"THE MAIL'S" LETTER FROM LONDON

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 2 April 1930, Page 7

"THE MAIL'S" LETTER FROM LONDON

COMMENT! ON CURRENT EVENTS POLITICAL AND SOCIAL DOINGS TIIL CANCELLED WARSHIPS (From Our Own Correspondent)

LONDON, 6th February. The two 10,000-ton cruisers Surrey and Northumberland, which the Government have just cancelled, arc vessels which were sanctioned under the VMJ programme, Postponement of their const ruction was first announced in Parliament by Mr William Ihidgoman—now Lord Bridgnnan—when he was First Lord of the Admiralty. When the announcement of a further suspension of their construction was made by Mr MocDonald in July last, in naval circles it became generally accepted that they would never be built at all. Two nio'i-o cruisers wero also provided for in the 1929 Navy Estimates—one to be of 10,000 and the other of 7,000 tons—and for the present no definite statement'is available as to whether they are to be proceeded with or not. In well-informed quarters, however, it is taken for granted that the 10,000-ton. vessel will be abandoned, and that, in fact, no more cruisers of this tonnage will be laid down in the future.

FOR EVER ENGLAND The proposal emanating from Continental admirers —to erect a memorial to Rupert Rrooko on tho island of Skyros—has tho support of the three English parly leaders, and will appeal to nobody more than hip brother poet, John Masofield. Where else should the first week of July, 1914, have found them both but in an old house in Berkshire? Never had England seemed so beautiful, "and a little colony of lovely friends was there." They read poems in that old haunt of beauty, and wandered on tho jowiis. Masofield remembers saying that tho Austro-Serbian business might cause a European war, with this country involved in it, but the others did not think so. They laughed. Then the old house became a billet for cavalry, and their chargers drank at the moat. "And tho next time I saw them they were in Gallipoli, lying in rank in the' sand under Chocolate Hill, and Rupert Brooke was in his grave at Skyros."

"BOOM" Like most service men on their elevation to the peerage, Lord Trenchard, who was 57 this week, has taken his own surname for his title. His career has been as much a romance as that of the service witli which his name is so inseparably associated. Presumably his motto will bo "Ad Astra." A comparatively junior officer in the army, he transferred to the old Royal Flying Corps. He initiated and commanded tho Independent Air Force on the Western Front in 1918, thus putting tho brake on enemy air raids at home. Trenchard's dictum was "the best defence is attack," and ho justified it. He is known throughout the Royal Air Force as "Boom", because of his initiative, immense driving power, and inability to suffer fools gladly. As hon-major-general in the army, colonel of the Royal Scots Fusiliers, the only airman to become marshal of the Royal Air Forco (that service's equivalent of field-marshal's rank), one feels that his retirement in his 57th year was premature. Anyhow, his peerago has been thoroughly well earned.

ROBOT BOOKIE AT LAST The patience of the Betting Control Board in the face of much abuse has been rewarded. Within three months a perfect "Tote" machine, such as we have not yet seen in this country, should be availablo on all important racecourses. Two types have been devised, electrically worked and showing each individual bet as recorded, which have tho advantage of portable!- and interchangeable parts. Hitherto the difficulty has been that, with so many racecourses to cater for, it was prohibitievo to erect a separate "Tote" on each. All now necessary will be tho construction of the outer casing and signboard at each racecourse, and tho expensive internal mechanism can bo carried from one to another, and easily adjusted by a staff of engineers.

MAIL ROBBERY EPIDEMIC It is now patent that a confederacy of mail robbers is, operating systematically in this country. It is probably one of the results of the recent round-up of professional crooks in New York and Chicago. At the time this occurred I stated that the Scotland Yard people fully expected many of these desperadoes would migrate to London or Paris. A formidable list of mail bag robberies, representing a considerabl sum lost to. tho P.O. and the public, now confronts our authorities, and it is obvious that drastic changes must be made. It is no longer safe to handle mails so offhandedly as in the past, and there must be not only a stronger P.O. police, but closer and prompter liaison with Scotland Yard. Otherwise the British P. 0., which has been a model, will begin to rank with tho Italian before Mussolini reformed it. CULT OF POISON GAS

Who could have foreseen, in November 1918, that within a decade we should have military experts and high-brow scientists in'this country actually defending poison gas as a civilised method of warfare? So far as the military experts who make pleas for it arc concerned, they arc mostly whipper-snap-pers who saw precious little of the War. But when the President of the Society of Chemical Industrv adopts this attitude, it is time for those who retain vivid memory of gallant comrades, blinded and in agonised struggles for breath, to speak out. Dr. Levinstein's statistics are, I believe, worthless. Scores of thousands of men, never even reported gas casualties, are to-day in misery and slowly dving after only mild touches of mustard'gas. Since then a far more deadly gas lias been devised. Surely to poison the wells, always outside the palo of warfare, is less damnable than to poison the air?

