“THE MAILT LETTER FROM LONDON

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 5 September 1934, Page 8

“THE MAILT LETTER FROM LONDON

COMMENT ON CURRENT EVENTS ■ f]. POLITICAL AND SOCIAL HAPPENINGS INDIA COMMITTEE’S REPORT (From Our Own Correspondent)

LONDON, 19th July.

Members of the Joint Committee on the India White Paper will read with some surprise (ho confident predictions that their report is likely to be completed by September. They have formed no estimate themselves, and (hey will be agreeably surprised if (lie forecasts prove accurate. They propose to adjourn about the end of this month, and in view of their heavy labours, as well as the work thrown on their staff, they will require a reasonably long holiday. As Parliament will be adjourned and not prorogued, the Committee are at liberty to sit during the recess, but it is unlikely that they will do so before about the middle of September. The Government are making no attempt to hurry the Committee to reach conclusions, and it is doubtful if Parliament will see the draft Bill before Mio early Summer.

SUBSIDY TO FAT STOCK PRODUCERS Farmers will indeed be grumblers if they do not show gratitude to the Government for the assistance just- extended to them hv Mr Walter Elliot. Financial aid of three million pounds over a period of six months is a truly munificent offer to fat stock producers when compared with the two millions for a whole year that has been reluctantly and conditionally screwed out of Mr Runcimau on behalf of tramp shipowners. The Government hopes to recover the money later on by means either at a levy or tariff on imported beef. Whether it succeeds or fails in this endeavour the three millions must come —indirectly in the one case, and directly in the other—out of the pockets of the people. This is the most dangerous feature of the policy, for there is nothin" the taxpayer, is more likely to resent than being asked to pay a. subsidy so that his butcher may charge him more for his Sunday joint. The policy is, of course, intended to raise wholesale prices, but it will he extremely difficult to stop retail prices running up with them. OUR. MARITIME MUSEUM After being talked about for nearly a quarter of a. century, the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich will shortly he in being. Thanks largely to the generosity of a Scottish shipowner, Sir James Ca'ird, and the interest shown in it by the King, the Bill authorising the museum scheme is about to become law. Hitherto innumerable priceless maritime relics, associated with this island’s history, have been lost when private collections were broken up and sometimes sold. Many have found their way abroad to different countries, nrincipallv America. But at Greenwich, to which both the King and Queen have given various historic exhibits, we shall possess without doubt the finest collection of its kind anywhere in the world. As the best part of our Imperial history was, so to speak, writteh on blue water, the Greenwich Museum should he a most fascinating place.

REAL ROAD HOGS It is peculiarly exasperating to walkers, who- know their intimate beauties, to .hear of all the lovely heaths and forests now being charred to ruin by fire. In a. drought summer the risk is always great, but that makes moi'e inexcusable the hoggish carelessness that does the damage. Now people can get by car or charabanc to beauty spots they are too lazy to visit afoot, these places too often are defiled by litter and broken glass. The latter is a frequent cause of fire, when tbe sun acts on it in tinder, and any day one may see lighted matches and cigarette ends being light heartedly hurled from passing chard-bancs filled with Cockney trippers shouting music, hall choruses. We spend twice as much on education as the French or Germans do, yet they, without being conspicuously less educated academically ha-ve been taught better manners than to litter up either streets or countryside. TOO MANY FLAG DAYS None too soon the authorities who sanction these charitable festivals ha-vo decided that the number of London flag days must be drastically pruned. Counting all our metropolitan suburbs, we have had during May and June no fewer than 88 different flag collections, and before the season ends the number will exceed 250. An analysis of results shows that the flag-day movement, however deserving its many objects, ’s being grossly overdone. Last year London’s street flag-day contribution totalled £232,000. Of this Poppy Day, always the special occasion, accounted for £99,000. Next came Alexandra Rose Day, with just about half that sum. Of the other flag days 45 raised less than £IOO, 44 less than £SO, 53 less than £25, and so on. What impresses me, however, is the comparatively small total, considering its population, London contributes even to the special flag days.

