LONDON TOPICS

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 4008, 14 July 1931, Page 2

LONDON TOPICS

May 21. A curious illusion exists as to Mr Philip Snowden’s dominant role in the Socialist Cabinet. It is assumed that his serious illness and the improbability of his ever resuming his former activities may cause the Socalist Ministry to reconsider its fiscal policy. This attributes too much personal influence to Mr Snowden, who is just as keen au economist as Freetrader, but has signally failed to assert himself on the question of public expenditure. The truth is that, as Mr Lloyd George’s attitude on this question suggests, the Socialist Ministry is overwhelmingly Freetrade. Not more than one or two Ministers have even coquetted with the revenue tariff project. Free food is alike their economic and political sheet anchor. It has been- made plain to the Government in advance that no matter how weighty or urgent the reasons adduced no acceptance of the Royal Commission’s recommendations for salving the unemployment insurance fund will be tolerated. The T.U.C. will listen neither to increased contributions, reduced allowances, nor greater safeguards. If the Government proposes anything of the sort, not even Liberal votes can save it from defeat by its own supporters. This attitude may arouse the country to the real nature of the crushing incubus with which it is saddled, and to its sinister political ramificatons. We are no longer in a position to adopt a lofty moral tone towards America's “ graft ” system. The skeleton in our own cupboard is too protuberant. LORD KYLSANT. One has become so familiar with the idea of Lord Kylsant as a shipping and commercial magnate that one is apt to lose sight of the fact that he and his two brothers. Lord St. Davids and Sir Laurence Philipps, come of a very old county family. Their father, Canon Sir James Erasmus Philipps, was the twelfth baronet, the title having been conferred in 1621, and the family can be traced back to Sir Aaron ap Rhys, who went crusading with Richard I. in the twelfth century and put the crown round the neck of the “ lion rampant sable ” on the family arms by his prowess against the Saracens. This branch of the Philipps family has always been a power in Wales. Lord St. Davids was the seventh heir to the baronetcy to sit in Parliament for a Pembrokeshire constituency. PAUL DOUMER. The President of the Republic is the first citizen of France, and M. Paul Dourner, whose gallant sons sacrificed in the war outweighed even M. Rriand’s long and faithful services when it came to a choice between them for the supreme role, looks the part to perfection. Tall, dignified, gravely handsome, with welT-barbcred square-cut white beard, M. Dourner is the very embodiment of French public eclat. And j et —in slight variation of Mr Kipling’s Boer War song—he is “ son of a belted navvy.’’ it is a fact of much psychological interest how frequently navvy stock produces distinguished personality. M. Dourner is a most scholarly old gentleman, adjures those cigarettes that M Briand chain smokes so persistently, takes only a little wine, walks four kilometres before breakfast daily, and, as the one paternal memento, always rises at 5 a.m. GERMANY’S POCKET BATTLESHIP. There is no doubt the Deutschland, Germany’s first post-war and the German Republic’s first battleship, is a wonderful machine for her size. Only of 10,000 tonnage, she has a speed oi about thirty miles an hour, and carries half a dozen llin guns. She cost £4,000,000, and is a battleship replica of the German pocket cruisers about which so much fuss has been made. Whether the same fighting efficiency, however, can be secured in sjnall battleships that may be claimed for miniature cruisers is a moot naval point. A warship that may be perfect for fast manoeuvring might be quite outclassed bj r superior weight of metal in battle action with a hostile fleet. Shipwrights are curiously superstitious folk, and the Deutschland’s premature launch, which cut short the German Chancellor’s speech and cut out President Hindenberg’s champagne christening, added to her change of name, would be regarded as dubious omens in British yards. INSOMNIA CURE. Why all the fuss about Lord Eustace Percy’s little nap during a recent House of Commons debate? Most members, including such giants as Gladstone, Campbell-Bannerman, Asquith, ‘Joseph Chamberlain, and Lloyd George have slumbered in similar circumstances. Given a dull debate, with the heated atmosphere of the House of Commons and its somnolent dining room, Westminster is the perfect cure lor insomnia Hours of tranquil sleep have alone made existence in the Press gallery tolerable to me. 1 remember an elderly baronet, who invariably took his post-luncheon nap during question hour. He was a dear old boy. and one day, when a bete noir of the Irish Nationalists was on his feet, Mr Flavin quietly slipped round to the slumbering baronet, and put a glass of stout into his hand. The old gentleman, waking suddenly, promptly passed it to the orator at his side, believing he had sent for a glass of water. THE ONE EXCEPTION. Blackmailing appears at the moment to be our one thriving industry. The world slump, bo far from hitting, is assisting it. More chances n’ow exist of blackmailing people with uneasy City consciences. Mr Edgar Wallace, who is in touch with Scotland Yard, actuallj’ estimates that £I,DUG,OOO a year is paid to blackmailers in London alone, despite the fact that one of the principal organised blackmail groups operates mainly in the Midlands. This notwithstanding the legal protection of anonymity now given to blackmail victims who have the strength of mind to prosecute their tormentors. Private detective agencies find most of their clientele amongst the blackmailers’ dupes. There are many illegitimate babies towards whose maintenance half a dozen wealthy’ people are contributing handsomely, and often enough the baby does not even exist. NEW OLD ROMAN MANNER. Italians who have embraced Fascism are indignant at any suggestion that some day Rome may follow Madrid, ami a Republican regime replace the existing one when Mussolini passes from the stage. Their contention is that I. Duce is firmly building up a new morale jp Italy, and that, backed by the vital

