LETTER FROM LONDON

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 3264, 6 February 1926, Page 13

LETTER FROM LONDON

LONDON, December 24th. 1925. The Speaker’s Health. Mr. Whitley has been in rather lew health and spirits lately, and to some c£ hte friends ho has dropped a hint that he may soon be compelled to seek relief from his duties. Ho has been urged to carry on In the hope that a spell of warmth and sunshine in the South during the holidays may restore him, and for the present he has agreed to accept that advice. Nevertheless, I shall not be surprised if the election of a new Speaker becomes necessary ere long, by Mr. Whitley's resignation. Painting at St. Stephen’s It is, by the way, mainly duo to the quiet but persistent efforts of the present Speaker that the scheme for the interior decoration of the Palace of Westminster is about to bo carried a stage further by a series of historical paintings in St Stephen's Hall Mr. Whitley has shown a keener in. terest in this matter than any of his recent predecessors, and since he was appointed to the chair he has had the satisfaction of seeing valuable mosaics given by Sir William Raeburn, Mr. P.J.Ford, Sir Robert Houston, and the late Sir Joseph Walton. Two of these, representing St. Andrew and St. Patrick, are already in, position in tho Central Hall, and the other two are in course of erection in St, Stphen’s—all of them designed by Mr. Anning Bell. Hie Betting Tax. I am doubtful if the proposal to impose a betting-tax will be submit, ted to the House of Commons, although it has an adventurous flavour which will commend it to Mr. Churchill. It is wel-known that Sir Robert Horne, when at the Treasury, was greatly attracted to the Idea, but the inquiries he made as to the opposition that might bo expected irom the Churches daunted him from going further. Tho present Chancellor's task of making ends meet is even more formidable and if, as Its advo, cates contend, a tax on betting would yield at least twenty millions a year he may bo tempted to "have a flutter.” I believe that the present House of Commons would show a majority for It. especially as an alternative to putting the income tax back to its

old figure, and I know the Inland Revenue officials do not legard the administrative difficulties as insuperable. Even the Churches are not united against the scheme, for some of the bishops support it, presumably on the principle of one of their predecessors who approved of prizefighting because there was a good chance of at least one rascal getting what he deservd. Hamo Thcmycroft.

The death of Sir Hamo Thornycroft ,at 75 years, removes a sculptor whose work adorns London more profusely than any other artist’s leaving out of count, of course, tnose painters whose hoarding advertisements now constitute London's real popular art gallery, and contain much work that compares well with that in the “Art for Art’s sake” exhibitions. Sir Hamo had two sculptors for parents. His mother excuted several small Royal commissions, and his father’s genius is immortalised by the famous Boadlcea group on Westminster Bridge’s northern aproach. His own best work is probably the Cromwell statue which aroused so much feeling among tho Irish Nationalists when Lord Rosebery presented it to Parliament. He was a great devotee of the openair life, and declared that if he failed as a sculptor he would turn farmer. How far London might then have lost and England gained depends on how good he might have been as a farmer. Much of his work Is very heavy and stereotyped, but his admirers have the consolation that no such agitation ever greeted it as that directed by the admirers of stolid stereotype against Epstein’s masterpieces.

Light Aeroplane Clubs. The movement for the institution of State-aided light aeroplane clubs all over the country hangs fire to some extent. This is entirely due to the fact that the Air Ministry only received an initial grant of £30,000 with whibb to foster the movement, and as yet only five clubs have been started, serving respectively London, the Midlands, Lancashire,! Yorkshire, and Newcastle-on-Tyne. For a subscription of three guineas young men and women can join these clubs and can learn to fly and become qualified aviators at a tuition charge, including all costs, of only 30s. an hour X hear that quite a number of women uro joining the clubs and proving apt pupils. More than one has already earned her certificate for proficiency. An incidental effect of the interest women are taking in the club is the development of a social side to their activities, dances, and other forms pf entertainment being organised. Lieutenant-Commander Perrin, secretary of the Royal Aero Club, who has just returned to London from a tour of the provinces, says that the out.of-town districts manifest an interest In the new movement and in the development or a social side far greater than the metropolitan area. Many young motor-cyclists who are learning ro fly declare that they intend to buy small light ’planes ,of their own in the near future.

