LONDON TOPICS

Evening Star, Issue 23351, 22 August 1939, Page 12

LONDON TOPICS

| THE COLOSSAL BLUFF LOAN f , ANGLO-RUSSIAN SNAG t [From Odr Correspondent.] [By Air Maie.] , JULY, 27. ; Berlin is reported to be highly indignant about the £1,000,000,000 peace I loan rumour. It is much more likely 1 that behind the scenes Hitler and his i Nazi associates are holding their sides with laughter. Since the War, in which we and our allies sacrificed so many millions of lives and so many hundred millions of treasure to defeat I the German bid for European hegemony Hitler has, without expending a solitary cartridge, gained more territory and several more million potential German soldiers than were lost in four years of "hard fighting. If Herr Wohltat’s ingenious £1,000,000,000 peace loan bluff Jtad come off—and, after all, it certainly appears to have received serious consideration —Hitler would have been in a position to boast that he had actually won the Great War,- 21 years after the Armistice, and obtained £1,000,000,000 indemnity to boot. It is understood, by the way, that Herr Wohltat’s personal intercourse while in London included not only Mr Hudson, the soap magnate s heir, but. Sir Horace Wilson, the economist who is now chief of the Civil Service, and who accompanied_ Mr Chamberlain on his Munich excursions in preferenc to our Foreign Office chief. The long drawn-out Russian negotiations have latterly vanished from what Fleet street calls “ front-page news.” Nevertheless, the Moscow conversations are still continuing, though with no more indication so far of finality, or at any rate of agreement, than a month or two ago. The snag that is really holding up <i settlement, in_ a ease where ostensibly both parties desire one, is the Soviet’s unbending attitude towards covert and indirect, as against overt and direct, attacb on the guaranteed States. Moscow insists that the proposed concerted action should ensue, not merely if and when one of the States concerned is openly attacked, but even where such State manifested definite reactions to Nazi propaganda and subterranean action. Obviously this would imply an immensely wide latitude of interpretation os well as . a violation perhaps of our consistent policy, declared and kept throughout the Spanish trouble of nonintervention except to repel exterior armed aggression. The hope of eluding this complication is now regarded as somewhat thin. BANNING OF I.R.A. SUSPECTS. The Prevention of Violence Bill will give the police powers to ban the entry into this country of I.R.A. I extremists, coming from Eire, It will also give the police powers to order their deportation, thus altering the present position of the law under which there is no legal authority to arrest on entry or send away such suspects. Similar powers are already possessed by the dominions, and by Ulster, and, in the light of the succession of outrages that have occurred here, one can, hardly imagine that any reasonable Irishmen will take exception to their adoption by this country. The police, I gather, have much information in their possession, which they have been hitherto unable to use, but with the passage of the new law they will be able to treat these extremists as they would do any other undesirable aliens. The Bill is to operate for two years only, and. is essentially an emergency measure. The Home Office regards it us of particular importance, in so far ,as_it. will enable more effective steps to be taken to counter any attempted acts of sabotage that might be made in the event of a European war. , A REALLY STRONG MAN. Mr Malcolm MacDonald’s new Permanent Chief at the Colonial Office is Sir George Gater; who, since 1933, has been clerk to the L.C.C. Whitehall does not usually recruit its departmental chiefs from County Hall, but in this instance it secures a really strong man for what has admittedly been the weakest of all the Whitehall Ministries. Sir George is a tall, commanding figure, with a good-humoured but extremely Strong’ physiognomy, and his record confirms, the latter impression up to the hilt. Though he attires himself nowadays in clerkly garb, the veriest novice could see, behind his sombre broadcloth, a steel-hatted and khaki-tunicked past. Educated at Winchester and Oxford, Sir George took modern history honours and followed those up with military ones. He was right in the .Great War, at Gallipoli, in Egypt, on the western front, starting as junior sub. in 1914 and ending up as a brigadier-general in 1917 at the precocious Brass Hat age of 31. He has the D.S.O. with bar, the , Legion of Honour, the Croix de Guerre, was four times “ mentioned ” m despatches, and twice wounded. He will nut the Colonial Office on the map again. DRAMA OF THE THETIS. It is a long time since the Law Courts staged a drama so thrilling as revealed by the Thetis inquiry. . A rapt assembly lias followed the evidence with tense interest throughout, an interest accentuated