OUR LONDON LETTER

Taranaki Daily News, 12 October 1929, Page 18 (Supplement)

OUR LONDON LETTER

LABOUR OR INTERNATIONAL STAGE. London, Sept. 5. Whatever hard things the Continental Press may have had to say about Britain recently, Britons just back from Paris, Italy, and the Hague, unite in telling me that our popularity abroad has been in no sense diminished by our stand on the reparations settlement. On the contrary, I am told that a keener and more sympathetic interest in our actions is being taken than at any time since the Armistice, With the Hague conference in. mind, all Europe is now settling down to watch Mr. MacDonald’s .movements at Geneva with respect and attention, which would not have been forthcoming a month or two ago. Continental political critics, it appears, arc particularly impressed with the skilful manner in which the Labour Government has arranged for the entries of its debutantes upon the international stage. The frigid self-possession of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the bluff and purposeful sincerity of the Foreign Secretary, have been, in their opinion, most effectively produced in advance to act as a foil to the ingratiating cordiality of the Prime Minister. Mr. MacDonald's role at Geneva is confidently looked forward to as being the amiability of the idealist.

THE CHANCELLOR’S HEALTH. To Mr. Snowden’s friends, who Jun noted with some misgiving signs of fail ing strength, the chief surprise and de light of tho-proceeding at the Hague has been the way in which he has stood tin strain of long debates and late hours Evidently the joy of battle proved a tonic which sustained his Yorkshire pugnacity till substantial "■ victory was achieved. Though so great a cripple, the Chancellor of the Exchequer seldom ails and it is difficult to recall an occasion when ill-health has required him to cancel an engagement. But there is a danger of reaction now, and he will no doubt seek rest at his quiet cottage on the Surrey-Hampshire border, where he has a delightfully wooded garden and miles of heathcry common on which to take the air. Mrs. Snowden seldom misses a daily constitutional of several miles there in company with her dogs. GARRISON IN THE HOLY LAND. No doubt is entertained in military circles in London that the Government will have to keep a garrison in Palestine for some considerable time, as was done until three years ago, when the Lancers left Jerusalem. So fierce is the passion aroused between Jews and Arabs that the presence of soldiers, not only in Jerusalem but in Jaffa and other cities, seems absolutely necessary to ensure peace, even after the immediate disturbances have been quelled. Happily, there will be the supernumerary battalions of the Egyptian Force, three of which have already been ordered to Palestine, and the troops soon to be withdrawn from the Rhine area available. The ihtention is, I hear, to have one if not two line regiments in tire Holy land, and one fully mechanised cavalry unit. There is barrack accommodation in Jerusalem for both infantry and cavalry. LORD MERSEY.

The sudden death of Viscount Mersey deprives tho legal profession of one of its oldest and most distinguished mem: bers. Though 89 a month ago, Lord Mersey was more active and had a clearer and more dependable memory than many men who were his juniors by more than a score of years. As Mr. Justice Bigham ho was for a considerable time president of the Probatej Divorce and Admiralty. When, in 191G,’ Mr. Brigham was created a peer, it came as no surprise that he took the the title of Lord Mersey, for, as the son of a Liverpool merchant, his connections with that port were peculiarly binding. The choice of title, however, gave rise to a popular joke to the effect that he was at any rate leaving the Atlantic available for Mr. F. E. Smith. When “F. E.'s” turn for elevation eame he proved himself to be content with the more modest title of Lord Birkenhead. Lord Mersey, in his later career, fully justified his choice of title by the services he rendered to the sea-faring community in presiding over a succession of inquiries into such famous ocean disasters as the loss of the Titanic, the wreck of the Empress of Ireland and the' sinking of the Lusitania and Falaba.

