LONDON CHAT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13692, 7 March 1908, Page 5 (Supplement)

LONDON CHAT.

[FROM our own correspondent.]

London, January 24. During the whole of the current week the greater part "' England, and those parts of France, Holland, and Belgium contiguous to the English Channel and North Sea, fcave been in the grip of a dense fog, which has hampered and obstructed traffic to an extent rarely before equalled. LOST IN THE lOC. The fog counted its victims by dozens. On these occasions there are always pedestrians who march straight ahead, unseeing, ■ tut blindly confident in their stubborn British way, only to find themselves suddenly plumped into a river or canal or dock or Jeep pond, whence they are seldom resetted, save in the condition which Mr. M'aiitalini prognosticated of his own i Mortal remains— worse! But dwellers m London are perhaps the greatest sufferers from these atmospheric visitations because they really cannot help themselves. Business must be done, and its doing involves railwaying or 'bussing or tramming, or at least walking. in each of these the process was far more difficult of safe or ' satisfactory accomplishment, than can possibly bo imagined by the dwellers in happy, fogless New Zealand. My own experience jitL. evening, which 1 may remark was '■■■;.1^&- non-tragic, is typical of thousands K*£rauj. Endeavouring to make Victoria •^tiowroil-my homeward way from Regent- • "street," 1 speedily lost myself, and, as an old"Londoner always dins, took refuge in a hansom. .My "driver promptly followed mv example : he immediately lost himself, arid we wandered about helplessly for an indefinite period, unfit! suddenly held up by it, policeman, who wanted to know "wherewe were going'.'" The reply, "Victoria Station," produced the prompt retort that "You are in the middle of St, James' Park, Irving to drive over the fence into the lake." We apologised, and turned sharp to the right. The electric arc-lamps, .which occur pretty closely along both sides . of the Mall, Mere quite invisible until Ave were nearly under them, when they appeared only as a faint grey smudge on the ' fog. In a few seconds wo were stopped by another policeman, with the intimation 'that we were driving. right into Buckingham Palace, and were directed to turn sharp to the left. However, more fortunate than many others on that grim evening, Ave did reach Victoria Station at last, and' then, starting nearly a quarter of an hour late, and travelling with prodigious celerity, enlivened by the reiterated deto- * nation's of fog signals, we performed my journev of two miles from Victoria Station -jo exactly half-an-hour. BRITISH POLITICS. But enough.of physical fogs. There be - ret other kinds. One most certainly pervades the English political world just now. Early in the week a by-election for one of the safest Radical seats in England re- ■■' suited in one of the most amazing boule- . versements on record. For a very long series of years. and elections the Mid- * Devon seat has always been safe to return by a considerable majority the Liberal candidate, no matter who or what he ■ might be. But, on the present occasion, j Captain Morrison-Bell polled 5191, beating ■. Mr. Buxton, a. very strong Liberal candi- j , date, by 559, showing the remarkable "turnover" of .1842 votes. Moreover, the Liberal vote showed a decrease of 447 in the

two years, the Conservative vote an increase of no fewer than 1385. A most ex- , traordinary scene followed the declaration ': of the poll. The victors were naturally . elated '"by the magnitude of their almost unexpected victory, while the Liberals, : who had never anticipated even the possibility of defeat, still less so tremendous a - beating, seemed absolutely stupefied by the magnitude of the disaster. The de- ■■■*'■: feated Liberal candidate, Mr. Buxton, whose supporters had mustered in strong V'v force to cheer his victory, frankly admitted, : ■ in thanking those who'had voted for him, ' that the defeat was as crushing it was surprising-. Subsequently a number of his supporters, inspired with the idea of demonstrating conclusively their superior fitness for power, started "some disgraceful -rioting, smashing windows and otherwise ■/. damaging property, and shamefully attacking and ill-using two ladies whom they'encountered, and whom they followed into a • shop where they had taken refuge. %>th ladies were a good deal injured by these ,'■■'. cowardly ruffians, whose misconduct has ; done almost as much harm to their party as its smashing reverse at the poll. ■ '. '■:'- So far, all this is straightforward and clear. - The fog comes in 'when we try to . deduce from the spoken and written com- . ments on the result of the election the ■■-'- reasons why events followed such a course. v No two people seem to agree on this head; .'•/.. almost every speaker and writer has his own pet policy, in favour of which he seeks to deduce arguments from the Mid-Devon poll. But to an observant outsider the, :.:"--. thing is plain enough. It is no question of supporting tariff reform or any other ; - recognised political cry. The destruction " of Liberalism in Mid-Devon was due to ' . ; exactly . the same cause-as that which ; V .- brought about the destruction of Conserva- -.-. tism throughout Britain two years ago; that cause was and is, simply and purely, -disgust with the Ministry in power. Be- . yond all question, the worst thing Ministers have done as concerns the interests v of the Empire as a whole, and the United -'-.;-',' Kingdom in particular, has been their persistent attempt at class legislation, and. their constant efforts to stir up class feel- :':; ing—to set .class against class. And the most pernicious phase of this pernicious policy has been the encouragement which . it has given to the so-called and miscalled .. "Socialism." as preached just now "by a particular class of Radical politician, which is in its essence —apart from other :.-" drawbacks of a religious and domestic cha- ;' • racter-simply Communism and anarchism. The rash candour of some leading Communists—for T decline to recognise them as true Socialists -has fairly frightened the general public, and the feeling of alarm is spreading among those who arc not yet prepared to abolish the Deity, to have their wives in common, and to do away with all family tics. It was this feeling of repugnance "that largely stimulated the : anti-Ministerial feeling 'which brought ', about the tremendous Liberal reverse of last Saturday in Mid-Devon, THE LA ISO! II PARTY. The annual' conference of the Labour 'Party was opened last Monday at Hull. . ...On the following day a. resolution to the - sffect that tin- Labour Party should definitely adopt the principles of " Socialism" as its policy >vus put to the vote after full discussion, * and emphatically rejected by Hie enormous majority of 951,000 to 91,000 rotes. • Yet on the very next day the vote .-' was absolutely reversed bv 514,000 to '" W9,000, ■ a resolution being passed declaring that the time had com-' when the Labour Part; should adopt Socialism as the definite ob- • jeefc of its organisation. Attempts are now being made to explain away this later, r most-',contradictory, and. self-stultifying p - vote by allegations that through some ■■; blunder, not. at all clearly explained, the 70,000 votes of the Amalgamated Railway porkers were given in error on the wrong side, while, many of those who were present at the voting now declare that tin--. acted in complete misconception of the ' resolution's myport. • These explanations : lack a little in point, of credibility, but, if they can lie aksspted, do not constitute a vp| -y high ie-i\*.v ' to the capacity for Political power %«^Sef g who thus muddle their voir.?. It generally understood that the earlier Noting was largely due to sheer dread of'sharing' the unpopularity which attaches generally to the so-called "Socialism" now being preached by the ? communistic wet ion of the Radical party, and that, its reversal on the following day t was brought about by threats of the comi munistic leaders that they would wreck ■ 'he Labour parly if it presumed to declare I}: against what theythese excellent com- | munists—are pleased to designate "Social- %-. ism." Ami so I leave the situation—still I' in densest fog fj.[ I.UIM) i i tr/.ON. H In a recent letter I mentioned that Lord Curzon of Kedlestonhis modest applica- > tion to the Prime Minister for an English peerage having been rejected—had offered <i himself as a candidate for election to the 1 'House of Lords as an Irish representative

