LONDON CHAT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13491, 18 May 1907, Page 5 (Supplement)

LONDON CHAT.

r FR 031 OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] j ■ L r ' London, April 5. ;■.... [ r is announced that the .King and Queeft will pay a vls ' l ' to Malta in the Royal yacht during their cruise, proceeding thither from Palermo and Naples. Their Majesties are •' expected to rrrivc at Malta'on Saturday, ' the 20th, for a stay of two clays. The Victoria and Albert will afterward proceed "i: either to Venice or to Genoa, whence the King' is to return overland to London. The] Queen, and Princess Victoria come home by sea, according to present arrangements. Sir Henry CJunpbell-Baimerraan is expected to ;; ! arrive at Toulon from Cannes on Satin day, in order that he may have an audience of the King on hoard the Royal yacht. Queen Alexandra and the Empress Marie J ! of Russia spent yesterday morning at Buckingham Palace, and after luncheon they visited the Grafton Galleries, and inspected ' the Arctic painting by M. Borissoff. Their Majesties, who were accompanied by Priu- '-. cess.Victoria, Sir Condie Stephen and Madame Novikoff, subsequently drove to Westminster Abbey, and spent half an hour there. They were . conducted through the building by Canon Duckworth, passing through quite a small crowd of ordinary sightseers as they proceeded along the west cloister into the nave. According to one who happened to be present, few seemed to recognise the visitors. Passing up the -steps from the lectern to the sanctuary, •'; they spent some time before the altar, and ':' Queen Alexandra indicated to her sister the ■■:> approximate position she' occupied at the coronation ceremony. .The Royal ladies also inspected the tombs on the left, or ■': north side of the sanctuary before passing! to their special objectivethe Royal tombs. The Confessor's Chapel, the Chapel of Henry VII., and the tombs, of members of j ; the banish Royal family—namely, those I, of Queen Anne of Denmark and "her two!; childrenwere of evident interest, and!; more than passing attention'was paid to ' the tombs of Queen Elizabeth and Mary ' '."" ; '". : : Queen of Scots. ■ . ■ • THE -CIIANUK IN EXETER HALL. I V It is sad to reflect that in a few weeks ' Exeter Hall, which was opened in 1831,' md which is associated with many social < ;,and religious movements of the past cen- ( bury, will have ceased to exist as a centre ] of religious activity. Among the interest- ' " ing meetings which have been held in this * .': historic hall may be mentioned that in con- , nection with the anti-slavery movement on ' June 1, 1840, when the Prince Consort presided, this being his first public appearance f in England. That the meeting was success- s fill may be inferred from a passage in a 1 ':",: letter which he wrote to his lather: "My t speech Was received. with great applause, € PA{. and seems to have produced a good effect . :,'>•'.•:.' in the country." "Probably the most im- c portant event, says one writer, " from an i i;: Imperial point of view, was the meeting held 8 in Exeter Hall in 1892. This resulted in the - saving of Uganda for the Empire. As a t '■■-. writer in the Graphic points out, it was in 1 that year that the Imperial British East t Africa Company, in consequence of then .failure of the Government to secure a Par- { liamentary grant for a survey for the railway from Mombassa to Victoria Lake, were about to withdraw their representative. Captain Dugard. They represented, however, to the Church "Missionary Society, ; , which was anxious to retain its hold on ; ■ Uganda as a mission ground, that the order of withdrawal could be countermanded and the evacuation delayed for a year if £40,000 1 —for a considerable part of which a few in- , dividual directors would be responsible— \ • .-...'could be guaranteed.. These facts were re- * :: ; ported at a meeting of the Church Mission- ' ary Society at Exeter Hall, and at the col- I lection which took place, such was the enthusiasm displayed that one friend offered : : £5000, and another wrote on a slip of " ;';■ paper,. '.My four freehold plots of ground ' shall be given for Christ.' Within a week i • over £11,000 had been subscribed to the < tociety, and Uganda was saved.", . , A BLOW TO TEETOTAEISM; t " A manifesto—which by reason of -the c , - iigh authority,of signatories, is likely _■ -to alltaci*wid*eaY£en?ioh,—* dealing with the f f , question of the value of alcohol, has been , issued, and bears the signatures of some of - ?■ the most distinguished members of the medi- I . cal profession, including the following n names: —Sir Thomas • McCall Anderson, y M.D., Regius j Professor of Medicine, Uni- '_ 'versity of Glasgow"; Sir William H. Bennett, K.C.V.O;, AF.R.C.S. ; Sir James v Crichton-Browne; : Sir Dvce Duckworth, r M.D.. LL.D.; Sir Thomas R. Fraser, M.D., p F.R.S.;W r D. Halliburton, M.D., etc., j, ::V ! "' Professor "of Physiology, King's College, „ ; London; Edmund Owen, LL.D., F.R.C.S.; j, ,". Fred T. Roberts, M.D., B.Sc, F.R.C.P.; ; and others. The manifesto is as follows: — ;.,-' ,:"In' view of the statements frequently a f: . made as to present medical opinion regard- v : ing alcohol and alcoholic beverages, we, the v V undersigned, think, it desirable to issue the w ; > following short statement on the subject— ' ,a statement which we believe represents the ° V . opinions of the leading clinical teachers as c ] ,|-;-;--well as of the great majority of medical w practitioners. Recognising that, in pre- J* ; ;; scribing alcohol, the requirements of the" : individual' must be the, governing rule, we P are convinced of the correctness of the Jj -: opinion 'so long : and generally held, that in *-» J;\ .disease alcohol is a rapid and trustworthy 1 if restorative. In many cases it may be truly «' :. described as life-preserving, owing to its * power to sustain cardiac, and nervous » energy, while protecting the wasting nitrogenous tissues. As an article of diet we hold p .that;the universal belief of civilised man- r< kind that the moderate use of alcoholic m beverages is, for adults, usually beneficial ;; ; .. is _ amply justified. We deplore the evils a arising from the abuse of alcoholic bever- n isjes. But it is obvious that there is no- fa y. thing, however beneficial, which does not f ( by excess become injurious;" U THE SWETTKXHAiI INCIDENT. . 11

