LONDON TOPICS

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 4326, 10 August 1937, Page 7

LONDON TOPICS

BRITAIN WILL HOLD GIBRALTAR ITALIAN FIRE-EATERS July 8. It is reported that some fire-eating Italian disciple of Mussolini, broadcasting in Spain, suggested that the finest way to celebrate the Fascist anniversary would be by “taking Gibraltar. Whether this accurately represents Mussolini’s mind there is no way ot cr uessin° r but there is no mistaking the serious “view taken of these manifestations bv our Foreign Office.. Mr Eden s Warwickshire speech, warning all and sundry that we mean to maintain our •Mediterranean interests, may be taken as a reply to this sort of propaganda. The truth is that Mussolini, by no moans too comfortable in Italy, where expensive foreign adventure is far from popular and taxation is onerous, has a personal vendetta with us, laigely cause we led the Abyssinian san tions ” movement, which had more tarreaching effects on Italy than was ei ci admitted. Assured of German support, the Duce might try.a desperate thro*. Without it he dare not budge a hngei - That fact casts a sinister light on the verv mysterious episode ot tue su marine attack on a German cruiser, which cut short important Anglo man talks in London.

FRENCH POLICY. There are certain misgivings in London as to the economic outlook across the Channel. M. Chautemps s Ministry is tackling with commendable courage the same problem of averting a franc panic with which the late M. Poincare wrestled successfully. The Tsational Ministry in this country was confronted with somewhat the same task only m a less aggravated form in 1931. But we met the crisis bv drastic economy cuts as well as stringent tax increases, bo did M. Poincare. M. Chautemps s Ministry appears to be relying on tax increases alone, and is continuing the lavish expenditure policy initiated by the Popular Front Ministry, Therein lies the vital difference, and doubt exists whether these half measures will avail to save the currency situation m France. What is certain is that it the Popular Front scale of general expenditure is to be maintained the tax increases will have to be extremely realistic and heavy. It remains to bo seen whether the French people aie prepared to foot the bill.

FRANC DEPRECIATION. I had a talk last night with an M.P. who knows as much as most men about international finance, and particularh the situation'in Paris. He thinks the franc will depreciate to at least 120. One effect will be to make a French holiday cheaper for British tourists, except to the extent it may be onset by higher railway fares and, perhaps, special taxes on foreign visitors as well as the writing-up of prices. Business men are apprehensive lest, when transactions are resumed, the flight from the franc may result in a renewal of the demand for sterling and the bunging to London of capital and securities which are not wanted here. 1 am tola that the amount of English bank notes owned by Frenchmen and left in London custody is formidable.

AMUR UN AMI ABILITIES. At a time when the world awaits with trepidation the possibilities of na\ al incidents in European waters it comes almost as a relief to hear that one has occurred in the bar East. The sinking of a gunboat of one great Power by the artillery fire of another appears at first sight to be an “ incident ” ot toe first magnitude. Such affairs on the borders between Russia and Manchukuo, however, may be regarded rather differently and there is no great likelihood that Russia will view the matter as a casus belli. Ever since Manchuua was turned into Manchukuo there has been constant trouble along the great river which has never merited the amiable sound of its name. The Amur is full of islands, and in the old days those islands were full of bandits, pirates, and smugglers, for a brisk mutual trade in contraband was carried on between the Russian and Chinese shores. Recently the islands have become outposts for the Japanese and Soviet frontier guards, and there have been frequent conflicts for their possession. Disputes over their ownership are not easilv settled, as although the fairway "is generally regarded as being the accepted dividing line, currents in the Amur are so capricious that even this delimiting mark may shift from one side of an island to another. To make matters more difficult, the whole river is frozen over solid for five months out of every year.

L.G. AND GERMANY. When I was in the German Embassy the other day, 1 was interested to note, in a place second in prominence only to that of Herr Hitler, a remarkably fine photograph of Mr Lloyd George. It was inscribed with “ best wishes to Herr von Rihbentrop for success in his noble mission of reconciling two great nations.” The good wishes may remain, but the hopes must have been dimmed in spite of the intervening meeting with Herr Hitler.

YACHTING MINISTER. Mr Ernest Brown, with a happy and unusual absence of major problems in the Labour Ministry, is living in these days for the sake of his week-ends on the water. The moment the House rises on Thursday nights he is off to Dartmouth to take part in the yachting regattas there, an inherited taste, since his father was for 40 years in command of the lifeboat at Torquay. In his memory Mr Brown has presented a trophy for competition. His davs afloat have given Mr Brown such a complexion of mahogany that bis friends can hardly recognise him, and he is ready to give any of them the fullest details as to how he acquired it. AD ASTRA.