peer. The election duly came off in the customary private way a few days ago. Lord Curzon obtained a large majority of votes. But now it turns out that lie' neglected to see that his name had been displaced upon the roll of Irish peers as one eligible to vote or be voted for. The consequence is that his election is not valid, although at the same time it is not necessarily invalid. It can bo validated by the Lord Chancellor, should that high functionary see lit to do so. As the flaw in the procedure is a purely technical one, mid Lord Loreburn is a man who specially plumes himself ■ upon riding above mere* party considerations where matters of public importance are concerned, it is generally believed that Lord Curzon will obtain his seat'iHi the House of Peers. "*-

TUB SUFFRAGETTES. Our fair friends, the so-called Suffragettes, have broken out in a new place this week. Their latest escapade is if possible more silly and irrational even than their previous capers. A party of them clustered at the entrance to the Premier's residence in DoAvning-street, where a Cabinet meeting was about to be held. They claimed admittance on the ground that they desired to represent to the Cabinet the imperative necessity of including in the. Speech from' the* "Throne, to be delivered by the King at the opening of Parliament on the 29th hist., a. distinct promise that a Bill should be. brought in establishing female franchise. The- police of course, intervened, and quietly "moved them on"— that is to say," but two, who were found to have attached themselves to the massive iron area railings in front of the Ministerial residence by means of flexible chains, which proved to have been constructed of case-hardened steel. These were fastened with padlocks, of which the keys had been handed to a friend who kept in distant concealment. As case-hardened steel cannot be filed, and can only be cut by special chisels, the police had no end of a job to play the part of Perseus- to these two Andromeda-or .Andromednc, if that bo deemed more correct.. This feat was achieved at last, however, and so the duplex Andromeda found her unwelcome release from the non-existent dragon. Nothing more farcical or unconvincing than the whole proceeding could well have been devised, and on© is really almost driven to the conclusion that the perpetrators of these preposterous pranks must, in point of fact be secret opponents of the movement, and exerting themselves to bring it and its votaries into public ridicule and contempt. THE NEW PRIMA DONNA. Tetrazzini the Great has "come, sung, and conquered" in New York, and is enjoying the fruits of her victory in the' shape of a nice little fee of £800 per night. Her audiences have displayed immense enthusiasm. Most of the New York musical critics have been cordially approbatory, "but some doubted it" whether .a new Patti had really arisen from the dead level of present-day vocalism. After carefully reading the criticisms of these latter, I feel bound to say that on the whole I do not think them unjust. In no respect do they " run down" Tetrazzini. They merely hesitate to proclaim her so enormously superior to any other living singer as her " boomers" both here and in America have asserted. For myself, I fully and readily recognise her distinct greatness as a singer. Her voice is. splendid, her compass great— though by no means phenomenalher execution singularly fine and clean. But I cannot admit her equality with such great artists of the ¥ past as Patti, Lucca, and Nilsson, or her superiority at all points to such singers of the present days as, let us say, Selma Kurz, Emma Fames, Ackte, or even Melba. In some respects she may be better than each —indeed, she is— in others I am not disposed to accord her first place. Indeed, in some things, I am not. sure that I would not just as gladly listen to Mrs. Albert Mallinson—formerly well-known in New Zealand as Madame Bahnson— Madame Dolores—formerly Trebelli-Bettinias to Tetrazzini.