PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3332, 23 January 1918, Page 61

PERSONAL NOTES.

The Nobel Prize for Literature for 1917 is to bo divided between the Danish authors, Karl Gjellerup and Henrik Pontoppidan. Both authors havo made their mark in fiction. Karl Gjellerup, who is 60 years old, scored his first important success in 1882 with a satirical novel, "Tho. Disciple of tho-Teutons." Henrik Pontoppidurt, who is the same age as Gjellerup, is best known for his great novel in eight volumes, "Lykke-Per." When that grave and industrious young engineer, Lieutenant Herbert Kitchener, laboured at his maps of Palestine did he ever dream that they would be used by the Staff of a great British force sweeping into the country from Egyp't "by tho way of the sea," through ancient Gaza and through Beersheba? Whether ho did or not (says the London correspondent of the Sheffield Telegraph) we owe to Lord Kitchener and Colonel Conder tho fact that every inch of the Holy Land is an open book for our armies. General Fayolto, who commands the Franco-British troops in Italy, is one of the discoveries of 'the war. A. colonel in August, 1914, the Sommo offensive found him a corps commander on the immediate right of General Rawlinson's army. During the French offensive last spring Fayolle commanded the French army between the Somme and the Oise during the advance from Noyau on La Fere and Saint Qucntin, afterwards succeeding Petain, promoted Commander-in-Chief as commander of the Central army group between Reims and Verdun. He is an admirable tactician, and speaks English fairly fluently—unlike most of his colleagues. Lord Rothermere, the new Air Minister, is one who has hitherto been but little in the public eye. He is one of the most successful business men of to-day, whose fortune has been .built largely on the production of newspapers. When the Daily Mirror, established at first as a women's paper, proved a source of r anxiety Lord Rothermere bought it, turned it into a picture paper, and made a fortune. He controls the Glasgow Daily Record and the Leeds Mercury. A couple of years ago he had the imagination to realiso that an illustrated Sunday paper was wanted by the public, and he established the Sunday Pictorial.

Sir Auckland Geddes is one of the new men tho war has produced. Three years ago he wras professor of anatomy at M'Giil University, Montreal, Canada, with a reputation as scientific investigator of problems in anthropology and biology. Behind this was a history of student days at Edinburgh —where he played Rugby for his university and maintained the Geddes tradition for brains and courage —war service in South Africa, and then again surgery and research. He is a man who will never be taken for anyone but himself—clean-shaven, high-domed forehead, large, long,, square jaw. wide, firm mouth, deep-set, humorous, kindly .eyes; a tall man with' a capacious handshake. ' A celebration took place in Edinburgn 0:1 a reoent Saturday which is unparalleled ■in the records of British journalism. Mr James Law has completed 60 years of uninterrupted work as manager and proprietor of the Scotsman. He joined the paper on October 19, 1857. His management has been continuous, and has been the basis of 'the paper's success and influence. _ On Saturday evening Mr Law was entertained to dinner and presented with an address bearing the names of 24 signatories, the heads of the departments of the Scotsman. Weekly Scotsman, and the Evening Dispatch—the three journals with which Mr Law is still actively associated. Of the vouriger M.P.'s who have fallen in the war v none will bo more missed or more sincerely mourned than Neil Primrose. In many ways (says the Westminster Gazette) he was his father's son. He had the neat, epigrammatic turn of speech, the quick uptake in conversation, the urbane manner * and the admirable speaking voice of tho Rosebery clan. His father's student qualities, love of books, and wide knowledge were not in his range, and perhaps would never have been; but he was gifted and adventurous, and had a wide-open mind to new ideas and all sorts of people. Everybody liked him and watched with pleasure his quick development of gifts and faculties which were hardly suspected when he first came into the House. M Georges Clemenceau, the Jrencn Prime Minister, despite his 76 years of age, is full of energy and physical oapacuy. For some time past he has been President of the Army Committee of the benate. Born in 1841, he was in New York when the Franco-Prussian war broke out. lie hastened back to France, made his mark as a municinal administrator during the Siege of Paris, and sprang almost at once to a prominent position in French politics M Clemenceau had been a lifelong friend of England as much as an inveterate foe of German pretensions. He was a consistent and most powerful champion of the Entente. When visiting the front recently he was a continuous source of anxietv to his escorts, because he would go to_ the most exposed portions and waived aside all remonstrances. Mr Thomas Burt. M.P., recently attained his eightieth birthday amid universal congratulations. He is a self-taught man beyond a very brief experience in a village school, and he went to work in a pit at 10; but he became the chosen representative of the Northumbrian miners, and 43 years have elapsed since the faithful electors of Morpeth first sent their present representative into the House of Commons. Whatever its faults, that assembly speedily assesses a man at his true worth, and soon gave its ungrudging admiration to the minor MP., whose straightforward simplicity of character was unspoiled by his promotion, and who how commands the veneration of all as Father of the House. When he first entered Parliament Disraeli, Bright, Lowe, and Gladstone woro still its leading lights, and he can recall the maiden speeches of Parnell and Joseph Chamberlain, as well as those of such comparative youngsters as Mr Asquith and Mr Balfour. Almost unnoticed, a great shipbuilder has been lost to the Empire by the death of Mr Peter Denny, of Dumbarton. The industrial development of Scottish towns has been largely associated_ with particular families, and Dumbarton is no exception to the rule. The Dennys have been shipbuilders since the founder of tho firm launched, in tho early part of tho nineteenth century, two craft—Marjory and Rob Roy—that played a conspicuous pnrt in tho development of steam navigation in Britain. The first Denny loft seven sons, and all of theiu became builders of ships: and by the middle of the century the firm had established marine engineer-

ing as a distinct business. Kipling's MaoAndrews might have been a native of Dumbarton, for the town was a regular nest of marine engineers of the true Scots type that is known all over the Seven Seas. They have kept up the reputation of the Clyde all through the war.