PRESENTS TO CIVIL SERVANTS

The stringent prohibition of expensive presents to Indian and Colonial civil servants from those under their jurisdiction originated in a desire to counteract the age-long belief in the East that favours are to lie bought. I remember tile late Sir John Jardine telling me that, when lie was in India, he gave one of the garden parties expected from one in the position he I lien held. The guests brought fruit and flowers according to custom. At the end of the day lie thought one of the bouquets was suspiciously heavy, and when he dissected it ho found an expensive diamond necklace. It went hack promptly to the giver—a party to a pending litigation—with a sharp warning that the offence must not he repeated. Rut collective gifts, such as the erection of statues in honour of former Governors, are in a different position and not open to misunderstanding. The same is true of the, portrait presented to Sir Philip Cunli fie-Lister by the people of Mauritius. JAPANESE MOTOR-CARS Experts are not impressed hv the alarmist reports that Japan is about to become a serious competitor for tho .motor-trade of the world. Even if she increases her outpui to the extent that is now in contemplation she will have little left for export, and pinny years

will he required for her to make up her present leeway. The Japanese arc adepts i:i imitation, but something move is needed to meet the ever-changing and more-exacting demands of the carowner. That is a much more difficult process than the production of silk and cotton textiles in which Japanese competition is really formidable. ATR CRUISES NOW The shipping lines have done remarkably well out of their summer cruises. Those have helped to tide many companies over one of Mie thinnest times ever encountered. But they will not ho allowed a monopoly of this happy idea, which has proved so popular with middle-class people in London and elsewhere. It is announced that the first organised air cruise will start on 21st July from Croydon, when one of the most luxurious Imperial air liners will set out on a fortnight’s holiday tour of famous European capitals. The itinerary includes Amsterdam. Hanover, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Graz, Venice, Rome. Pisa, Cailues, Marseilles, and Paris. For this air cruise of about three thousand miles, in connection with • which will he run sideshow local motor trips, the fare is 75 guineas. ANGRY WITH ADMIRALTY The Admiralty is being criticised for extending special naval courtesies to (he recent International Ornithological Congress at Oxford. The British Navy does not, of course, fly its flag in the upper reaches of the Thames, hut it placed at the disposal of the Congress two fast destroyers to carry tlieni out to famous bird sanctuaries off the Welsh coast. Perhaps nothing would have been said, but for the fact that one of the distinguished foreign savants was ex-King Ferdinand of Bulgaria, one oi tfie galaxy of royal heads who lost their thrones during the War. Ferdinand had a most unpopular repute in the best Allied circles, wherein he was known as “the fox,” and apparently is still not persona grata. He is an impressive figure nowadays. In his big black sombrero, well pulled down, bom-run (dasses. and continental cloak, his heavy figure wears a decidedly Adelphian aura. But he is now only a rich old gentleman with a great zest for wild buds. THE LIFE Looking back I find that, on one poin„ at all events, my views have never changed To me it seems that incomparably the happiest life is that of an artist with genuine country tastes, who manages to scrape any kind of a living out of painting the things he loves- 80 I am envious of young Mr Nicholas Harris, son of Sir Percy Harris, M.P., who is ,holding his first water-colour show at one of our West End galleues. Mr Harris probably gets his artistic flair from his mother who has recently had one pf her paintings of a. London ...cere selected by the London Transport Board for one of their frfmous art posters. Mr Harris has an ambition to paint Thames glimpses, and, to .that end, has bought an old barge. In tins, with his easel and his kettle, he proposes to drift U]i and down the Lhames, painting what most takes Ins fancy. That, in my humble judgment, is the right sort cf life.

IN THIS WEATHER! \ six-day international cycle race bewail at Olympia last week-end, on a special wooden track composed of twen-ty-seven miles of timber, and graded to 54 degrees at the corners. The track is an eighth of a mile, long, and the competitors comprise two each from Great Britain, Canada, L.S.A., 1 ranee, Gei many. Switzerland, Holland and Belgium, all of them crack cyclists who push a good pedal From one mmute after midnight on Sunday until 11 v.m. on the ensuing Saturday these athletes of the wheel will he sprinting against each other night and day m one-man reliefs. Some actuary has computed that, by the time the the hell goes for the last, lap on Saturday, the racers will have travelled, without leaving Olympia, a distance of about 25,000 miles, or the circumference of the globe. If the weather remains as hot as it has been, 1 shall try not to think about these poor people. WHO TOLD YOU THAT? The latest golfing yarn is concerned with the mystification of two players who were greatly puzzled by the strange behaviour of a man playing in front. He was obviously a good golfer and drove a perfectly good shot, down the middle from the 'first tee. Rut, when he came up to his ball in the middle of the fairway he proceeded to kick it along with his' foot. Then he took out an iron, played a deft shot on to the green, and putted out. At the second tee, instead of taking out his driver, he nonchalantly kicked tho ball into the rough and then played a clearing shot afterwards with his niblick. The same thing continued all the way round. The two men following tactfully sought for an explanation. The man chuckled cousumedly. “It’s all right,” he said, “I’m playing in a mixed foursome competition' with my wife to-morrow and I’m just- getting my hand in.”