All Sorts of Pople

Free Lance, Volume XVI, Issue 870, 9 March 1917, Page 4

All Sorts of Pople

FIT!HE portrait of Theobald Yon Bethinann Hollweg, Kaiser Bill's Imperiai Chancellery has been.. lately drawn —in words printed in the ' Sunday Chronicle" by an English professor, who lately., resided in Berlin and knows the man personally. Before the war Hollweg.. admired England greatly and desired to ""retain its friendship for Germany. The emotion he displayed to • the British Ambassador (Lord Goschen) when he knew England was coming into the war for the succour Of Belgium was geriTiine-. . ; . «• «• v »• "~\'- Thei fact that he sent his only son-- . who has been killed in this war—-to Oxas ; a_Rhodes Scholar is stated as proof- jfcbat the Chancellorbelieved in; the English virtues. : But his own Words ' clinch^it: "I wanted him to go to Oxhe said, "because I like the English gentlemen. It is a: wholesome thing—the Oxford touch. I think he will gain in character at Oxford, before he settles down, to his" legal studies in Berlin." It -was intended that he should be a lawyer like his father - ■...»- - •» *> • Von Bethmann Hollweg is quite sixfeet two in.height and rather spare in figure and austere in face.; He has a strong hold on the: Kaiser. They were at Bonn University .together as students, and it is said that the Crown Prince, {now ,Kaiser) passed' his exams. ..' 'brilliantly" ' not merely because the •examiners, were indulgent,- but because his chum' (the Chancellor-to-be) helped him considerably. ■ ■ ■* -■ ' «• :■ it «• Mr. Prothero, John Bull's new Minister of Agriculture; combines m his person the scholar and man of letters with the scientific farmer. He is tall and slim in figure,- slightly bowed at : the shoulders as deeply- read schblars usually: are, has a pleasant voice and +alks_ smoothly- both in conversation and in debate. He was'a Fellow of All ' ■Souls, Oxford, and has been editor of the, ''Quarterly," while scientific farming has ialways been his "hobby, and his ~ •duties as for£aer agentin-chief : to the Dnke of Bedford ;gave him great practical experience. Since Prothero took ■charge a good many up-to-date ideas have been applied to the farming problems of tho United Kingdom. . * * © « <& «» Prime Minister Lloyd George was a "rebel" as a schoolboy of .eleven, when he organised a revolt of the-scholars .against the teaching of the catechism 1 to Nonconformist children/ That was in the days when the family were living humbly at Llanystumdwy, to which . village Mrs. Lloyd George had retired ; . on the death of her husband, and where her brother, a shoemaker, took care of the children's education. "Our home was comfortable," Mr. Lloyd George once said, referring .to this period of his life, "but thrifty and pinched. Our

bread was home-made; we scarcely ever ate fresh meat, and I remember our greatest luxury was half an egg for each child on Sunday morning.". ' ± ;. » •' « « •/ "- Colin Campbell, only surviving, son of r the late --Mr. Andrew Campbell, who, . for many years, was manager of. the National Insurance Company, in Wellington and a popular skip in the "Welling-:? ton Bowling Club, fell in action -at Mesopotamia on January 11 last. He held the' rank of lieutenant, and-not : only was a capable officer but held in high esteem in civilian life, and when he donned khaki and departed for the front, he left behind him . a fine record and a legion of friends deeply interests : ed in his welfare. His education, which .started in Wellington,- -was finished at : -... the Melbourne Grammar School, and' a, bright career seemed opening up for - him -when he obeyed the call of duty, and went to. the war. V -3C- ' » . o * , ' ' Hugh J. Ward, just back' from: Ameinea, where - he lias "been searching ; for J. C. Williamson novelties, has : been talking in Sydney about Uncle • Sam's deep-rooted attachment to and ' respect for John: Bull. : To-day he says there are over 50,000 Americans fight- ; . ing; ill Canadian reinforcements, is eager to : be in thefight; is _ only . awaiting the word. Washington knows the spirit of the country. It will ,_be a dramatic .event that will bring the United States in. : When it happens, and war is look ouc for an avalanche 1 That is the . way the American people: move, ' Mr. Ward. "Every American naval - officer has the deepest respect, for the British. Nayy- T-heard a few of them' talk at Honolulu'. The German officers were under their word of honour not to interfere with ; their interned-ves-sels. They destroyed their machinery. 'liad_ "they 'r been British,' said one Wearing the U.S.A. uniform, 'such a thing could not have happened.' That .. is what the word of a. Britisher means JTi the world. I havei seen it in every country: The word of an Englishman -is as good as his gold: It is a wonderful thing. England stands for honour, for chivalry, round the world." , «• ■■ -•» ■ That well-known -comedian; Mr. Barry Lupmo. the producer of ' 'Very ~ -Good Eddie," was the hero of a strike in Sydney last week. It seems he decided to reduce the strength of ; his orchestra-of 17 by two, as there were only I' 4 ladies in the chorus. The remaining 15 musicians therefore, after discussing the matter, intimated that unless _the two. members who had been, disniissed were reinstated they would not .play ./again. Accordingly at the . matinee only three of r the' orchestra, including the conductor,, . took their "seats. '.' #. ' & & . The audience was a sympathetic one,,, and when. Mr. Lupino explained that ha had decided to go on with an orches- ' .: tra of three in preference to shutting up-the theatre and throwing 112 people out of work he was greeted, with enthusiastic cheering. Later on in - the performance, when lie skipped nimbly down from the stage and supplied the drum effect incidental to one of the scenes, the audience, held lip the., show, for nearly five minutes while -tliey applauded him, and refused to- let the: performance go on until he. had made another speech. Later, in the

