LONDON TOPICS

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 4407, 14 March 1939, Page 3

LONDON TOPICS

CABINET RESHUFFLE

"STRONG HEN" APPOIMTHEHTS

MR MORRISON'S STEP DOWN

LONDON, February 2

Sir Thomas luskip s transfer from the Ministry of Co-ordination ot Defence to the Dominions Office will at least relieve his mind of the worries of parliamentary and lobby criticism which has beaten about his head ever smce appointment by the then Mr Baldwin caused a storm of complaint. His handicap has been twofold. The essentially secret nature of defence co-ordination has rendered impossible comprehensive and candid statements in his own defence, and Admiral Lord Chatfield, lus successor, mav experience similar difficulty. Sir Thomas may now achieve a belated glory, for it is possible that he will accompany the King and Queen on their visit to Canada and the United States later this year. There is no doubt that the appointment of Lord Chatfield is a popular one. Like bir John Anderson, he has the reputation of being “a strong man.” Even as late as the end of last week the removal of Mr W. S. Morrison from the Ministry of Agriculture was not generally expected. Ever since his Milk Bill was withdrawn after its bad reception last year he has stated that he liad no intention of resigning, and certainly it seemed unlikely that he would change that decision until the reception for the Government’s forthcoming agricultural “ new deal ” has been tested. His move to the Duchy of Lancaster is a bad step down for a young man, who three years ago was tipped as a possible coming Prime Minister, though he will be better there than Earl Winterton. Lord M interton is regarded in Parliament as a valuable back-bencher, but only a moderate man for the Government front bench, and his occasional indiscretions culminated a few weeks after September crisis, when he made a slighting and thoroughly unwise reference to the good faith of the Soviet Government in her relation to Moscow’s European alliances. His subsequent explanation was lame and clumsy. Meanwhile Sir Reginald Dorman-Smith will have the confidence of farmers now that he is at the Ministry of Agriculture. Like Sir John Anderson, he has been elevated by Mr Chamberlain from modest backbench status without preliminary frontbench experience of any sort. Lord Chatfield, too, has not had the orthodox political training, and he may be the better on that account.

NATIONAL SERVICE. Those who have seen the National Service booklet are agreed, it seems, that the document is as clearly stated and as readable as any Government publication could be, and now that the terms of the schedule of reserved occupations are known there is no reason why the recruitment should not be an early success. I learn that the Lord Privy Seal estimates the number of civilian posts in all home defence services at about 1,200,000. plus a furthei (300,000 for reserves. Actually, close on the first-line strength of 1,200,000 is available already, but tins fact, stated by itself, is misleading, for there are serious shortages in many areas. The Police Reserves, for example, are particularly weak. The Government aim now is to bring the first line up to the required total, to enlist the necessary COO.O(X) reserves, and then to continue recruitment to create an even greater reserve force. There is certainh adequate citizen-power available, for the schedule of reserved occupations—which does not prevent enrolment in parttime civilian services, by the way, so long as it will not interfere with normal jobs in war time—leaves some 7,(XX),00(, men as potential members of the home or fighting services.

AREA COMMITTEES A total of 202 county and borough committees, some of which have already met and most of which have been' formed, will be responsible for recruitment and giving advice to the public throughout the United King dotn. On looking through the booklet, one can understand that there may be some who cannot find their particular niche in this business of national ser vice, and it will be to assist such civilians that the local committees will appoint panels of advisers and interviewers. I hear, by the way, that in some areas there has been diffidence about joining the form of service which enlists first-aid parties, the reason offered to the Home Office being that this is ‘‘to soft ” or “ too easy ” a job. Nothing could be further from the truth, as those who followed the grim despatches from Barcelona from day to day will appreciate. Incidentally, the Lord Privy Seal has had conversations lately with the T.U.C.. and within a few days he will give his decision on tho rates of pay available for certain groups of civilian helpers—such as wardens and V.A.D. workers —in time of war. V.C Mr Geoffrey Vickers, who is prominently associated with an influential new movement to promote national service in this country, is 42, partner in a big London legal firm, and member of a well-known Nottingham family. Of athletic physique and younger looking than his years, Mr Vickers was educated at Oundle and Merton College, Oxford, where he took his B.A. He served throughout the war with the 7th (Robin Hood) Battalion of the Sherwood Foresters, a splendid Territorial lot, and held the rank of captain. At the- age of 21 he won the V.C., and he was mentioned in despatches. He lives in North-west London, and is a member of the Savile Club. He has no particular political allegiance, but holds strong views on the subject of home defence and the dutv of citizen service. The movement which has brought him into prominence is influentially backed, and much more is likely to be heard of its activities in the near future. SPANISH PROPAGANDA. One would like to know the real truth about Spain. Politically and dip lomatically most people in this country are anti-Franco. We have been

