Presidents Off Duty

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22955, 5 February 1938, Page 15 (Supplement)

Presidents Off Duty

Albert Lebrun of Fran is a Keen Ga

By JOHN BARTON—(Copyright) TO the average man, tired at the end of a day's work, it seems extraordinary that the great ones; of the world should find time to do nnything apart from their official round of much-publi-cised public engagements. The fact remains, however, that—frequently under the advice of their doctors ' and medical advisers —the Presidents of the world do find time for recreation as a regular part of the day's round. At the historic Chateau of Rambouillet, 25 miles from Paris, President Albert Lebrun, ex-artillery officer, may be seen as the morning mists clear, rowing .stea-dily and slowly round the great ornamental lake in the "home park." In Peasant Garb His routine of newspaper (cuttings only, never whole papers), official document and confidential report reading over, he adjourns for two hours after lunch to the magnificently elaborate gardens. There, with his wife

•nd frequently clad in old peasant garb, he will potter among the beds and greenhouses, digging, planting; planning new sequences in the rotation of blooms, considering the following day's decorations for state and private apartments. If there is time he will walk down once more to the artificial lake, a knapsack of broken food over his •houldet, and feed the dozen or more breeds of ducks that come flying, splashing, swimming and squawking to greet his appearance. First-class Yachtsman At colonnaded "White House, in Washington, or Hyde Park, the "weekend" mansion in the green hills of New York State, President Franklin I). Roosevelt, of the United States, collects his stamps. Mr. Roosevelt possesses one of the finest private collections in the world, especially now that the- late King George V.'s collections are no longer being increased. Mr. Roosevelt is also a first-rate yachtsman and a good, sometimes — which is quite another business —a successful angler, although in the normal course of events he can find little time for these pursuits. Every day, however, he has a swim in his plunge-pool,

a brisk ten minutes with the medicine ball, and throughout the day at odd moments a furtive five minutes with his albums. The President of Poland, M. Ignacy Moscicki, takes after the famous first holder of his office —M. Ignace Paderewski—in being a really accomplished pianist. With the control of national affairs very largely in the hands of the virtual dictator of the country, Marshal Smigly-Rydz, 70-year-old M. Moscicki, spends much of the leisure time he has in Warsaw, playing over the often plaintive airs of the Polish I countryside. Many Inventions His chief hobby, however, is inventing. In all he has patented over twenty chemical and electrical improvements, some of them, he will tell you, thought out many years ago during his life in London. Switzerland's short-term President, M. Motte, together with Admiral Nicholas Horthy de Nngybanya, Regent of Hungary, share the hobby of oil and water-colour painting, a pursuit in which they are greatly assisted by the beauties of their respective countrysides. "Queer to Schoolboys" Mr. Eamon de Valera, President of the Irish Free State, has a pastime that would seem pretty queer to most schoolboy's. "Dev" spends his spare time working out mathematical problems, at which he is an 4 expert. It is no sinecure being President of Republican Spain just now, but Senor Manual Azana, formerly a voracious reader, still finds time occasionally to dip into the best of contemporary literature. Of foreign novels he prefers the English, and reads them in the original. Before being elected President he had already made a name for himself as a writer and dramatist, translating among other works George Borrow's "The Bible in Spain," into his native tongue.