OUR LONDON LETTER

Taranaki Daily News, 20 July 1929, Page 16

OUR LONDON LETTER

NEWS FROM THE HOMELAND. CALM PERPLEXES FOREIGNERS. London, May 30. Whether they came from the cast or from the west, strangers within our gates marvel at one thing. They cannot understand the utter lack of popular excitement and public commotion in this country at the time of a general election. More than one foreign correspondent over' here for the occasion has discreetly questioned me on this point, and vaguely hinted that it would be interesting to know when the “fighting” is likely to begin. John Bull’s sang froid in this crisis impresses Americans even more than Latins and Teutons. It is hard to say why outsiders are so concerned about this general election. But there appears to be a feeling abroad that it is likely to be one of exceptional moment. A curious notion has arisen outside this country that we may “Go bolshie!” I think the foreign correspondents have damped down that alarm pretty promptly.

ROYALTY AND SCOTLAND.

Suggestions have been made to the Court that, now that the two great Scottish churches are united, the Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly should always be a member of the Royal Family. The proposal is backed up by other influential bodies outside the Presbyterian Church, who think the May fortnight should be made the occasion for an annual Royal visit, when ceremonies not connected with the church might be performed. It is pointed out that, before the establishment of the Irish Free State, the presence of a Viceroy made Dublin an. important social centre. Scotland, however, has no desire for a permanent representative of the Sovereign, but' the present visit of the Duke'and Duchess of York has encouraged other ambitions.- Edinburgh has done well out of the visit, and would lil<e to see an annual Court at Holyrood.

ADMIRAL FOR EAST INDIES.

One of the last decisions in the realm of patronage taken by Mr. Bridgeman I before he leaves the Admiralty is to nominate his naval secretary, RearAdmiral Eric Fullerton, to be Command-er-in-Chief on the East Indies Station. It is announced that this officer will I succeed Vice-Admiral B. S. Thesiger. Rear-Admiral Fullerton, who was 50 last year, is one of the most popular flag officers in the service. He has i many associations with the sea. Not only is he the son of an Admiral, the late Sir John Fullerton, whom Queen Victoria retained in command of her yacht for 17 years, but he married the daughter of the late Lord Fisher. He served afloat all through the war. Up to the end of 1910 he commanded the Severn and other monitors used to bombard the German positions in Beligum and to destroy the cruiser Konigsberg in East Africa. For the last two years of the fignting he was captain of HALS. Orion in the Grand Fleet. It is not yet known who will succeed him at the Admiralty. That depends upon the appointment of a new First Lord.

UNIVERSITY G.H.Q.

It begins ta look as though the big project may shortly mature for building in London a university students’ headquarters where those from overseas can meet each otHr and their compeers of the home universities. Cecil Rhodes had such an idea as this in mind when he founded his Rhodes Scholarships, and though the scheme would require at least £250,000 for adequate realisation, the fact that merica is associating herself with the proposal should help to make light of the nroblems of cost. An option has been secured on a suitable Bloomsbury site, and I hear that a number of influential and wealthy people are seriously considering its possibilities. Provincial university men are almost as much interested in the project as those from the universities of Great Britain.

GERMANS WHO WERE NOT HUNS.

I fancy a good many people, who sincerely believed all the semi-official lies circulated during the war, are now coming to doubt whether the Germans were quite as black as they were painted. Mr. C. E. W. Bean, the extremely able Australian “Eye Witness,” was heavily censored when he wrote his original despatches, but now at last he tells the whole truth in “The Official History of Australia in the War.” From this _it appears that a gallant Aussie major risked his life, and defied orders, during the Somme figh ’ag to ask a truce from the Germans while wounded were rescued. This request was courteously received, but vetoed y the British G.H.Q., and, to ,r r. Bean, our machine guns actuallv peppered Germans who were carrying Brit'eh wounded. It was j obably true of both sides that the farther you got from the front line the more bloodthirsty was the prevailing spirit.

PULVERISED COAL FOR STEAMERS.

