GOLF IN BRITAIN

Evening Star, Issue 25684, 7 January 1946, Page 2

GOLF IN BRITAIN

COTTON STILL PRE-EMINENT (From Our Correspondent.) (By Air Mail.) LONDON, December 27. The Americans are sending no golfers over to Britain for the season 1946. The intimation has been formally communicated this week, and was inevitable in view of the decision ‘ reached by our own Professional Golfers’ Association. Henry Cotton and others seem to think that our professionals would not he sufficiently in practice to make a match of it with the best of them from the U.S.A. A strong section of opinion in this, country is keenly disappointed, holding that it is the game that matters and not the result. The Americans, however, do express

to forgo its capitulatory rights in either zone, France merely tolerates the presence of the Spaniards along a coastal strip which she herself granted to them by agreement in 1912, after having been prepared 10 years before to let their territory reach so far inland as 'to include Fez. Yet some chauvinists even blame Britian for connivance in the division of the Sultan’s realm between France and Spain. Actually, the British guiding principle in Moroccan affairs coincides with America’s. Since Nelson’s day it has been to ensure the strictly neutral status of Tangier. The present regime there is temporary and provisional. When the signatory Powers meet to draw up the new statute they will strive to make it truly and unassailablv international in char- 1 acter, not simply the instrument of a condominium. The creation of the post of Assistant Administrator of Native Affairs is an important step in this direction, for without the appointment of such an officer, as in the past, threequraters of the population would escape any control by the International Commitee, remaining responsible to the Mendub, and through him, covertly, to the sole and separate authority of France. Meanwhile. Belgian officers have succeeded the French in command of the forces which police the International Zone, and the Portuguese Vice-Ad-miral Magalhaes Correia has arrived to fill the post of Administrator. But so far the Soviet Union has refrained from sending a representative to join the Commission of Control; a tactful abstention, it must be admitted, for on most sides, but chiefly by the Spaniards, the arrival of a Russian consular staff on the opposite shore from the mainland of Spain is viewed with some misgiving. Soeeulation on this fascinating topic ranges from the rumoured presence in Gibraltar of Soviet envoys—detected of course, by the snow on their boots—to anxious-study of activist possibilities in North Africa. Tangier is content +o have been readopted internationally : but its mixed inhabitants are swaved bv mixed feelings about embracing the ideals of the Internationale

Four deck hands of a little coasting tramp spent all their spare time playing poker. They were of an extremely tough type and were used to playing for high stakes. One evening they were in the middle otf a game when one of them whipped out a knife and pinned the hand of one of his opponents to the table. “ Boys.” he said. “if Joe ain’t got six cards in his hand, I’ll apologise.”

the hope that the man adjudged champion for 1946 will find it possible to go over to America to play matches against some of their own tigers. In that case it may well prove to be Henry -Cotton himself, who seems at present to stand head and shoulders above his fellows. Alfred Padgliam, his chief rival, is a beautiful player, with a swing reminiscent of . Harry Vardon. But when I paid a visit to his course at Sundridge Park a few days ago I learnt that he is still serving in. the Police Force, though he is hoping for early release. It was the first time I had played at Sundridge Park, and I was immensely impressed. The links are as near championship level as anyone could desire. The holes, too, want knowing, for the run of the "round often carries the ball right off the line of play, and there seems always a bunker waiting to catch it. I know, because I was in nearly every one of them. ,