by the contrasted personalities of a long string of naval and civil witnesses. The naval men present have been much more im- ( pressed by Mr Justice Buoknill’s grasp of technicalities than by that of the learned counsel engaged'. They admire his control of the inquiry immensely. A minor detail of some interest may be noted. All the naval people refer to the ill-fated submarine as the Thetis, making the “ e ” long as in “ thesis.” But the legal gentlemen, on the other hand, studiously make it Thetis with a short “ e ” as in “ wet.” The 8.8. C. first adopted the long “ c ” and then changed suddenly to the short. Though most people regard the naval version, with the stressed long “ e,” as more euphonious, there is no question that the legal one, with the clipped. “ e.” | has the sanction of Greek scholarship | behind it. Submarine officers adopt an attitude regarding their craft which might rather astonish the general outside public. In their view the two_ vita) questions arising from the Thetis disaster may never be definitely solved—how the 'torpedo compartment flooded without revealing the fact through the usual tests, and why no more men escaped by the Davis apparatus. It was the release buoy that wound the wire round the submarine’s top hamper, and one possibility is that the vessel was finally flooded through the replaced manhole, thus accounting for her swing round and level final position as well as the increased weight reported by the Mersey Dock experts. Submarine' men are not greatly enamoured of safety gadgets—the armoured air-tube idea is manifestly crazy!—because they all take up room that can ill be spared, and are likely to be effective only in very small proportion of emergencies. Taking the figures over the last 20 years, 1 am told, it is proved that a diving sub-

marine is a safer vehicle to be in than a car on the streets of London. SOLDIERS THREE. The three O.C.s affected by the creation of a Middle East Command arc all well-known soldiers. Lieutenantgeneral Sir Archibald P. Wnvell went to Sandhurst from Winchester, and as a Black Watch officer his monocle lias had a close-up view of most of the stiffest fighting during the last 40 years, including South Africa, the lively North-west Frontier, and tho Western Front. He is an enthusiast on mechanisation. Lieutenant-general A, F. Brooke, who succeeds to Sir Ar- ■ chibald’s Southern Command, was cdu--1 cated abroad, and at the _ “ Shop,” served with tho Canadians in France, obtaining six “ mentions ” in de- ; snatches, and is a scientific gunner of 1 the most up to date type. Major--1 general Sir Frederick Pile, who takes tho latter’s post as G.O.C. A.A. units, is another gunnery expert, also with a Western Front record, and is popular as a Brass Hat with original and common sense ideas on military discipline. All three' are D.S.O.s, and whilst Sir Archibald adds ski-ing to his hunting , and shooting hobbies, General Brooke’s special recreation is fishing. Sir Frederick’s hobby is planning to make things hot for raiding bombers. He is a Tank Corps man, and knows all about mechanical gadgets. All are what is regarded in Army circles as “ young men.” GREATER LOVE!, ‘ Peace With Honour,’ A. A. Milne’s essay in emotional pacifism, is in its forty-third thousand. Chance put a copy in my hands to-day, and 1 read the 'author's contention that our Great War dead “ were no more ‘ immortal ’ than a linen draper who is run over by a lorry.” Also his assertion, presumably based on unconscious self-analysis, that; 11 They went into action . . . thinking and hoping and praying that tho casualties would be, not to themselves, but to their companions!” Leaving aside one’s own recollections of those 1914-18 braves who sleep in France, this somehow hardly squares with to-day’s epic of Sergeant J. A. Bullard, R.A.F. His plane lost its tail in a collision and crashed, but Sergeant Bullard deliberately sacrificed his own life, to save his schoolboy passenger, who was frightened. While they hurtled down, the sergeant showed the bov how to work his parachute. “ Don’t be scared I Count five and pull the rip cordl” There does not seem much analogy between that gallant “ Finis ” and the linen draper run over by the lorry. Or, to quote another Milne parallel, the “stockbroker found dead in his bath!” LEGAL DEFAULT. A new. proposal has been put forward by the Council of the Law Society which possibly may lead to agreement upon the best method of giving relief to people suffering loss through default of solicitors. Hitherto there has been a strong body of opposition to the formation of a fund contributed to by solicitors not exceeding £5 a year out of which losses could be met, on the ground that the proposal bore hardly upon the members who honestly performed their duties. The council now propose that, if such a fund is established, and contribution to it is made compulsory, a reduction should bo made in the stamp duty which a