Flight-lieutenant M. -J. Adam, who has recaptured the world s high-flying record for Britain, is a typical, handsome, and modest young R.A.F. officer. No less impressive than the quick and reliant resource he displayed < when manoeuvring his plane alone in the ewigkeit, over 10 miles up above an invisible earth was the complete sang-

froicl with which he discussed the eerie adventure on regaining terra firma. Squadron-leader Swain put up a new high-flying record last year of 49,967 feet. Last May an Italian ace, Colonel Pezzi, beat that by 2,575 ft. Lieutenant Adam has now smashed the Italian record by attaining 53,937 ft, _ or 10i miles, up above the world. This makes Everest’s unconquered 29,000 ft peak look like a dimple, and just about equals the balloon exploit that made Professor Piccard, of Belgium, worldfamous a few years ago. It is almost impossible for a layman to imagine even faintly the nerve and skill required for the successful performance of such a feat as this young R.A.F. officer in the twenties has just achieved.

CAREER OF ROMANCE. Lord Craigmyle, who has passed away at the ripe age of 87, was a native, like the late Andrew Carnegie, of Dunfermline. His father, a baker, died when he was five, but his mother devoted her energies to ensuring a frugal university course for her son. He took his degrees, and became an assistant professor at Edinburgh. Lord Craigmyle never ceased to chuckle over the fact that all the insurance companies refused to accept him because he was overworking himself. He went to the Scottish Bar, became a Liberal M.P , was made a Scottish Law Officer, and refused the Lord Presidency of the Court Session, with a peerage. Twentyeight years ago he became Scottish Lord of Appeal, and when he retired at the age of 79, was the oldest judge, and known as the Peter Pan of law. He was then created a baron, his heir being the managing director of the P. and O. He was rather a dry-as-dust speaker, but to his influence was due Carnegie’s £2.000,000 grant to Scot tisb universities.

OLD SALT. Lord Runciman, the famous shipowner baron whose son is also in the House of Lords, with the superior title of viscount, this week celebrated his ninetieth birthday. He probably improved the occasion by singing some of his old sea chanties. Because this stouthearted, weatherbeaten old peer is a genuine old salt. He ran away to sea at the age of 1-1, and was a cabin boy before he became a shipping millionaire and founder of the famous Moor Line. For some time he served aboard a windjammer commanded by a celebrated skipper known as “ Hellfire Jack,” who seems to have lived well up to his reputation as a hard goer. Lord Runciman was himself in command at 24 but in his early thirties bought the small steamer which was the start of the Moor Line and his fortune. Sir Richard Terry, the musician, is related to Lord Runciman, and is indebted to his millionaire kinsman for some of the best sea chanties he has set to music.

SKY PAY. The action taken by the Croydon air pilots in forming a trade union of their own to safeguard rates of pay and working conditions is an indication that commercial flying is now well on the industrial map Admitting that air piloting demands exceptional qualities of mind and body, and is a somewhat more hazardous calling than company promoting, the existing pay is fairly good. Imperial Airways pays its chief pilots £750 a year, with flying pay of from 10s to 15s an hour. The less experienced men receive £4OO per annum, with flying pay at the rate of between 5s and 7s 6d per hour. Probationers are given £3OO a year to start with, plus a flying allowance later on. The pilots on the Empire routes constitute the corps d’elite of the commercial air services, corresponding to Atlantic liner skippers in the mercantile marine. These pilots get an inclusive salary of £1,350 per annum, and junior captains £1,050. All things considered, nobody will say these rates are excessive..

KING AND FREEMASONRY. When King George VI. became Sovereign he automatically ceased all active participation in Freemasonry. The Constitution requires that the King of England shall not have an active interest in any secret organisations. But by becoming the Past Grand Master of English Freemasonry he retains a sympathetic association with the craft. He has had several Royal predecessors, among them King Edward VII. and Edward VIII. _ One cannot say that Freemasonry is an active interest in the court. Of His Majesty’s secretaries I believe there is only one who is qualified to accompany the King as a brother Mason. But from the earliest days of the association of the present King and his brothers with Masonry their mentor and guide has been Sir Lionel Halsey, who accompanied the King to the Albert Hall for His Majesty’s investiture as Past Grand Master. Sir Lionel is the King’s unofficial Masonic secretary and equerry. A Past Grand Warden and the present Provincial Grand Master for Hertfordshire, he cpmes of a family closely associated with the movement. His father, Sir T. F. Halsey, who for many years was Deputy Grand Master of England, an office now held by the Earl of Harewood, was blessed with a faultless memory, and his interpretation of the ritual was exemplary.

EPISCOPAL WINNERS. I imagine everybody knows the old story, and true one, about Arthur Balfour and the late Lord Salisbury. After a meeting of the Cabinet, of which Lord Salisbury was then Prime Minister, Arthur Balfour and the latter were going on to the Athenaeum Club. As they prepared to set out from Number 10, Arthur Balfour said: “ Aren’t you going to take your umbrella, uncle?” Whereon the great Lord Salisbury replied: “No, there are too many bishops there!” Apparently this episcopal habit of winning umbrellas still persists at the Athenaeum. Recently a member missed his umbrella, and a facetious notice was put up: “Will the bishop who took the wrong umbrella from the cloak room kindly return it to the attendant at. his convenience?” A day or two later, when the member concerned -came to the club, the cloak room attendant said: “ Oh, I have three umbrellas for you, sir!” Whether the right one was amongst the collection T was not told.