When Greek Meets Greek. Lady Millicent Hawes, the Dowager Duchess of Sutherland, may, I hear, oppose Sir Archibald Sinclair, the Liberal member for Caithness and Sutherland, at the next election. Sir Archibald, who was returned unopposed at the last, election, is, of course, her nephew. Lady Millicent Hawes, who changed her name on marrying Colonel Hawes, is the eldest daughter of the late Earl of Rosslyn. She has always been keenly Interested in social questions and was largely instrumental in getting the Govern, ment to take up the question of lead poisoning in the Potteries. She is living In Paris at present, and is literary and artistic. Lady Millicent has written one play . and is now writing another. At Dunrobin, the Scottish seat of her son, the Duke of Sutherland, she entertained brilliantly in former days. The Duchess of Atholl. When the Duchess of Atholl realises that an important part of ‘ tier audience in the House of Commons is above and not below her, and when accordingly, she ceases to drop her head and her voice at the end . of sentences, she will be an effective debater. She has one advantage which speakers for the Government seldom enjoy in a full dress debate; she obtains a quiet hearing. Even Socialists, it, would seem, hesitate to inter, rupt a duchess. But no one looks less like the part. She wears a plain black frock which any typist would regard as too dowdy for her, as well as much too long, and her glossy dark brown hair is worn parted in the middle after the Victorian fashion, In manner she is as unobtrusive as in dress. She has a pleasant w'ord and smile for everyone, and even the wildest Labour member rather likes to be seen talking on equal terras in the lobby to a real duchess. A Famous Society. The dinners of the African Society at one of which the Prince of Wales will be the principal guest, are famous. It w'as twenty years ago when the society was on its last legs, that the dinners began. There was a proposal to wind the society up. Captain Shelford, the chairman, objected, and vowed to go on the first Wednesday of every month to a certain cos. moplitan cafe and call himself t ha African Society. He got famous men to join him—Mr Winston Churchill among them. The type of man you see at these African Society dinners Is that of the men who, in the hinterlands of Africa, hundreds of miles from the next white man. put on his dress suit after a trek and eeremonl.ously sat down to dinner by the light of an oil-lamp. The Prince’s Ambition. The Prince of Wales has said he would like to trek from the Capo to Cairo. If he trekked with Sir Alfred Sharpe, who announced the Prince’s intention to dine with the society, ho would have as companion a man who knows as much about Africa as anyone. Fit and straight and well-built, it it almost impossible to believe, despite his grey, well-trlmmod moustache and hair, that thls fame,us

Lancastrian is 72 years of age. Ho is always on the point of going or coming back from a big game expedition and tells me he is off again in the new year. Marconi’s Wireless Set. Captain Eckerloy's experimental high power wireless station near Hendon, which has just been destroyed by fire, was a much more ambitious affair than tho wireless set Marconi has on his private yacht. Captain Eckersloy’s apparatus had three masts each over 100 feet high, and tho apparatus itself was housed in a special building. Marconi, on the other hand,'though his yacht con. tains a wireless installation which enables him to “iisten-in” almost anywhere, carries out most of his own experiments on a little home-made wireless set which ho sometimes brings up on deck. It is quaintly mounted on a tin biscuit.box. Titled Actress to Return. It is interesting news, theatrically and socially, that lady Maurice Brett, wife of Lord Esher’s second son, is returning to the stage. Her marriage to the wealthy young Guardsman in 1911 was quite a memorable occasion and it wah then staled that Miss Zena Dare, as she was before her marriage, would desert the stage forever. She and her sister, Phylis Dare, who has played in Sir J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, are the two handsome and gifted daughters of quite a humble Liverpool family, and their father was Lord Mersey’s clerk at the time that distinguished lawyer was plain Mr. Bigham, K.C., on the Northern Circuit. Dare Is an assumed stage name. Miss Zena Dare, who thus "comes back" after fourteen years absence, is to play as Mrs Cheyney on tour in the play and the role Miss Gladys Cooper appeared in at the St. James. Her husband was for a long spell A.P.M. in Paris during the War. A Long Lived! Family,