practising solicitor has to pay annually tor his certificate. This duty is £9. in the case of a London solicitor, and £6 in the case of a provincial practitioner. ,«o that contribution to the fund would be not more than £4 in one case and £1 in _ the other. While these sums are trifling in amount, and might in very many cases overcome opposition to the proposal, there will remain unappeased a considerable body of opposition entirely opposed to ;he creation of such .a fund on principle. Anyhow, the matter, is to be brought to a head by a canvass of the whole profession represented in the society. THE NEW ARMY UNIFORM. The new active service kit for the Army arouses the inevitable controversy. Some tailoring experts denounce it as little short of sartorial obscenity. Others praise it as being neat but not gaudy. Its one strong point, which all old campaigners will welcome, is the disappearance of the puttee, a device for promoting varicose veins and trench feet. The much lower percentage of kilted battalions 'who contracted the latter malady in the war was mainly due to the fact that their puttees were much looser, and also shorter than the trousered infantry’s. The general scheme of the new uniform is serviceable, but those two capacious pockets in the middle front of the thigh are obviously a mistake. If men use them they will bulge horribly, and, worse still, will be a serious encumbrance on the march. And in spite of mechanisation the infantry will have a fair amount of foot-slogging in any future European trouble. Nobody but an inspired theoretician would dream of adding extra direct weight to the limbs that do the marching. It is a safe prophecy that these pockets will have to go. VIRILE PIONEER. Mr John Stroyan, who presided over a shareholders’ meeting in London recently, is a virile survival. He is now 83,- and one of the fast dwindling band of pioneers who created the South Africa of to-day. The son of a Galloway gentleman-farmer, he went to the Cape at a time when the map of the subcontinent contained funny little trees—for the very good reason that the printer could find little else to depict in those vast regions. He became a merchant, amassed a moderate fortune, with which he was about to return to, the homeland at the age of 32—when gold was discovered on the Rand 1 Stroyan decided to investigate the possibilities. He became associated with Cecil Rhodes and Barney Barnato; and his ability to hold the full cup led to his amassing a vast fortune. No one had a surer instinct as to when and what to buy, and for the psychological moment for selling. But ho will tell you that he never gambled. When he did return to the homeland ho succeeded the late Sir Donald Currie as M.P. for West Perthshire, and was constantly consulted by Joseph Chamberlain on reconstruction measures after the South African War. Mr Stroyan's home is at Lanrick Castle, Perthshire, but every year he makes n prolonged tour in South Africa, looking after his many interests there. Even in his eighty-fourth year he is a pituresque figure—a typical Viking with bis ruddy cheeks, steel blue yes, iron grey hair, and jutting chin. He is grandfather of Miss Sheila Stroyan, the well-known golfer. “THE INFERNAL PITY.” Mr R. Henderson-Bland, the wellgraced actor who played the terrific central role in the film, ‘ Manger to Cross,’ has published an interesting story of his life under the title, ‘ Actor-Soldier-Poet.’ Not the least exciting chapters deal with his adventures, as Captain Henderson-Bland of the Gloucesters. on the western front, and especially with Sir Hubert Gough’s devoted Fifth Army in the epic of the March retreat. But it is probably the theatrical reminiscences and anecdotes that will most attract a post-war read-

ing public. The author knew all the famous stage personalities of pre-war times, and played with most of them in his younger days on the boards. Ho has a lovely talc about Hall Caine’s ‘ Eternal City,’ a play, lie tells us, always referred to by actors in the cast as “The infernal Pity.’’ At rehearsal one day Tree beckoned Hall Caine, who went to him on the stage. Tree took him by the arm, mysteriously led him up the stage, and then, with a sweeping gesture, indicated the cane furniture in the loggia scene, exclaiming: “Hall Caine! Hall Caine!” Much disgusted, Hall Caine called his secretary and left the theatre. INTIMATE INDUSTRY. Wooden legs probably do run in families. So does the fighting services tradition, and the two often go together. But, in rather another sense, it seems that glass eyes also run in a family. There is a London firm engaged in making artificial eyes which represents the fifth generation of the same name and family. The present head’s great-grandfather made glass eyes for Peninsula and Waterloo veterans. Amongst strange orders fulfilled by the firm are glass eyes for an Eastern idol and one for a live/lion. A stranger case perhaps was the visitor from South