GOLF THRILL. There are romantic stories extant about high stakes on golf matches. I know personally one gentleman, a moderately well-to-do City merchant.

who once played a round on a suburban I course on which he had staked his neat 1 suburban villa. But it would be hard to beat the thrill that attended the final of one golf tournament. The finalists in this outstanding event kept neck-and-neck to the 36th hole. At that crisis one of them had to bang down a 30ft putt to save the match. He had paid £55 for a half interest m himself in the club sweep, and had also backed himself for a tenner at 25 to 1. So the money at stake on that putt merely to prevent all chance of winning it from disappearing—was £l,lOO, not to mention honour and glory, lhat prodigious putt was well and tiuly holed, and the intrepid putter went on to win the next hole and the match in triumph. I should hate to face a dUtt putt with more than half a crown on it. HENLEY REFLECTIONS.

Rowing men are by no means happy over this year’s Henley R.egatta. It too obviously emphasised the modem habit of allowing foreign challengers to walk off with the most coveted trophies. The victory of the Austrian champion in the Diamonds is not so bad. Henley has not seen such a perfect sculler, in the classic orthodox style, for some years. But the success of the German Wlivings in the Grand, and of tire American schoolboys in the Thames Cup, does upset our equilibrium. Because both those crews had in a well-developed degree all the most deadly rowing vices. Cue pundit of orthodoxy went so far. before the race, as to say that, if Wikings won, we need not talk any more about style in rowing. But the explanation is really quite simple. The Germans were an exceptionally powerful crew physically, and, however unorthodox their methods, perfectly together.

LEANDER’S presumption. So were the American schoolboys. Our eights were by no means in the same advanced state of practised simultaneity. Even a moderate crew individually, if thoroughly practised together, will always beat a better eight of individualists who lack • the same cohesion. This has been demonstrated at Henley and over the Varsity course time and again. It would in any case be just common sense expectation. On this occasion our Putney clubs. Thames and London, had no outstaiicling eights to meet the foreign challenge, and Leander’s all-star crew committed the absurdity of imagining that a fortnight’s practice would make them a real racing eight. Unless Lcander can spare time to get into better condition, they would do much better not to enter for the Grand. 1 agree will those close students of the German eight who hold that, under pressure by a really first-class English crew, their unorthodox but perfect mechanism would have come unstuck.

FIND THE LUCKY LADY Judging from the bookmakers’ cir cniars I get. invariably addressed “ Dear Madam,” suburban women must be lucrative patrons. The latest enticement, with the usual assurances of courtesy, generosity, and absolute privacy, is from a firm Barnum would have liked to know. It calls itseli “ The World’s Largest Bookmakers.” A specimen account is enclosed of what must be a very lucky lady. On May 13, an unlucky day, she went down rather badly, losing £7, as against a win of £1 7s 6d. But perseverance was rewarded handsomely. Next day, winning all her bets, including a double and a treble, she netted £1,445 7s 6d. As she had made eight or more bets during the week, the firm generously added 10 per cent., or £143 16s 9d, to that comfortable little total. For the same bets, her sister, who foolishly ■patronised another firm of bookies, received only £382 Which shows quite clearly the importance of picking the right 'firm. Unfortunately the lucky lady's name and address are not given. 1 should like to get a few tips from her.

FISTIC FINANCE. A few days ago our British heavyweight champion, Tommy Farr, was photographed signing articles with 'Schmeling, the German champion, for a London fight next September. Now it is announced, by Ted Broadribb, ■Farr’s business manager, that the London fight is off, and Farr will meet Joe Louis, the American negro champion, in New York m September. Jn the old palmy bare-fist days immortal champions used to fight for hours for a couple of hundred pounds, the winner to take the lot. Nowadays the •ring has been highly commercialised, and Farr was not satisfied with the offer of £7,500, as against Schmeling’s ■: 15,000, as the thin end of a divided purse. He is to get £30,000, it is humoured, for fighting Louis, and, ■even allowing for much heavier expenses and double income tax, that proposition is more attractive. Who can blame a fighter, whose days are (brief at best in the ring, for making (all he possibly can while the going is good ?

VIVID FIGHT FILM. The film of the fight between Joe Louis ami James Braddock, which •America accepts as settling the world’s ■championship, was shown to a select company ot sportsmen at the Leicester Square cinema on Monday. Most r,ig fight ffilms leave much to the imiagination. This one is as vivid as the 'view from a ringside seat. Neither boxer impressed me as being in the maitre d’armes class. Their movements about the ring were slow and ffat'footecl. But there was no mistaking the power behind some of the full and half-arm punches, nor the viciousness of the negro’s machine-gun upper-cuts in the close fighting. Early on Braddock, a pleasant-looldng giant, put his man down for an instant. But the negro was not hurt by what Braddock no doubt intended to be the victory punch. Thereafter Louis wore his 'man down by body punches, and one nasty jab that made bis month bleed, till in the penultimate round lie knocked him silly. Braddock was a lamb led to the slaughter in the last •round. The slow motion film showed ■connoisseurs exactly how Louis applied that stunning closure.