LONDON CHAT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12991, 7 October 1905, Page 5 (Supplement)

LONDON CHAT.

![FHOM OUR OWN CORBESPONDSTT.] Lon'Bon, August 25. • V ' I,ORD CTTR7.ON'S .RESIGNATION. if' ' Lord Opbzon's resignation, of the Vice}V I' royalty of India lias excited no surprise, ffy,' except as regards the actual moment of its Occurrence. It. has long been known to be virtually inevitable, anil present know-tef-,y«!edgo of events makes it abundantly clear |y - that the two great mistakes committed by f, Lord C'urzon were: (1) Accepting a renewal ; of his Vice-royalty at all; (2) not persisting mf.- in his resignation when he tendered It in Juno last. |i| Li this connection, lie-by, another of fcj ' those very curious discrepancies lias arisen p.j for which the present Ministry has "attainII ■ ed a somewhat unenviable notoriety. New Zealand readers will remember that, al|f though Mr. Balfour positively denied in Parliament that lie had received any warng*\ings from Sir William Butler, cither that S- the Ministerial policy then pursued would J, render *♦ war with the Transvaal inevit- / able, or that if war did couio England ;? would need a force of at least 100,000 men on the spot, he had ait that time not merely seen and read those documents, but had actually commented upon them in writing, J;! iws subsequently appeared in the evidence laid before the Royal Commission. Mere | ' ordinary people were tillable at the time jjr. to distinguish that denial from »' more ordinary Well, now, on June 22 last, Mi ; Bowles asked whether the Government had received any information from '.oid Curzon of his desire or intention to resign his post -* as Viceroy of India. Mr. Brodrick re- _ * plied: "No, sir: there is no foundation for fjV,';. the eport." That seems plain enough, doesn't it? But in a telegram published 1 •• Jasc Monday Lord Curzon remarked: "The position is in.principle exactly where it Was when I resigned in dune." That was rait ther a staggerer in view of Mr. Brodrick's statement of Juno 28, and he was invited to explain the discrepancy. Mr. Brodrick now explains that although Lord Curzon had intimated that if he did not receive the support lie desired he. would tender his resignation, this, in Mr. Brodrick's opinion, "would certainly not have justified him in stating that the Viceroy had cither resigned, or tendered his resignation, on the hypothetical jtatement of what might occur if the Government were unable to meet him." This curious economy if veracity does not raise in one's Estimation. ft is almost needless to explain that Lord Clinton's resignation was directly duo to his having measured himself against a much stronger man—to wit, Lord Kitchener. It is freely recognised nowadays that if England should have to fight on 'and it will be on the Indian frontier, and for this reason Lord Kitchener's services, which would have been of inestimable value at headquarters during the past few years' feeble and futile attempts at. army reorganisation, i, were still more imperatively needed by the j. army of our Indian Empire. To the reorganisation of the Indian army and to putting it on a satisfactory footing of efficiency Lord Kitchener devoted all his vast powers of intellect and will, only to find himself cheeked on. the eve of success bv foolish local interference, virtually backet! by the ; • Viceroy. It is onlv natural that the old saying, 77 Cherehex la me," should lie revived in « connection with this matter; and, as might be expected, there are various rumours afloat as to the character of Lady Cur/.on's influence in the situation. Bui, it is; as difficult to be sure upon which side this was exercised as it is in the case of tho Russian Emperor and his wife. Lady Curzon is very clever as well as pretty and charming, but it is said that she made many enemies for her husband and herself by her extreme assumption of quite Royal stateby her "airs and graces," as one offended person put. it in homely language. It'was always noted how keenly she seemed to enjoy the sefvile homage of"the Oriental magnates, but. her enjoyment in seeing them kiss her feet might in itself have no ill effect-. What annoyed Anglo-Indian society was that the pretty American would have delighted in receiving similar homage from her European "subjects" had it been feasible to exact it, wheh, of coursp, it wsis not. But anyhow she showed so plainly that she expected extreme deference anil adulation, such as either English people nor Anglo-Indians were accustomed or disposed to render, that undoubtedly she did give offence in many quarters, some not uninfluential. And this may have been one of the factors in bringing about her husband's retirement and her own. v At the same time, there is undoubtedly . a preponderance of sympathy with Lord Curzon on the part of a large and important section of the Indian people and press, . / and even those, here or there, who differ from him as regards policy, willingly recognise the magnitude of the service he has done for the Empire. This sentiment Was admirably formulated'to-day in a telegram despatched from Marienbad by. King Edward, who says: " With deep regret I have no other alternative but to accept your resignation at your urgent request. Most warmly do I thank you for your invaluable services to your Sovereign and to your country, especially to the Indian Empire. Most sincerely do I hope that your health way improve.—Edward R. and I." SWIMMING THE CHANNEL. Yesterday, four competitors started upon m attempt to swim across the English Channel. They could have crossed in comfort in less than an hour by one of the regular steamers; they preferred to take fifteen or twenty hours, using the propellers that Nature had given them, in the shape of hands and feet. The only thing which galvanised the present quadruple attempt into a slight degree of spasmodic interest, .»'as the fact that one of the competitors belonged to the feminine sex—namely, Miss Ke.lerman, the Australian girl, who came to the Mother Country expressly to exhibit her natatory powers. Being a pleasantlooking,' pleasant-mannered, and jolly sort of girl, too, she inspired a distinct wish that she, at any rate, might succeed. But she, too, failed, as did all the others; only her failure .came about in what may, without offence, be described as a laughably and characteristically feminine way. She showed some splendid swimming, far superior in quality and even in (Strength to that of any of her masculine rivals, and she was making excellent progress when, alas! she became seasick. This she had not anticipated, and the additional muscular exercise which she was thus called upon to perform tool* it out of her" rather awkwardly, besides seriously distracting her attention irom the proper movements of the other parts of her body. The unhappy consequence was that after much .and varied exertion she was obliged to give in. OBITUARY. In the obituary notice of the current week the most eminent name Is that of Mr. Alfred Waterhouse, 11.A., who has passed to his rest after w lingering illness. He was quite the most eminent of living British architects and for many years past has had «c rival for that position. Among Dther famous buildings of which lie was the designer I may mention the Natural History Museum at South Kensington, the National Liberal Club on the Thames Embankment, the Manchester Town Hall and Municipal Buildings, while lie restored or rebuilt or extended with great success many existing edifices, including Eaton Hall, the if Cheshire seat of the Duke of Westminster. It may be added that he was one of the twelve selected competitors chosen to send in designs for the new Courts of Justice in London, and it, is now universally admitted that his plan would have been in many re- \ spects preferable, particularly on the score - Vof convenience, to that of Mr. Street, which was ultimately selected and carried out. Mr. Waterhouse was in his 76tb year. FRENCH LOCOMOTIVES IN ENGLAND. On Saturday 1 went down to Plymouth specially by invitation to be present at the first trial of one of the two gigantic new French locomotives that have been supplied to the Great- Western Railway on their famous express which covers the whole 246 <, J miles between Plymouth and London without a stop. The engine, which is built on ~; , the de Glehn compound system, is certainly Vj a magnificent-looking monster and attracted a crowd of spectators when she came on ; to the train at the Plymouth" platform. J;,' Shi- and her sister engine arc the largest and heaviest locomotive that have yet run on British metals. Her " blow-off" of btcain at 2501b pressure per inch from the

