“THE MAIL’S” LETTER FROM LONDON

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 30 November 1933, Page 9

“THE MAIL’S” LETTER FROM LONDON

LONDON, 19th October. I Whether the great Powers that still iemain in the Disarmament Conference proceed to draw up a convention among' themselves, or whether they decide to * abandon the whole affair, there will be no more actual reductions' of arms for some time to come. That is one positive result of Germany’s petulant secession from the League of Nations—a] result which for us at least may well I prove to be of benefit. We alone ol nations have put our desire for peace into definite reductions of our armed defences, and it is just as well that we have been given this blunt warning oil (lie dangers we have been running into. Germany, by her action on Saturday, Inis done more in one day to justify France’s suspicions of her than all her friends in the course of years have been ample to do to allay them. As a member of the League of Nations Germany had many sympathisers in her- aspirations. How many of them will remain by her now? It it a vital question, for on the answer will rest the future pence of the world. If she lias isolated herself completely the world may well be more secure for civilisation than it lias ever been since the Peace Treaty.

CRUSADE AGAINST SLUMS

Socialists attempt to deride Sir Hilton Young’s big housing push, but there is .a distinct note of party chagrin in their cat-calls. Tile Health Minister’s: proposals involve rehousing about a million slum dwellers within five years, effecting a clearance of over 200,000 houses, and affording work for at least 80,000 men. Laggard local authorities, who fall short of their duty, will be brought into line with progressive ones. Since the war, in spite of all the sweeping criticism made against different Ministries, we have built two milliop homes in this country, and rehoused by so doing between eight and ten million people. Sir Hilton Young’s plans will cost nearly £100,000.000 in five years. This huge outlay will justify itself only if effective steps are taken to efface slum mentality as well as slum dwellings. Otherwise the disease will be steadily recurrent. UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM Happily our unemployment problem is one that seems to be gradually solving itself in the best possible way by reviving industrial activity But there -will always be a residuum of unemployed, as well as unemployables, and the Government’s Bill to deal with our National Insurance schemes next session will be a measure of the first importance. Those acquainted with the facts,, assert that there is still a good deal too much exploitation of the system by certain sections of the community and, if the drones were made to realise that ‘‘the dole” is not a form of inalienable national benefaction, to the undeserving poor, there would be a lot .more money available foi the genuine people. The big question, however, is how to lift the whole scheme above and put of. party politics. That will not be best done, in the view of sound judges, by allowing the central Government to cut out local authorities, and constitute itself a centralised Father Christmas.

BRITAIN’S FINANCE CHAMPION

Sir Frederick-Leith-Ross, who is leadin°- in the case for Great Britain at Washington, is of mixed Scottish and Dutch descent and of Balliol and Treasury training—antecedents which suggest that he has both the tenacity and the skill required for his task. He has besides, an engaging suavity which is proof against either cajolery or threats. His experience on the Reparations Commission, and at The Hague Conferences, has given him an unrivalled knowledge of the European financial tangle. Sir Frederick is only 46, and his reputation as a hard worker is high, even in a department of hard workers like the Treasury. PRIME MINISTER’S BIRTHDAY Mr MacDonald’s 67th birthday is a reminder of what seoms now the surprising fact that, when he was first elected to the House of Commons in 1906, he was still under forty.. Before that he had made several unsuccessful attempts to get there, and he has had one serious gap in his Parliamentary service. Looking back, it seems as though he was as old .then as he is now. the only manifest changes being an aadditional whiteness and curtailment of his locks. Even in the days when a certain untidiness was deemed a necessary mark of advanced political opinions. Mr MacDonald was well-groomed, and to-dav, without being a dandy, he would be awarded high marks in any sartorial examination. Ilis health, too. is better than either himself or his friends would have predicted a quarter of a century ago. • LORD TR.EOWEN Few men have had so varied a military career as Lord Treowcn, whose illness is giving anxiety to his friends. It ranged from active service in Egypt over half a century ago to five years as military attache at the British EmUns-v in, Russia, and tho command of the forces in Canada. In the House of Commons, where he spent 11 years, he is still affectionately remembered as Colonel Ivor Herbert, who, from the front bench below the gangway, used to deliver brief and cogent speeches, generally on military affairs. He is now in his 83rd year. His only daughter is .the wife of Mr Walter Roch, whoso premature retirement sensibly diminished the gaiety of the Parliamentary lobbies, and whose sparkling wit has a more restricted sphere in the smokingroom of the Reform Club. FIFTY-FIFTY AT THE SHOW According to all accounts, this year’s Motor Sho' ■ at Olympia is the best ever. Wha struck me about it, when I went the i r.nds, was the fact that on