told that the early excesses by Red extremists on the Government side have been sternly suppressed. Yet ac cording to ‘ The Times ’ correspondent, before they cleared out the night before Franco’s troops entered Barcelona, the Montjuich prison guards “ dealt out summary justice to a number of prisoners, including women, whose bodies are still lying on the western slopes of the hill.’ borne of the surviving prisoners are unable to move owing to the terrible tortures in tiictcd on them, and inflicted recently These atrocities do not square at all with the generally accepted view of the Spanish Government’s outlook and behaviour. Have we been hoodwinked!' Franco’s officers are, as they should, displaying humanity in Barcelona, according to impartial accounts, and, as Lord Alfred Douglas points out, the refugees of whom we see photographs arc fleeing from il safety and security.” Food is being dispensed, the water supply restored, streets cleaned up, condensed milk given to children, and the bedding removed from the Underground, which is restarting its trains. Why should civilians and women run away from these conditions? GERMAN PROPHET. One hopes that Herr Thomas Maun, the distinguished German writer, who 10 years ago was awarded the Nobel Prize, may be right. He has made a coast-to-coast lecture tour in America, where he is an enforced exile, and he bravely predicts the victory of democracy over dictatorship. He bases his faith on the fact that truth, freedom, and beauty, embodying in democracy the dignity of man, build a more reliable foundation for the State than a people degraded and enfeebled, morally and intellectually, by totalitarian methods of brutal tyranny. He regards the Fascist doctrine as diseased, and points to Hitler’s grandiose rebuilding plans in Berlin as a well-known pathological symptom of mania. He asks is there not something diseased, too, in the dictators’ boundless confidence in a population stultified and intellectually enfeebled to meet their desires and needs. “ There is no voice but theirs. Undisturbed and to their heart’s content they can crack the whip of lies over the heads of the populace—the whip of lies called propaganda.”

HIS WARNING. But Herr Mann utters two significant warnings. Democracy’s ultimate triumph depends on its deeper awakening to its own crucial principles. He urges as the democratic slogan Bergson’s words: “ Act as men of thought; think as men of action!” And he declares democracy’s danger to be the humane illusion, the virtuous belief that compromise with this creature Fascism is possible, or that it can be won over to the idea of peace and collective reconstruction by forbearance, friendliness, or amicable concessions. “ That is a dangerous mistake founded on the wholly different thought process of the democratic and the Fascist mentality. Democracy and Fascism live on different iplanets, or, more accurately, in different epochs. The Fascist interpretation of the world and history is one of absolute force, wholly free of morality and reason, and having no relation to them.” The totalitarians, says Herr Mann, will contribute nothing on their side to the human readjustments they demand. But they will, if they can, avoid actual war and maintain the novel condition of war tension, because they fear that at the first setback enchained freedom might burst its bonds.

BARCELONA AND AFTER. It is possible, and even probable, that tortured Spain may for long be torn by bitter political and idealogical strife. A state of pseudo-civil war may prolong itself, guerrilla fashion, in some parts of the peninsula, but so far as serious military operations go the fall of Barcelona seems to indicate the end of the war. The defence palpably collapsed, worn out and warweary after its long struggle against hopeless odds, and Franco’s legions had the unexpected experience of practically marching unopposed into Spain’s greatest business centre. The remnant of the Government’s forces on the Barcelona front, with the executive civil officers, now literally have their backs to the Pyrenees. It is almost outside military possibility that Madrid, under its rugged old defender, General Miaja, can hold out much longer, if at all. The same applies to the Government forces in South-western Spain. They can hardly do more now than uselessly prolong a lost struggle. Taking all into account, the amazing thing is that the Government’s men have put up such a prolonged and desperate resistance. ■ Every advantage, except perhaps a rather undisciplned morale, was. on the other side.