The death of the Kon. Mrs Wentworth.PltzwllUarh at a hundred years of age recalls the remarkable, record of longevity held by the Dundas family. The present Marquess of Zetland, although over elgthy years of ago, still does his four hours a day in the saddle and when in residence at Markse-ln-Cleveland, tramps about the shore and climbs sandbanks with all the ardour of a young man, The Marchioness of Zetland, as befits b former Vicerlne of India still sits in quaint old English State through her meals alert and vividly informed on nil topics of the day eagerly questioning and cross-questioning her guests on present day politics. Dun. dases. Fitzwilliams, and Zetlands, their glass-faced tombs, lying In a bleak north country church-yard overlooking the bea, testify to their remarkable tenacity to life.

Those Russian Boots. ***

While women are congratulating themselves on having done the boot manufacturer a good turn, they give little thought to the “boots” of real, dontial clubs and hotels. By adopting the Ruslan boot they have trebled the work of the boot boy. When ho ga?efl on whole battalions of Russian hoots stacked outside the bedroom doors his heart must sink within him. Some of the hotels have even found it necessary to increase their stall to deal with the added work. Olden London. Surely the most prolific author of modern times must be ,the Rev. P. H. Litchfield who for the last forty years has been rector of a parish of Barkham in Berkshire. During that period ho ,has produced well over forty volumes, besides editing many others, chiefly on topographical subjects and church history. His latest work Is on “London's West End", not, I hasten to add, that side of it which occasionally figures in the police courts, but its historical and antiquarian aspects, ranging from the times when cows grazed in Finsbury, the law students shot rabbits in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and Henry the Eight decreed the preservation of “the gamds of Hare, Partridge, Pheasant and Heron" between the Palace of Westminster and St. Giles haaanpf fißoaraP gspin addin Ifl-ccfl in the Field. The remains of .pre-his-toric animals have been found at Charing Cross within the last few months, and at least two Roman roads traversed the area of which Mr. Ditchfield writes. In its place, names may be traced the evidence of its Saxon occupation ,for Paddington was the place of "the eons of Pada” and Kensington was once “Chenitun". Scotsmen in London.

It seems to be becoming less true than it was that the finest prospect in Scotland is the road to England. At any rate, one of the unexpected things revealed by a County Council report, is that whereas the number of persons of Scottish birth resident in London was 56,605 in 1901, it lias now fallen to just under 50,000, Of course, these figures take no account of Scotsmen of the second and third generation, who live and thrive In our midst. One is reminded of the Punch story of the Scotsman who met an Australian in the train. "I suppose’, he said by way of making conversation, "you have a good many Scotsmen In Australia "Oh, yes”, replied the Australian, "but opr chief pest is rabbits”.

Saving tho Implacable,

So far the public as a whole have been slow in responding to Lord Beatty’s appeal for funds to save the Implacable. Ape,rt from the gener. ous anonymous donation of £15,000, only about £3,000 has been subscribed towards the £25,00 required for the repairs necessary to keep tho vessel afloat. Tho Committee, however, are hopeful about the collection of the balance, and with the sum In hand will at once get on with the restoration. This will bo undertaken at Devonport Dockyard, and will occupy Several months. She will then be towed back to her moorings at Falmouth, and used as a training ship for boy's sea organisations. The Implacable alone with the Victory survives the wooden ships of the line of the Trafalgar era. As the PuguayTrouln, this 74 gun two-decker ex. changed shits with Nelson’s flagship at Trafalgar .was subsequently captured ,and passed into the service of the British. Navy,