enthusiasm and old Roman spirit of Fascism, it will outlast any individual. A relative writes me from Sicily : “ A girl friend told me the other day it was not the slightest use her competing for a certain coveted post. The Mayor of Palermo, a strong Fascist, is her unde, and would be certain to turn her down simply because she is his niece.” Anyone who knew Italy in the old pre-war days will appreciate what that change implies. Nepotism was rampant everywhere before Mussolini arrived. EUROPE’S GRAND VIA. British delegates will figure actively towards the end of this month at a conference of the International tourist - Alliance in Prague. The business before the meeting will be no less than passing final plans for a new Grand \ ia ol Europe in the form of a great motoring highway, cutting straight as an old Roman road from Ostend to Stamhonl. The project was first mooted by British enthusiasts, and has now received the sympathetic approval of all the different Ministries through whose territory the road will pass. The last to signify assent was Rumania, who is prepared to -undertake its vital section of the new international motor highway, and lias decided to call it “ Carol’s Route.’ The Grand Via, with its infinite possibilities of international travel, will run through Brussels, Frankfort, Passim, Vienna, Budapest, Oradea, Bucharest, and Constanza. PRESENCE OF MIND. One unforgivable crime in a Guards sentry is to miss the visiting rounds. Some time ago, however, on a particularly cold, dark night, a sentry at Buckingham Palace, with his rifle and fixed bayonet propped in the corner, was warming himself inside his sentry hut. Suddenly ho realised that visiting rounds had arrived without him hearing them. There was no time to seize his arms. He sprang outside, made a noise with hands and feet like coming to the salute, and said; “ Number 3 sentry post all correct.” Ibe very young subaltern in charge did not notice anything wrong, but both the. sergeant and corporal did. 'I he former was a good follow, however, and said afterwards he would not report a man “ with a check like that ” for £I.OOO. “ I felt like shaking hands with him,” said he, “ as a real credit to the battalion.” BIG SPEED CENTRE SCHEME. The Automobile Racing Association lias a grandiose scheme in view which will give this country the equipment its prowess in world record-breaking justifies. It seems rather absurd that whenever one of our speed merchants wants to beat existing world velocity either by land or water he has to journey' either to Daytona Beach or Verneuk Pan, or somewhere abroad to make the attempt. The A.R.A.’s idea is to reclaim about twenty t miles of northern foreshore on the Wash, and there construct a motor racing track that will he superior to anything yet available abroad; The scheme also takes in a motor boat racing course, with an amusement centre thrown in. One feature of the project, if it comes to anything practical, may lie the world’s record grand stand —four miles long! THOSE ACTORS. There is no doubt about it. Actors have the best stories. In his recentlypublished ‘ Recollections of a Defective Memory,’ that polished actor, Mr Fred. Kerr, who played with Ellen Terry in Mr Shaw’s ‘ Captain Brassbound’s Conversion,’ lias a beauty. He was playing at Manchester with a rather nervous colleague in a sketch, and topped the bill with Captain Woodward’s performing sea lions. His colleague was much worried by the noises coming from the son lions’ tank during his performance with Mr Kerr, and one night the latter tried a “ gag ” by way ot relief During the barking and coughing from the sea lions behind the stage be said: ‘‘Don’t take any notice, old chap, it’s onlv the housemaid; she s got tonsilitis.” Just then the largest sea lion bellowed in deep diapason. “ My God,” said his colleague, ‘‘ she’s given it to the butler!” POST-WAR BUCKS. I have noticed a new mode amongst fashionable London youths, prevalent enough to warrant the assumption that it is now ‘‘the thing.” Our smart young men are wearing, for ordinary day parade, loose neglige flannel coat and trousers without a waistcoat. With this goes usually a black soft felt hat of distinctly “ arty ” design, but the piece de resistance is the woollen jumper. No longer is this of the jazz variety. It must be a one-colour creation, preferably in the most vivid possible green, maroon, or orange. The effect is rather striking. The wearer looks svelt and taut, and suggests Cashel Byron in a particularly neat training rig. For this mode, ot course, the coat is never buttoned. It brightens up the scenery considerably, and is the best contribution 1 have yet seen to that laggard movement known as male dress reform. AN EARLY APPLICANT. It was decided the other day to ask a prominent firm of engineers to investigate the possibilities of making a road bridge across the Forth at Rosyth. about two miles above the present railway bridge. Neither the Government nor the local authorities, who will have to share the expense—nearly three millions sterling—have come near reaching a decision whether the scheme, even if it is feasible, should be adopted. But already, so Mr Tom Johnstone tells me, one enterprising gentleman has applied for the post of collector of the tolls which it is proposed to charge. Needless to say, ho is a Scotsman, and, successful or not, he has the distinction of being easily first in the field. But his services are not likely to be required for at least five years.