QUESTION THAT NEEDS AN ANSWER. Sir John Anderson is gallantly backing his voluntary national service scheme. But the response to that appeal will be very much more satisfactory if a plain answer is forthcoming to "a question now being asked by a great many people. What is going to happen, in the event of another war, if the non-reserved occpuational categories are called up? Will they receive the usual meagre Army pay as frontline fighters, whilst the reserved workers continue to earn from, say, £3 to £lO a week without interrupting their normal existence as civilians? During the last war we too often had such sharp anomalies as a soldier, rendered unfit for further active service by wounds or illness, working at the same job in the same factory alongside a hefty young civilian, the only difference being that the ex-soldier was drawing his 3s 6d a week, whilst the civilian was making anything from £8 to £l2 a week or more. It is the memory of these inequalities that rankles to-day in many quarters, and some clear assurance should be given on the point.

LONDON PRIDE. London is certainly not a “ rose red city,” but it may he “half as old as time.” Its historical pedigree is such that it looks upon the Royal College of Heralds as rather an upstart institution. The arms of the city' are not even registered at the college. These facts were elicited when discussing with an expert the designs on the silver-gilt rose water dish which London is presenting to New York as a fraternal souvenir of the World’s Fair which our King and Queen are to visit. The city and the 12 chief Livery Companies are the donors of this beautiful piece of work, which was put to competition, the winning design being that of a Belfast artist now at the Royal College of Art. The second prize goes to an

artist at the L.C.C. Central School of Arts and Crafts. Both are delightful examples of craftsmanship. The chosen design displays the name and arms of each of the Livery Companies. That of the Skinners is practically the same as the arms of Cologne. Merchants of that city in Hanseatic times were established in Cannon street, near the Skinners’ place, and when Queen Elizabeth expelled them the Skinners apparently “ pinched ” their device.

FRENCH PRESIDENT’S VISIT. London’s arrangements for the visit of the French President and Mme Lebrun in March are already in hand. The streets between Buckingham Palace and the Guildhall arc to be decorated in a manner reminiscent of the Coronation, and the City of Westmister has set aside £3,000 for decorations. The guests will stay at Buckingham Palace from March 21 to 24, and the programme will include a reception at the Guildhall, where addresses of welcome will be presented by the Lord Mayor of London and the Mayor of Westminster, and a return reception and banquet for the King and Queen at the French Embassy. The ceremonial will incidental!v mark a fitting climax to M. Lebrun’s term of office as president, which is nearly up—he ft likely to be succeeded by M. Herriot —and certainly he will find in London the same measure of cordiality with which Paris greeted the King and Queen last year. M. Lebrun, a somewhat sentimental man, is usually depicted by French cartoonists as an amiable statesman with tears rolling down his cheeks, such is his tendency to be affected by the emotional mood of the happy moment. Londoners then must do their best to bring tears to his eyes. RIPOSTE!

Sir Samuel Hoare’s “ jitter-bug ” speech has had an enthusiastic Press. But a Privy Councillor and K.C. who rendered some vital war-time service, Mr Charles A. M‘Curdy, has ventured a slight protest which may strike a great many citizens as not altogether unjust in the circumstances. Mr M'Curdy declares that Sir Samuel “ does less than justice to his fellowcountrymen.” “ The British citizen is afraid neither of Herr Hitler nor Signor Mussolini, nor has he, given competent leadership, the slightest doubt of the invincible capacity of Great Britain to defend herself, her Empire, and the ideals dear to her.” “ What does worry him,” says Mr M‘Curdy, ‘is the spectacle of inefficiency and complacency in high places to which he looks for leadership—a spectacle before which even the stoutest heart may quail.” Mr M‘Curdy’s final thrust is a shrewd one. “ The City might well say to Sir Samuel Hoare and his colleagues, as the landlady is reported to have said to her lodger, ‘if there are jitter-bugs here, you brought tnem yourself. ” Whether one agrees or not, this is at any rate vivacious sparring.