CURRENT EVENTS UNDER REVIEW POLITICAL AND SOCIAL HAPPENINGS GERMANY’S PETULANT SECESSION (From Our Own Correspondent)

this occasion the makers arc bidding for both sexes on a sort of fifty-fifty basis. There have been years when it was the male motorist who was specially catered for with all sorts of formidable engine mechanism. On still more frequent occasions it was the ladies for whom the makers spread their particular lure in the shape of natty inside gadgets and de luxe fittings that appeal to the feminine heart. This year, so far as I could make out, tlie appeal i s to both sexes and in both directions. The mechanical side of the 1903 car is emphasised, and so is the sumptuary side c>f the chassis and upholstery. Many a car bargain lias been clinched, I was told in strict confidence, by a cute little dodge that captured (lie feminine fancy when the masculine judgment was still wavering.

IvINGSFORD SMITH’S NEW RECORD Sir Charles Kingsford Smith's aspiration to achieve the distinction of being ‘‘the oldest living airman” does not prevent him from setting up other and more sensational records." By bringing Australia within a week’s flight from London he lias knit the tins of Empire a. wee bit closer, and has foreshadowed what will he the normal time of communications with the Antipodes in the near future. sir Charles himself believes that regular 'passenger transport wilt be carried ou at the pace lie has set before so very long. That well may be, but T imagine the shipping companies are not yet greatly perturbed liy the swiftness of their rivals in the air. Though many passengers’ who have made long distance flights declare they never want to travel bv sea again, the question of cost will keep the greatmajority of the world’s travellers to the surface of the ocean. The return journey by air between London and Capo Town for example costs upwards of £3OO. Bv sea, amid luxury, the return fare is £9O.

COCKNEY SEAGULLS Early last spring I quoted a rural friend, who predicted that wo should have a fine dry summer. This prediction he made on the strength of the fact that crows were nesting high in the trees. I have now received from a City friend a sort of counterpart nrophccy about the coming wir-tor. This export is convinced we are in for a remarkably hard cold winter this time, and he bases his opinion, not on the proverbial belief that a warm summer brings a cold winter, but on the London seagulls; -- These somewhat degenerate Cockney relations of those hardy birds whose cry deep-sea sailors say is that of drowned seamen aro now crowding back to their London quarters much earlier than usual. They generally stay away in coastal places, or even rural ones, till November. That they are making for London in early October, my friend says, means that they smell hard weather coming. SHY AND DRY It . is unlikely‘ ‘London will see much of the Lindberghs during their visit to England. No encouragement will be forthcoming, so far as the famous American airman-or his wife are concerned, to any attempt by Mayfair to lionise them or by Fleet Street to exploit them. Col. Lindbergh, though quite a pleasant personality, is extremely shy, devoted to mechanism, and absolutely out of his element in social functions. He neither smokes nor drinks, within the meaning of that phrase, and has staggered a cocktail party before now bv sipping plain milk. Mrs Lindbergh, a petite American with a soft southern accent, lias got over the tragedy of her kidnapped baby boy better than was at one time feared. She wears riding breeches wb°n living with her husband but does not disdain a small pair of mascot carrings too. Perhaps she does not quite share her husband’s implicit faith in the machine. ANOTHER VANISHING LANDMARK Old timers in Fleet street, who remember when journalists wore long hair and velvet jackets and could write the King’s English, have had another heart pang. Radford’s “Segar Shop” at the corner of one of Fleet Street’s oldest and most literary r.ileywavs. is to go. It is one of the oldest tobacco shops extant. Rumour alleges Dr. Johnson among its celebrated patrons—for snuff, of course—and logic demands that Boswell must have visited it too. Minch more certain is the tradition that Edmund, Burke and Charles Dickens were clients, and welcome crosscounter gossips. The shop is at least two centuries old as a tobacco emporium, and I was attached to it because of the fine romantic navy cut plugs and bags of Boer tobacco its window always displayed In fact one might parody King Henry V’s classic lament about Falstaff, and say one could have better spared a. better shop. EDWIN BOOTH CENTENARY London is shortly going to commemorate the centenary of Edwin Booth, and, though this famous actor’s brother, John Wilkes Booth, assassinated Abraham Lincoln, I hear that Americans, as well as distinguished English people, will take part ill the celebrations. The actor Booth, who was a rival to the great Kean himself, was born on 13th November, 1833. and played with immense artistry most of the big Shakespearian roles. He also built a. theatre for himself. The U.B.A. tragedy caused his withdrawal from the footlights for some little time, but the playgoing public welcomed him back with enthusiasm even in those days. Edwin Booth was a tremendous realist on the stage, and it is a tradition of the green room that to play opposite him in a role demanding a stage duel was to run imminent risk of getting hurt, so fiercely did he press the simulacrum of the fight.