LONDON LETTER VIGOROUS LANGUAGE IN OFFICIAL STATEMENT

Southland Times, Issue 23736, 7 February 1939, Page 6

LONDON LETTER VIGOROUS LANGUAGE IN OFFICIAL STATEMENT

Defence Of Palestine Troops

LITTLE CONCESSION TO PURITY OF ENGLISH TONGUE

From Our Own Correspondent

LONDON, January 14.

One expects vigorous language in and from the army, and we all know the'retired old general or colonel who throws down his morning paper at the breakfast table, strides over to his desk, and writes a letter to the editor saying that “the people who do 'these things”—whoever they are—“ought to be put up against a wall and shot.” But I cannot recall a government report written in such forthright language as the long War Office statement issued this week defending the Palestine troops against calumny and explaining the nature of the military operations. Without mincing words the report condemns “lying and exaggerated propaganda.” It refers to sniping and sabotage as a “remunerative racket,” and outsponkenly. describes an Arab leader as pocketing a big rake-off from forced subscriptions to Arab funds. The report tells of terrorist “thugs,” of the dangers of being “bumped off,” and of the campaign of “terrorism and gangster rule.” A concession to the preservation of the purity of the English language is made by the use of quotation marks for “thugs” and “bumped off” but rake-off is apparently regarded as needing no such apology. Naturally the report is unsigned, but one recalls that “lan Hay,” Major John Hay Beith, recently became Public Relations Officer to the War Office, and it seems a reasonable deduction that he had a hand in the document.

It is a coincidence that in the same issues the newspapers reported Mr Anthony Eden as having told how, after his New York speech, he received a message, “It was lousy.” This expressive but unpleasant little word, though much used in conversation by “young moderns” here, is extremely rare in print, One or two of the newspapers were so pleased to have an excuse for printing it that they put this passage by Mr Eden in black type, though they were careful to add Mr Eden’s explanation that it is only in democratic countries that such a criticism is possible. Mr Chamberlain’s memorable and unconventional description of himself as a “go-getter for peace” probably has even more significance than was attributed to it at the time. It may have marked the adoption of colloquial language by ■‘he British Government, and we may look forward to brighter speeches and to Blue Books written with a touch of Damon Runyon! But what would Mr Gladstone have said about it all—or, near our own times, Lord Oxford and Asquith? As for Lord Curzon and Milner whose State papers were classics, it is certain that they would have passed out if they had heard a Prime Minister describe himself as a go-getter for anything.

EXHIBITION OF SCOTLAND’S ART I did not distinguish many Scots folk when I was looking round the exhibition of Scottish ' art at Burlington House the other afternoon—the rooms were filled with English people “discovering” Scottish art. For discovering it was to most of the visitors. This exhibition is said to have been arranged by telephone within 24 hours because of a protest by Sir James Caw in a letter to The Times against the inadequate representation of Scotland in the exhibition of British art at the Louvre in Paris. The Royal Academy authorities had not decided upon the nature of their autumn exhibition, and here was an idea which was immediately adopted with welcome results. The whole scheme went through with remarkable smoothness, for Sir William Llewellyn, until lately president of the Royal Academy, tells us that when his invitation was accepted the Scottish organizers “were soon able to present to us a detailed plan of the exhibition,” which means that with the aid of plans to scale of the Royal Academy Galleries the exhibition was actually constructed in Edinburgh, with every work in its appointed place. The sequel is what The Times critic describes as the most orderly exhibition of its size that London has ever seen—an eloquent tribute to Scottish organization and thoroughness. The arrangement is chronological and where possible important artists, or associated artists, are given rooms to themselves. Never before have all these works of Raeburn, Allan Ramsay, Wilkie and Geddes, Orchardson, Guthrie and McTaggart been assembled under the same roof. Never before has it been possible to trace so easily the continuity of Scottish art, and to appreciate its more than national character.

From Highland castles have _ com® works known only to the connoisseurs, and if the Raeburn room holds the greatest enchantment, with its wellknown Duke of Roxburghe, its Lord Newton, its Mrs Scott Moncrieff and its unknown Lady in Lace Cap, there are in other rooms paintings which are a revelation to the southerners. The writer may smile condescendingly at such artless pictures as “The Happy Mother”—a collie dog with eight puppies; or “Wet and Weary,” showing an old man leading a grey horse through the rain; or “Their Only Harvest,” a girl and two men despondently hooking seaweed into a boat. And some of the landscapes are unpleasantly reminiscent of damp and misty weather. Nor is there anything cheerful about the crofters, the cattle, and the sheep, who are invariably presented in depressing mood and surroundings. But loveliness and bravery and picturesqueness are (revealed in the portraiture and we get a general imuression of a virile and romantic past. Scotland’s history is here not so much in canvas as in the significant fact that not until Scotland stopped fighting England and fighting within herself did Scottish art begin. Thus George Jameson, 1586-1644, is the earliest recorded Scottish-born artist The exhibition remains open for two| months.

SHELTERS FOR ART We all hope the day is far distant when British painters will have to stop painting again, as in 1914, to defend their country, but we are reminded of the possibility by the fact that the Tate Gallery authorities have completed their plans for such an eventuality. A country house has been prepared to receive 40 pictures, including Turners and Constables, which must be saved at all costs and will be sent away from London on the first alarm. The second list for evacuation consists of 500 pictures, the loss of which would be considered a 'national calamity. The remainder of the collection will have to take its chance in the Embankment building, underneath which a bombproof shelter has been constructed for the staff. The 5,000,000 books in the , British Museum will have to run the risk of destruction,, for, says Sir John Forsdyke, the principal librarian, “their evacuation would be quite out of the question. We could not even think of putting the library in the basement, because it now occupies half the building.”

The authorities will protect the structure with sandbags and in other ways, and will, of course, be able to remove treasures other than books. London’s 45 miles of docks and quays and 80 miles of waterways are to be protected and defended by the Port Authority at a cost of about £400,000. There will be shelters for 50,000 people, fire-fighting appliances, a floating ambulance service, and provision for an emergency staff to keep the key services of the port going. It all sounds very menacing and disturbing, but apparently we must accustom ourselves to these measures and to many others of which we shall hear soon.

TEA CENTENARY IN LONDON The Chinese had a long start over the British Empire in the manufacture of tea, and England was already a nation of tea drinkers (though even now, I believe it does not equal the record of Australia and New Zealand) when, exactly 100 years ago, the first consignment of tea produced within the Empire was put up for auction in Mincing-Lane in the City of London. There were eight packages, and they came from Assam. Today over £120,000,000 of British capital is invested in the industry in India and Ceylon, and employment is given by it to over 2,000,000 British subjects. The City of London naturally had to celebrate such a centenary, and so, last month, there was a blending conference in MincingLane, when experts selected the best brands of tea for the centenary blend. Then, more recently, the tea chests were borne on the backs of three elephants led by Sabu, the Indian boy film actor, from St. Katherine Dock as far as Tower Hill and thence by lorries to the tea auction rooms, Plantation House. And this week an auction was held there of gold and silver and chromium caskets containing the centenary blend, which realized £2228 for charitable societies connected with the tea trade.