’TAWS IN THE JUTLAND BIGHT. Our new Defence Minister figures in Fleet Street’s pet Jutland story. A legend exists that, when German salvos sank our battle-cruisers, Beatty turned to his flag-captain, and observed: “ Seems to be something wrong with our ships to-day, Chatficld; engage the enemy closer!” Fleet Street regards this as the “ Nelson Touch.” It infuriates serious naval students. What was “ wrong ” with our ill-fated cruisers was that, apart from their ammunition lifts not even being flash-proof, their decks were practically unarmoured, though it was obvious even to a layman that at long range a shell was far more likely to hit the deck than the heavily-armoured side of a ship. Given ships specially designed to outsteam the enemy, moreover, and enable them to hit without being hit back, Nelson would have been the very last man to throw the advantage away in empty heroics. This episode ranks, if true, with that egregious epic, the Charge of the Light Brigade, and the sooner we cease romancing around stupidity in this severely mechanical age the safer.

W. B. YEATS. Across the St. George’s Channel they have a habit of claiming Irish ancestry of some sort for most distinguished Englishmen. In the case of Eire’s dead poet, melodious-tongued W. B. Yeats, we can retaliate. On his maternal side the songster of Innisfree inherited Cornish blood. Hence no doubt his double dose of political and romantic mysticism. W. B. was a Free State senator, a Nobel prizeman, and the recipient of many foreign academic degrees. In the ’nineties of last century he was one of that brilliant literary companionship in London that included Oscar Wilde, Ernest Dowson, Arthur Symons, and Lionel Johnson. Among the innumerable admirers of the Irish poet is Miss Lillah M‘Carthy, who tells how much the wonderful acting of the Irish players owed to him. Teats understood how essential to the actor is economy of movement. “ I have heard it said,” says Miss M'Carthy, “ that he taught this hard lesson by making fidgety actors stand in a barrel whilst they rehearsed their lines on the stage!”

SOUTH SEA DYNASTY. Sir Harry Luke, our High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, has sketched a charming picture of the Kingdom of Tonga. The three small island groups concerned are a little east of the 180 th meridian, which is called the International Date Line, crossing which makes one either a day older or younger. Queen Salute Tubou, the reigning monarch, whose husband is Prime Minister, conies of an ancient royal stock and lias just celebrated her jubilee. Sir Harry paints Tonga as a joyous arcady, inhabited by handsome Polynesians "of magnificent physique, and with some wonderful standing attractions. These include “ lui Malila, survivor of two land tortoises actually brought to the island by Captain Cook, and, though blind, still a spry veteran of three 'centimes; other Cook relics, a mysterious sort of native Stonehenge witli huge monoliths, and, most intriguing of all perhaps, a disappearing island. Falcon island periodically submerges and reappears. Its last reappearance, after a submersion of 10 years, was in 1927. Barrie cannot have known about Falcon Island when he wrote ‘ Mary Rose!’ Otherwise he might have made it even more uncanny. OLD YARNS RETOLD. I was at a gathering of old varsity men the other night, and, as usually happens, the proceedings ultimately became anecdotal. Of the many amusing reminiscences narrated there were two stories, both claimed as perfectly authentic, which seem worth retelling. One concerns the first Lord Bir-

kcnhead. still “ F.E.” for all Oxonians. It happened that he got into trouble' with the proctor’s bulldogs the night a new cell was being used for arrested undergrads for the first time. As “ F.E.” was ushered into the new apartment he removed his hat with great dignity, and exclaimed: “ I have much pleasure in declaring this cell open!” The other story concerns Balliol and the large number of coloured students it attracts. One afternoon a young English undergrad went into the library, and found it full of either native Indian nr African occupants. He gravely walked across to another English undergrad whom he spotted, and, holding out his hand, said: “Dr Livingstone, i presume!” Old yarns no doubt but still being recounted with relish bv old varsity friends.