AMERICA'S LOST CHANCE Another Bret Harte would be required to do full poetic justice to the comedy of the Tctuan Dinosaur. Remains of (his prehistoric monster were found some lime'ago, embedded in (he geological strata of Tangier, and various enthusiastic scientists have estimated its antiquity in thrilled accents up to 50,000.000'years. Spain sent out a special mission of of expert archaeologists to investigate the find, and take suitable measures for ils salvage, but they have ascertained that the dinosaur is not Totuan at all. but Canadian, being in fact the twisted remains of a patent haymaker, hearing Ihe imprint of a famous Canadian firm, which a Spanish colonist abandoned during the Riff War. and a landslide afterwards buried. Tho

discovery is lamented in Tangier, as there was every prospect of the dinosaur being acquired at a fancy figure for America. QUEER WAR BOOKS We are getting to the butt end of tho literary wfir boom. Frank commercialism, lured by tho belief there is money in it, is dipping its pen in sensationalism. One book has impugned the soldierly valour of one of our rcgimonts, whom most front-line warriors honour as among the finest this country mustered. Another traduces the "conscript" batta ( lion'.% alleging they were sent up the line with pistols at their heads, and over the top drugged with rum. Those who saw a -good deal of such battalions resent the libel bitterly. Nothing was more remarkable than the steady courage displayed by most of our non-volunteers. Thousands of them sleep in Franco, and personally I should hate to have insulted their graves for any literary recompense.

SOLDIER-PARSON It is all nonsense to say, as some cxofficcrs and soldiers do, that padres are never fighting men. An old Regular officer tells mo he knows quite a number who were furious with their archbishops and bishops for not allowing them to cut out the dog-collar, and get into "Tommy's kit," especially the stalwart young clergy who were 'Varsity athletes, rowing, cricket, and footer men. After all, the "Church militant" is in a very real sense a fighting organisation. There was, too, the case of the late Rev. W,. 11. Wiugfield, who died as tho result of war wounds two years ago as a rector at Norwich. His first lovo was tho army. He retired as a major in tho Royal Horse Artillery, took Holy orders, was vicar of a fashionable London Church. He threw it up when war came and commanded a brigade of Royal Artillery on the Western Front. Ho had the reputation of being at one and the same time the greatest saint and the bravest man under fire in the army. Finally, he was desperately wounded.

AMERICA'S GREATEST PREACHER

By tho death of Dr. Charles Anderson, Bishop of Chicago, tho Continent of America has lost her greatest preacher. A Canadian by birth and upbringing, like many other Canadians in Holy Orders in the Church of England in Canada, he crossed over the border into the U.S.A., and became in time tho Bishop of Chicago in the sister communion of the Episcopal Church of, tho U.S.A. Dr. Anderson was quite recently raised to be presiding bishop of the Church in the U.S.A., a position equivalent to that of the Archbishop of Canterbury in this country, and as such would have been the "big gun" of the American, bishops who are to gather this summer in London for the Lambeth Conference. Many thousands would have gone to St.. Paul's Cathedral to hear Dr. Anderson, whose pulpit oratory is world famous. He will be sorely missed by the Anglo-Catholic party, for he was the first presiding bishop in the U.S.A., who could be called a High Churchman.

BLACKMAIL SLEUTH Detective Inspector Bradley, who has just retired after 32 years with the London police, joined the force as a young constable ifrom rural Gloucestershire. But he rose to command for some years the C.I.D. at Vine-street, and specialised in the sophisticated doings of West End blackmailers. He is joining a wellknown private detective firm run by another former Scotland Yard chief. .Since the legal retribution process against blackmail was made less obnoxious to the latter's victims by anonymity, this odious form of criminality has slumped somewhat, but there is still enough to keep private detective agencies busy. Scotland Yard usually, unless there is clear case for police action, recommend blackmail victims to try a private agency.'

LORD READING'S TRAGEDY The death of Lady Reading, to whom ho was genuinely devoted, is a real tragedy for Lord Reading. She was a lady of great beauty as well as rare intelligence, and she and her husband madeone of the most strikingly handsome couples in London. Her plucky determination to carry on at all costs in India, during Lord Reading's term as Viceroy, undermined her health. The climate did not suit her at all, and she never became used to it. -111-health has been dogging her ever since, and greatly interfered with her eager plans for superintending their new Mayfair home's decoration. A friend who went with I hem to America on the famous War mission tells me Lord Reading, amidst the pressure of huge financial business, never omitted to take choice flowers home to the hotel where he stayed with Lady Reading, and it was sometimes a little embarrassing to come upon them billing and cooing in the corridors like young sweethearts.

SHUTTLES OF COMMERCE Last year we claimed the lion's sharo of new shipping. The total tonnage launched from the world's shipyards was 2,793,210, and Great Britain and Ireland built 1,270,587, or 54 per cent, compared with ony 53 per cent, during the two preceding twelve months. Our nearest rival was Germany with 249,077 tons, but of this total 34 vessels were to foreign orders. Of the new ships launched last year 16 wero 15,000 tons or over, and we headed the list with the Britannic, £6,840, and the Emperor of Japan, 25,000. Foreigners still continue to favour motor vessels moro than our shipowners. The gross tonnago of seagoing vessels, other than sailing, in 1914 was 42£ millions. At the same June date of last year it was 62f millions So the shipwright is now over 20 million tons "ud" on the U-boat. Of

tlio 1,012 vessels built last year 31 were still windjammers, but that includes barges.

SCHOOL FOR MOSAIC WORKERS

How much Westminster Cathedral has already cost is a figure—n big one—that can no doubt be accurately obtained. It would run. into the hundreds of thousands. How much it will cost when rich and rare marbles cover all the lower walls, and mosaics, priceless in value, stud the ceilings of '.he nave, sanctuary, and chapels, no one can estimate. The figure probably will be well over a million. It speaks volumes, however, for the courage and enterprise of the Cathedral authorities (bat they have decided to go ahead on practical linos with the mosaic problem. A school for mosaic workers is to be established in the immediate future, which will bo housed on one of the floors of the great Campanilo Tower of St. Edward, which is now provided with a lift. Zealous workers for the completion of the Cathedralprobably the work of a century will learn the artistic and rare art of mosaics right on the precincts of the Cathedral itself.