent. The proposals appear to have been favourably received in the city, where a heavier toll had been expected, but this may not be the attitude of the Government’s critics at Westminster. It was Lord Snowden, then plain Philip Snowden, with no suspicion of future Exchequer Chancellorship resting on him, who first raised his voice against war profiteering. The dramatic afternoon when the decision was announced that we were entering the war, after historic speeches by Asquith, Grey, and other front bench figures, the grim silhouette of Snowden arose from the Labour benches, with minatory finger pointed at the serried Ministerial row, and his accusing voice demanded that “no private citizen shall make one penny out of this national emergency.” His aspiration found a responsive echo,_ but was doomed not to be fully realised. FROM PIT TO PARLIAMENT. , Mr David Rhys Grenfell, on whom a C.B.E. was bestowed in the Silver Jubilee honours *of 1935, was 58 on Tuesday. Son of a miner, at the age of 12 he went to work dn the coal mines, and stuck at it until he was 35. He studied, qualified as_ a colliery manager, and became a miners’ agent. Nor did his‘ studies end here. He is one of the best linguists in the House of Commons. He can speak seven languages and maintain an understanding silence in one or two more. He has been M.P. for the Gower division since 1922. His teal opportunity came in 1931 with his party’s debacle. The Labour Party, reduced to a mere group, had to recruit its front bench from those who had not held office. Of those selected Mr Grenfell has been one of the most successful. With the return of many old front-benchers at the 1935 i election, there has been no disposition to relegate Mr Grenfell to the back benches. He has many warm admirers amongst his political opponents, and may some day be destined for Cabinet rank, LEGAL WIT. When he got the greatly exaggerated news of Sir John Falstaff’s demise on Shrewsbury field, Prince Hal exclaimed: “I could have better spared a better man!” It would be hard to find ‘ a : better man or a sounder or wittier lawyer than Mr _ Theobald Mathew, the popular “ Junior,” who coached so many legal neophites and has now died at the age of 72. But one might truly say that one could have far better spared a better-known legal personality. Mathew embodied _ the quintessence of the most distinguished legal tradition. He was cradled in Coke and embalmed in the Inns of Court. And he had a fund of inexhaustible legal and judicial anecdotes, which he recounted with the perfect polish of consummate stage acting, with the aid of, a fine talking voice, bushy eyebrows as expressive as a dictionary, and the pince-nez with which he punctuated every nuance. Some of his quips might, if told in court, amount to judicial lese-majesty. As, for example, the one about the illustrious Lord Chancellor who restricted his Bench preferments to “ persons of proved incompetence”! MILLIONAIRE. Lord Inchcape, who has died at the early age of 51 at his beautiful Surrey home near Guildford, inherited hjs title and fortune from his father. The latter was one of the most dynamic personalities in the great world of commerce, and, starting from scratch as a clerk, made himself a belted and Debretted shipping millionaire. The first earl died, as suddenly as his son, seven years ago aboard his yacht at Monfe Carlo. His heir paid over a million in death duties. The late Lord Inchcape was “ Eton and Cambridge,” and served during the war first as a lancer and then as a machine gunner. He was twice married, his second wife being the eldest daughter, a lovely blonde, of the Rajah of Sarawak, Sir Charles Brooke. He was essentially the city man. and was busy at his office desk the day before bis sudden collapse. His son, Viscount Glenapp, who is 22. is a serious youth in spectacles who holds a Territorial commission and shares his father’s business interests.