OUR LONDON LETTER.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 June 1925, Page 11

OUR LONDON LETTER.

news FROM HOMELAND. THE BUDGET SPEECH (From Our Own Correspondent.) London, April 30. It is no exaggeration to say that no speech Mr. Churchill has delivered in Parliament hitherto has been awaited with so much interest as that which he delivered on the House of Commons to introduce his first Budget. I remember well the rush there was to the galleries and to the green benches on the floor of the House when he made his first speech as a new member. He came to Westminster with the tradition of his father behind him, and a reputation of his own as a brilliant war correspondent. His first speech did not achieve the instantaneous success won by his friend “F.E.,” now Lord Birkenhead, but it established him at once as one of the coming men in Parliament. The curious hesitancy, and impediment of voice, that seems to be a family failing in the Churchill family, remains with him to this day, but he has won an assured Parliamentary position since then, and, like the late Lord Morley, Mr. Churchill has the power and the imagination to invest even bare figures with the aura of romance. FIRST FRUITS. The first fruits of Mr. Churchill’s Budget are with us already. As one writer expresses it, the pound sterling is now able to look the American dollar squarely in the face. After what has happened to the German mark, the French franc, and the Italian lira, it is certainly a noteworthy commentary on the soundness of British finance that the pound sterling stands to-day in New York at 19s lid. There, is’, moreover, a general, atmosphere of relief and satisfaction even in quarters that do not concern themselves with such matters as the return to the gold standard. The reduction of sixpence on income tax may not amount to very much, but, to quote a homely saying: “It is better than a poke in the eye with a burnt i THE PENSIONS SCHEME. The most controversial item in the Budget promises to be the pensions scheme. Employers do not like it on account of its cost and extreme Labour bitterly resents it as an attempt to filch from them their own particular thunder. Labour has no cut and dried scheme of its own, and its attitude is destructive rather than constructive. The main contention seems to be that the State should do everything and that the individual should not be expected to contribute anything at all—a significant. extension of the vicious “dole” system. Strangely enough the resumption of the McKenna Duties and the “naked protectionism” of the duty on hops excite relatively little notice. Perhaps the reason is that on the question of Free Trade no party in the State is more divided to-day than is the Labour Party. INCOME TAX BENEFITS. At the drapery exhibition to-day one of the largest manufacturers of women’s dresses in tne country told me that already in to-day’s business he had seen the effect of the reduction in the income tax. Buyers are not so unwilling to take risks, because they believe that the public —especially the public with moderate means—will. be ready to spend more freely, thanks to relief afforded by the Budget. It is a maxim of the dress trade that their business reflects the spending power of the public more speedily than any other trade. According to Mincing Lane, on the other hand, Mr. Churchill was a little premature in congratulating Mr. Snowden on the fact that the reduction in the sugar duty had been passed on to the consumer. There are rumours that a sugar boom is just about to start, and that within the next three months prices will begin to mount upwards. This is due in part to a reduced sugar cane crop and in part to a marked increase in the con-, sumption of fbeet sugar in Southern Europe. Tea in contrast is expected to fall in price, some of the best grades now coming to hand being unsaleable at the high prices demanded. LONDON RAID WEEK.

London has been : having a "Raid Week.” Its object iyas to encourage recruiting for the Anti-Aircraft service,' and' the display has been quite realistic up to a point. Once again we heard the aeroplanes drumming over the streets, searchlights well dug inquisitively into the clouds. Fortunately there were no bombs, and we were not asked to tread our way gingerly along the Strand pavements scrunching broken glass beneath our feet. Otherwise we might have thought Hindenburg was ' celebrating his electoral victory in real earnest. There was, however, one item of raid “business” which might have been added. How many Londoners still remember those bad old nights of the war, when ammunition waggons galloped .along the Strand and Fleet Street on their way to serve the guns near the Tower?' And if anything in the way of •’a Flag' Day had been desired, why not have sold scraps of shrapnel. I remember the Fleet Street •'devils” used to ply a brisk trade in these grim mementoes upon raid nights. The yarn they spun was always the same: “’Ere y’are, sir; ’ere’s the bit that nearly, ’it yer on the ’ead.” . JNOT . BREECHES. The new American Ambassador (Mr. Alanson Houghton) did not think it fitting to-emulate a predecessor of his and wear . knee-breeches when received by the King. Mr. Houghton was content with dress trousers and the orthodox swallow-tail coat and low-cut waistcoat. This is official American dress, ibut.it was truly modest compared with that of several Ministers of foreign tduntrles'who were received by the King about the same time. The Latvian and Afghanistan dress was quite an imposing affair compared with dull black of 1 American dress. EPSTEIN. ... People are asking rather curiously why the Royal Academy, which has just taken to its bosom two relatively .unknown -sculptors, should have missed the opportunity of inviting Epstein to become an Associate. I remember years ago the same question was asked about another, sculptor then very famous, though now unhappily - almost forgotten. But even he, great (Siough he was, was not as great as Epstein, and if there is any man Jiving who would afford distinction to Burlington. House by election that man la surely Jacob Epstein.i Why has he been passed over? Possibly the explanation is that he does: pet greui’.y desire the honour, find