tour separate -valves, with which for the sake of safety her huge boiler has . been provided,' was almost terrific to hear, producing a deafening rear, and making the whole station vibrate. The new engine,, which is named " President," her sister being named "Alliance"both, of course, ill compliment, to the entente— herself to possess great speed, maintaining .ft rate of 90 miles an hour for two miles 011 end down a falling gradient, each of the eight successive quarter-miles being covered in exactly ten seconds. Unluckily, however, it turned out that she had been put to work a little prematurely, and before she had shaken off i-lie initial stiffness invariably experienced after just coming out of tjie shops. The consequence was that the "big end" of utile connecting-rod "ran hot," and so she had to come off outside Bristol, where we stopped for that purpose, a new British-built engine coming on in her place and finishing the run to London ii' very good style. I do not fancy, however, that this experience will oe repealed. Both French engines aro splendid'machines and should do as good work, in this country as 111 their own land. MOTORS. i Motors .'multiply exceedingly fast in our streets, and the inotor-'bue is now quite a common sight. It is also a very great convenience, being not only far swifter and more comfortable than the old-fashioned horse-hauled 'buses, but also much cheaper. So far as present experience goes also, the motor-'hus pays much better than the horse-'bus, but of course there has not yet been time for the element of wear and tear to enter into the calculation. The Lord Mayor, Sir John Pound, who is also chairman of the London General Omnibus Company, speaking at rday'c meeting "of the company, when, by the way, an 8 per cent, dividend was declared, expressed his opinion that the horse would lie with us for some years yet as a principal means of traction, but 0110 great cause of delay in the motor-'bus becoming universal is the difficulty experienced in obtaining an adequate supply of the vehicles. Every builder at Home and abroad has his hands more than full, and at the present rate of progress it will take several years to provide such a supply of automobiles as will enable the horse to be superseded. One curious and rather undesirable effect has already been produced by the prevalence of the petrol motor. The admirable system of liquid-fuel burning invented. and introduced 011 the Great Eastern Railway by its aole chief mechanical engineer. ; Mr. James Holden, which, not long ago promised to revolutionise locomotive methods by its cleanly and effective working, has been almost wholly thrown out of use by the enhanced cost of the liquid-fuel due to the demand for the petrol product of petroleum. The immediate result lias been not only that several other railway companies which had decided to introduce the system, and had begun to fit their engines with the apparatus, have had to abandon the idea, but also that even the railway of its origin (til© great Eastern) is only able to employ it on just so many locomotives as can be served from its own gasworks refuse. It was the necessity of getting rid of this same refuse, by-the-by, that led to the method being devised.