afternoon an arrangement was arrived at, and. the full orchestra took its place, jjehding the arrival" of the union secret tary from Melbourne. Mr. Gravestock, the manager, said that similar trouble was experienced at the King's Theatre in Melbourne, the musicians demanding increased pay. They were informed that, their demands would not be acceded to, and: subsequently agreed to accept the old rates. . Herbert Church,, of Wellington, in the leisure left him by a Government billet, has turned out a lot of very decent-. yorse during recent years. - Now -he has broken out in a, fresh place by writing and publishing a novel called "Tonks." Melbourne ''Table Talk-' rises up to express the opinion that "With, all its faults of garrulity,; its thinness of plot,; its shadowiness of character-drawing, 'Tonks' 1 makes an enjoyable and companionable book. . It' has the English quality of detachment, it does not concern itself , with any emotional depths,' its people are philanderers all, even the unromantic philosophising man who telis the story. ;, '*■ * * «•:. . :' "Tonks is really an English Duke incognito, and his companion, Dawks, is his intimate friend and fellow-towns-, man, and the people they meet in New Zealand are mostly well-to-do and of good English connections. When their, company does descend in the social scale, it falls precipitously to a thief in charge of a New Zealand constable, but, . strangely - enougli,. a Norfolk poacher originally. One of the principal parts is tha.t of a romantic flapper called Betty." •, ' <.\ ' - a . / ■.' ® The War Censor must have been winking hard when the following screed; from Sapper J.; E. Cullen, New: Zealand, Engineers, serving in France, passed under his optics. However, if

it does poke some borax at New Zealand's biggest "guns," it gives away, no military secrets: —' 'I am sending this from MUD. Weather here is awful. If we only lay hands on Jupiter Pluvius, he would be shot without mercy. The New Zealand big guns, Bill Massey and Joe Ward, called upon us when over here "and fired a gas-shell at us. We were expecting the two ,Parr_ anii Jimmy-Car-roll-but tney missed fire. The boys give it out here that when they were und»r fire they scooted for their lives und/r cover, when,, after all, it appears fl at the Colonel had concealed a sniper behind a sandbag and given him a handful of played-out shrapnel to throw over theix* heads so that .they could go bacs -tov New Zealand, with- it - and tell the folks how near they were to 'stopoii. p orie.' ; Even the dignity of our M ; s i J . is not held sacred out here." ■ «. v With the death of tlio Dowager Grand Duchess: of Mecklenburg-Strelitz - at 94 years of age disappears the European Royalty and the last surviving grandchild of George III.; and Queen Charlotte. She was born ,in Hanover.-' when that kingdom was still united , to the British Crown; Her father, tlie first Duke of Cambridge, was George 111. ? s "seventh son. He was for many, years Viceroy of Hanover; up to tlio moment when the two kingdoms • were separated, the- British Grown _going tb his cousin, Yictoiia, and the \SanoverrV ia,n prown to his unpopular brother Ernest, Duke of * Cumberland. The Princess . Augusta - ofv Cambridge was married in 1843 at Buckingham Palace, where her father had been Lborn iB 1774, to the late Duke ofMecklenburg-Stre-litz. For nearly three-quarters of a century she drew' a pension from the British taxpayers of £3000 a year, but this was stopped by Mr. "LloydG«6rjze~ soon after the outbreak of war. Queen Mary of England is her niece.