has the consolation of knowing that he I is in good company. Even Sargeant ; would not have been elected when his credentials were considered if it had not been for the fact of Herkoiner threatening resignation if such a rebuff were put on the greatest portrait-painter since Velasquez. EPSTEIN’S BIRD MEMORIAL. Mr. Epstein, by the way, has practically finished his work for the memorial to the late W. E. Hudson, which, in the form of a bird sanct.uiary, is to be erected at the Kensington end of Hyde Park next month. The Prime Minister will, it is hoped, perform the unveiling ceremony, the site for the memorial having been chosen. The famous sculptor is not the artistic revolutionary that some people think him. He is an individualist, impatient of the superficial, who will not compromise with the academical in art. DUKE OF BEAUFORT. A young host and hostess who are* likely to be entertaining on a larger scale than usual this year are the Duke and Duchess of Beaufort. The Duke —•‘better known as Lord Worcester —is not much of a society man, being happier hunting with the Badminton or out with a gun. His Duchess, however, Lady Mary Cambridge before her marriage, is said by her friends to have exercised a little domestic leverage, with the result that the young couple will be seen more frequently in town. This will give great pleasure to- the Q ; ueen, who is of course the Duchess’s aunt. THE LURE OF LE TOUQUET. Mr. and Mrs. Somerset Haugham found the atmosphere of Le Touquet so congenial that they have decided to stay and their new villa will be ready for occupation in a week or two. Mrs. Somerset Haugham planned it, sketching out with a pencil and paper her requirements and passing these on to the builders. The dramatist and his wife have for a neighbour Lady Smith-Dor-rien, who laso found the place so attractive that she bought a villa —“La Bocage.” LONDON’S LITTLE THEATRES., The little theatres of London are multiplying fast. Not only are they scrapping stupid traditions like the tak-. ing of calls in the middle of the play, (but they act as intermediaries between the author and his mamiscript which cannot be visualised, and West End productions which can only be obtained when a certain amount of confidence in a play is established. Plays are put on at these little theatres to arouse the interest of managers. If a West End production follows, the author pays a percentage of his royalties to the “try-ing-out” theatres. If Mr. Eden Philpotts’ comedy, “The Farmer’s Wife,” had first been produced in a little theatre where West End managers could have seen it for themselves it would not have gone a-begging for twelve years. For four years before it was even produced at Birmingham it travelled the usual way, handled by postmen, returning, in the author’s own words, “again and again with increasing depression.” Eventually the manuscript had to be re-typed and polished up before taking the road again. Mr. Philpotts thinks the success, of a play depends on the triple unity of author, company and audience. If it is to exist no two can save the third. TREASURE HUNTS. Americans gave us the cross-word puzzle. We in turn seem to have given America the treasure hunt. Opinion may vary as to which is the greater social nuisance of the two. But while treasure hunting was practised in London ]ast year as one of the diversions of the social season, America deems it desirable to pursue the amusement under the thin and well-worn guise of a charitable “stunt.” Some deserving institution always stands to benefit by “the hunt.” But the treasure hunters do not restrict their activities to, the small hours of the morning. They pursue the “treasure” even during the day, and “hunt luncheons” and “hunt suppers” are the very latest things in “lil ol’ New York.” THE NEW PORTIA. Baroness Clifton, who has just joined the ranks of women who can write, themselves full-fledged barristers, is a' Portia indeed. Not only is she learned’ in the law, but she is a eleyer. amateur actress to boot. Though not actually born in the purple, it is a fact that, she has borne her title almost since birth, and there was talk of her attending King Edward’s coronation as a baby of two! She is, I believe, the first peeress to adopt the law as a profession, and if her lines had not been laid in easy places ; she might easily have graduated for wig and gown as so many do—by practising journalism. For she writes well and can draw a little. DU MAURIER’S PLANS. Sir, Gerald du Maurier, who has been having a rather rough time of it lately in London theatredom, has decided to take a miicW-needed holiday. He is going away for a six months’ stay in Itajyy and will not return until he is due to put on a new play in the autumn. Sir Gerald has been rather In-' lucky recently. No one has striven more assiduously to uphold the highest traditions of the London stage. But in thesb~ times suoli an attitude is regarded as Victorian. If Sir Gerald du Maurier really wanted to get talked about qnd . secure advertisement, fie would have to. put qn one of those nasty plays like—one of half a dozen in London just • POOR PETER, Lured by cloudless April-blue sky and tonic East wind, I tried, one morning early in the week, to scull on the Ser* • pentine. Though the Serpentine seasoq opened a fortnight ago, few of the hardy annuals have yet resumed theii‘ •niatutiiial sculling exercise, and one day, so rdugh was the water on the London mile stretch, that all boating was prohibited. The waves were much higher ! than sometimes in the Channfil' when a good many trippers are sick. The changes in Peter Pan’s Island challenged, attention. 'lt is utterly ruined.. Gone is, all the romance of o*ld trees and tangled undergrowth, wherein it was 6asy, on still days, to hear the ticking 1 of the Barrie alarm clock in Mr. Hook’s pursuing crocodile. It looks now like a : newly planted Garden City back garden,, and the change is enough to make golden daffodils, blooming round the Serpentine 1 banks, fill their cups with tears. These whole-hearted Office of Works reformers ought to be compelled to take part in the Serpentine Christmas Day swim.