Africa, who told th,e firm he had made a nice little fortune out of their glass eyes supplied to him out Kimberley way. hie had lost an eye, and used the London firm’s glass ones, made with a hole just behind the pupil, to smuggle diamonds out of a mine where he worked. Everybody was minutely searched, but nobody worried looking behind a glass eye. The Government allows ex-servicemen who have lost an eye two glass ones a year. The moisture in the socket corrodes them in six months. OUR GREAT ADMIRAL. Perhaps the unique collection of Nelsoil relics now acquired by the Maritime Museum, newest but not least fascinating of London’s show places, may draw bigger crowds to Greenwich. The latter is London’s oldest and most historic suburb, yet visitors to Wren’s Painted Hall and the museum are mainly from the provinces or abroad. Few Cockneys have ever seen Greenwich, unless they happen to live there. The Nelson relics have been donated by the grandsons of Horatio Nelson’s beloved daughter. Remembering that their grandmother had to sell Nelson’s Trafalgar tunic to buy herself food, this is surely a splendid gesture. One exhibit is Guzzardi’s full-length portrait of Nelson, done in Naples in 1799, with his Nile head wound still showing fresh. Some most interesting letters are in the collection, one to Horatio just before Cadiz action; but Lady Hamilton’s will is the most pathetic relic of all. “ I beg, as the virtuous and deaP Nelson wish’d me to be hurried near him, that if it is possible I may be; if it cannot be, then let me be buried at Merton!” Still in that faded holograph breathes the human drama of a great love story. Lady Hamilton also tells the guardians to whom she entrusted her daughter that if they fulfil their charge “ Nelson and Emma’s spirits will look down on them and bless them.” INTERLUDE! How used we get to the smooth efficiency of our civilian round! And how startling it is—as though the law of gravitation had suddenly ceased to work —when something suddenly upsets it! Having completed the nightly Fleet Street grind and dined comfortably at my club, I leisurely strolled one recent night with a journalistic friend to catch the last train from Cannon street station to our mutual suburb. We were, as usual, almost the only passengers on the train, and seated in an otherwise empty carriage my friend, oppressed by the responsibilities of A.R.P. wardenship, dilated on the terrible things that might ensue if the city were bombarded with incendiary bombs. An official head popped through the window and inquired whether we were in a hurry. We then .noticed that we were still in Cannon street, though it was 11 o’clock and our train was the 10.47! We were assured no more trains would leave the terminus—owing, to a big fire in the borough! FIRE FIGHTING. Accordingly we had to decant ourselves and make for London Bridge station. On the way over London Bridge we had a magnificent view of what Fleet Street habitually calls “ the lurid glare,” and the exhilarating spectacle of umpteen fire engines and fire escapes cascading past us. The police were cordoning the locality, but by artifices known only to Fleet Street we managed to get a close-up of the fire. Half the old Borough Market was a fiery furnace, sparks were showering down on the adjacent Southwark Cathedral, and, perilously clinging to the railings, of that historic fane, we watched the Greek helmets of the firemen darting about against a Dantesque background, and heard the always pulsating "sound of glass and brickwork being splintered under power jets from the brigades’ hoses. We saw the Southern Railway’s overhead bridge catch fire, and, too late, realised the innuendo of sundry blue flashes. The electric train service had, “ fused,” and wo had to scrounge for a taxi home. So we eventually had to pay stall prices for our front stands at the fire. MARS. Astronomers are preoccupied just now, as politicians have long been, with Mars. This planet may be observed any midnight when the sky is reasonably clear, just above the southern horizon. The reason for this special obsession is that Mars is now nearer us than it has been for over half a generation, and with the aid of improved equipment astronomers hope to gain more definite information about it. Mars, distinguishable by its Reddish hue, is hardly more than half the earth’s size, and varies in distance from us between 248 and 36 million miles. There is really no support so far for the popular theory that it is inhabited by sentient Martians. The so-called “ canals ’ owe their mistaken name to a misunderstanding of their Italian discoverer’s description, which was “ channels.” Possibly they may bo vegetation belts. The present relative closeup of Mars may enable observers to settle this point. Vegetation is life, and if there is life on Mars—which assumed atmospheric conditions do not suggest—the earth ceases to be the only inhabited sphere floating round the universe.