The launching on the Clyde of the 8000 tons cargo vessell Berwindlea may possibly prove a memorable occasion for the coal industry of this country. She is the first steamship to be specially designed for the burning of pulversied coal, a form of fuel which offers the one and only hope of again placing our coal mines in successful rivalry with the oil wells of other countries. On board the Berwindlea, however, the coal will be carried in bunkers of the ordinary type, and will be transformed into powder in a special plant, which forms an important part of the ship’s equipment. This is where the hitch comes in. It means

that the bunker space required is still far greater than that needed for the carriage of crude oil. At present the carrying of large quantities of pulverised coal, ready prepared for the furnaces, is too dangerous to be countenanced, as the powder is very liable to explode. It will not be until some method of removing this peril has been discovered that the pulverised fuel steamer will really be able to compete on even odds with the oil-burning vessel.

AMERICA CLEANING UP.

Hoover’s first presidential message ."contained a 'plain hint that drastic activities might be expected against the gunmen. These desperadoes, usually of

mongrel ancestry, have found big employment in rum-running and high-jack-ing under the prohibition regime, but Mr. Hoover means to clean up the U.S.A, in this respect. Following local round-ups by the New York and Chicago police, a notorious gunman “king,” an Italian blackguard who is said to have made nearly half-a-million out of bootlegging, and owns a palatial mansion at Palm Island, has been run in, and sentenced to a year’s gaol, for carrying a weapon. If this firm action continues, and no prison-breaking is allowed, it is likely that Europe may become the asylum of many of these outlaws. If for this reason alone, it' would be unwise to relax our immigration regulations.

PROMOTION IN THE SURVICES.

The falling off in the number of applicants for commissions reflects the general and not erroneous, impression that the services no longer offer a career, and scant prospect of attaining even more than comparatively low rank. In the navy there are some hundreds of lieutenant-commanders whose chance of a “step” is hopeless, and their continuance in the service, while doing themselves no good, accentuates the promotion block in the ranks below. The Admiralty, therefore, have wisely decided that all those who will attain the compulsory retiring age of 45 by the end of 1933 may volunta-ily retire forthwith, with all the pension privileges of having actively served the full time. A large number of officers are availing themselves of this offer. In the Royal Artillery the subaltern’s outlook is almost as bad. So great is the block in promotion in the Royal Regiment that some time ago junior officers were given the chance of transferring to other branches of the army, but the vast majority after due reflection, have preferred to bear those ills they have.

DOCTORS AS CANDIDATES.

Several doctors are standing as candidates at the present election, and I am told that the medical profession expects quite a crop of cases before the General Medical Council after the election is over. Some of the candidates have given far too much prominence to their medical qualifications, and, as they reside in the district for which they are candidates, this is regarded as, blatant advertising. Advertisement is a breach of medical etiquette, and a doctor guilty of it may have his name removed from the register. One candidate, who arrived in his district only two years ago as a “squatter,” and did not purchase a practice, is candidate for a constituency in which he is regarded a§ not having the slightest chance of success, and his medical colleagues have threatened to report him to th council for the “puff” he has given himself.

ANOTHER WAR BOOK.

During the war, as every ex-service man knows, green envelopes were issued to units at the front so that men might have their letters censored at the base instead of by their company officer. In a volume entitled, “Green Envelopes,” a collection has been made of everyday yet remarkable letters, written by a number of men from “a typical English village,” who went to the war in their local yeomanry. The Squire M.F.H., the curate, the gardener, the groom, became the colonel, padre, company officer, trooper. This unusual method, I am told, proves ingenious and attractive in showing what was really going on. Mr. Murray will publish the book shortly.

DATED.

Theatrical managers are somewhat agitated, not only by the advent of the talkies, but by certain symptoms of waning popular interest in revue and musical comedy. At least one producer was minded to experiment in re-staging one or two of the big successes of the Edwardian epoch, in the belief that musical plays that hit the public taste in those days might very well do so again now. But a careful examination of the musical comedy successes of 20 years ago revealed that they have dated beyond all hope. In fact, the one possibility might be that, owing to their absurdly anti ated sound and look in these bright post-war times, they would amused audiences. But the up-to-date young thing would probably be merely bored by a suggestion that Edwardian girls were hoydens because they, rode bicycles and wore skirts that hardly reached their ankles.