Another desperate effort is being made io stir up public sympathy on behalf of Sir Alexander Swettenham, whose elaborately rude letter to the American Admiral Davis, repelling the assistance kindly offered and Riven by the latter at the time of the Jamaica earthquake, excited such just indignation and disgust on the part of all rightminded people. It now appears that even when our present weak-kneed and flabby- , minded Government announced that Sir :'.■■' Alexander Swettenham had voluntarily resigned on the ground of age, they were in-, -. dulging in yet another "terminological inV exactitude"— as one of their number prefers to describe a statement which ruder people f express in a word of three letters. Sir .. Alexander Swettenham now proclaims ?. loudly that the true reason of his resigna- ;; tion was that he was " forced to apologise to America." He declares that he was not on bad terms with the American admiral, ■ '~. and that his letter was intended only as . . a joke. To every level-headed person, how- : ler, it appears as a totally unwarrantable! piece of mdeness, and the action of the Government in insisting upon an apology one of the few proceedings upon which they can be cordial and unreservedly . complimented. The letter to Rear-Admiral Davis which . caused all the stir was written, so Sir Alex- -; ander says, in a letter just received, privately and in a spirit of pleasantry, just as °nc friend might write to another, without .; fear 0 offence. The letter came into the hands of a coloured newspaper correspondent. How this occurred the ex-Governor , 1? still unable to explain. He does not for .■•....-.■ one moment imagine that it was through any design of the American admiral, whose Reuse of honour and etiquette would prohibit any such action. It is pointed out ••; that had it been an official letter the admiral could not have published it without y- .the sanction of the American Secretary of State for the Navy, and as a private document the admiral's own sense of propriety would have prevented its publication. ' J "on comes an explicit explanation of the . resignation. When the publication of what r:° iT Alexander considered to be a harmless private letter caused a momentary sensawon in two continents the Home Government cabled to him asking if he were will'.r «.§ to apologise to the American admiral. ;.; bir Alexander promptly replied that if such •.;, : ■'...» course were really ' necessary he would :*':','.. a ° so with pleasure,' but his' compulsory apology would carry with it his resignation 41 J? , the governorship. The reply of the -■olomal Office was that the apology was- ; ecessary ; the apology was consequently '"aae, and Sir Alexander Swettenham asked : vern ieved of *" s responsibility as Go-

XX EASTER RECORD.;. This year's Easter holidays have been an absohiate record in respect of weather. Throughout almost the whole country, and even in London with the exception of a temporary haze on Saturday and Monday,! there was a continuance of cloudless skies : \ and most vivid sunshine. The exodus from, j. London was declared to be unparalleled,! yet the railway companies assert that their, 1 receipts fell considerably short of those: - which accrued last year. No explanation! , is available as to the apparent discrepancy. . Tramway competition may be partially ac-j j countable. By the by, the only seriousj , Easter accident was a tramway one, an j ' electric air, near Croydon, rounding a sharp; 3 curve at too high a. speed, with the conse-i ' quence that it capsized bodily, and out of; i' its fifty-six passengers no fewer than forty! ) were more or less seriously injured— one, it is feared, fatally. " [ It is perhaps hardly surprising that-I j have not yet come across a single expression of regret for the death which has just}. ; j occurred, of the man who long was the most • | powerful in the whole vast Russian Em- ' piro. and who, although his intentions were admittedly good, was the instrument of , perhaps more evil and the cause of more I human misery than almost any other man, who has ever lived. I refer to Pobiedenost-t " zeff, the Procurator of the Russian Holy I • Synod, and long virtually the absolute ruler •of Russia. The disastrous outcome .of the Russo-Japanese war, which . his influence did much to bring about. ' was doubtless a main factor in bringing , about his political downfall. Most people' : believe that he " meant well," but my experience tells me that almost all the mischief in the world is brought about by] "well-meaning" people. However, he has passed away and, as Charles Kingslev was' fond of putting it. "has gone to his own place." Ido not know where that is. ' 1 THE PRIME ''MINISTER'S DISCRETION. ! Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman had ani interesting little experience, on his way to I 'the Riviera. He was in the dining-car wait-; ing for afternoon tea when he. observed: that two lady passengers, who were also 'present, were regarding him with somewhat special and slightly derisive attention. At! last they entered very affably into conver-i sation with him> Tie joined in courteously,: quite unaware to whom he was talking. He was soon enlightened. ■ The ladies were '■ two of the most prominent Suffragette load-i crs, but the encounter was a purely casual j one. Naturally they tried to "improve the occasion," and, as naturally,, the Scottish' canniness of the Prime Minister proved tool much for them. • They sought to extract from him a promise of friendly assistance in the feminine franchise cause, but Sir Henry . was too old a bird to be caught with such manifest chaff Recently. I mentioned that a mischievous agitation in favour of Home Rule had been started in E<?vnt, of all places in the world. { It seemed by no means impossible even that; the hare-brained scheme might receive some ; encouragement at the hands of the present: Ministry. Lord, Cromer, however, who is! certainlv one of the Empire's greatest men. if not the greatest of those living, has dealt] a most damaging blow— not a death-blow j —to the movement by a powerful and welltimed review of the Egyptian situation. He, demonstrates with a conclusiveness that is irrefutable how inevitably fatal such a step must be to the interests'of the Empire at large and of Egypt in particular.