DRAMATIC TRIBUNAL. My earliest recollection of Mr. Bigham, as he then was, was at the time when he sat as a member of the South Africa Commission jvhich investigated the Jameson Raid. The scene of that tribunal lingers in my memory as one of the most remarkable I ever witnessed in the House of Commons. Cecil Rhodes was under cross-examination. He sat at a small table, coolly eating his lunch, and answering in the intervals between each mouthful a perfect-deluge of questions. The interrogation came from expert cross-examiners like Henry Labouehier, and Sir' William Harcourt, and they were interspersed by the more friendly queries of Mr. Bigham. To all intents and purposes Cecil Rhodes was on his trial, but he was imperturbable, • and the chief drama of the situation lay in the fact that behind him, reaching al- 1 most from the ceiling to tho floor, was 1 spread a huge map of South Africa, upon which the one word ‘'Rhodesia” in bright red letters blazed across the better half of a continent. THE PALACE INTRUDER. The man who attempted to gain admission to Buckingham Palace surreptitiously by climbing the closed gates did not get far on his journey before he was discovered. The police have decided to take no action against him. They are satisfied that he had no ulterior or criminal motive in clambering over the high gates, which was no mean achievement in itself. I understand that the man < pleaded hunger, and was driven to do : something desperate. There are few at- 1 tempts to gain admission unauthorised f to the Palace. The last occasion was 1 about seven years ago, when an intruder ‘ got as far as a corridor leading to the 1 King’s apartments. He was discovered 1 hiding in a cupboard. His adventure was c the result of a challenge, but,, although - no prosecution followed, he suffered a { fright which will preclude him from repeathig the attempt. Police and sentries } are posted around the Palace, back and ’ front, so that no section of the building is out of bight pf on# py the other. The J c

E. gates which the intruder of Thursday night was negotiating are closed at sunset, or alternatively when the last of the gentlemen using the Privy Purse ent- trance have left the Palace. The closit ing .of the gates relieves the “point” conm stable, hut every quarter of an hour an n officer on patrol passes them. This was <1 the undoing of the intruder on Thursday ir night.

n •r THE KING'S HOTEL. IT e Everyone who is visiting the Norfol c 1 district makes a point of having refresh v ment at the hotel which is owned by th s King. There is never any public displa; cl of the fact that the hotel belongs tn th ii King, but the local guide makes m - secret of it. Thus it is that this inter e esting fact is not noised abroad in 1 disci iminately for the benefit of advertis t ing the place. Mis Majesty is nine.] - averse to royalty being capitalised in tin . commercial world. The name of tin - hotel is The Feathers, in the pretty lit f tie village of Dersingham. A friend wh< i has been staying there during the pasi , ten days tells me that it is one of tin > most comfortable and cosiest in Easl ■ Anglia. The villagers make it their ren ■ dezvous, and, needless to say, their oik - topic of discussion just now is the King’s health. The village of Dersingham has the distinction of belonging practically entirely to the King, and the kindly interest which his Majesty and, othei members of the Royal Family take in it I sind its welfare is often demonstrated. PREHISTORIC HOUSING. Mr. George Lansbury, after encouraging Londoners to hope for the enhanced freedom of railless parks and sun-baths by the placid shores of the Serpentine, is himself seeking rest in the unsophisticated remoteness of the Orkneys. From there. I hear that he is studying the social amenities of prehistoric village life as revealed by excavations carried out by the Office of Works at Skara Brae, on the Bay of Skail. Archaeologists claim the underground buildings which they have there discovered to be at least 2000 years old. The subterranean streets and passage ways of this ancient village are so narrow and twisting that Mr. Lansbury, who is of ample proportions, found considerable difficulty in negotiating them. Of a tender-heart-ed disposition, the First Commissioner of Works was particularly shocked to learn that it was the custom of the ancient cavemen to erect their walls on the living bodies of victims sacrificed so that their spirits might act as the guardians of the edifices beneath which they lay. {' ans^ur y> "ho has many pungent criticisms to pass upon present-day housing evils, was obliged to admit that we have at any rate made satisfactory progress since tho days of the architects who constructed Skara Brae. NEW HUMAN ADJUSTMENTS. We may not yet have reached the limit of those new mental .adjustments that modern scientific development will demand. I have been out on the Solent whilst our dashing young R.A.F. pilots were practising their mounts for the Schneider Trophy race. And the experience, when a 350-m.p.h. seaplane Hashes across from right to left of one’s motor boat, is quite upsetting. You have moments when tho seaplane is y ell away on the left, having passed just ahead from the right, and the noise of its roaring engines Is equally well away to the right. The machine is in one place and its noise in another, and a mile divides the two. Ex-service men are familiar with a similar sensation in the case of bullets and shells. It was hard to persuade tho new chum on the Western Front that, when he ducked at the sound of these hymns of hate, the actual missilo was 1 already long past him. You never heard the whistle of the one that got you.

DOUBLE-BREASTED. It is already apparent that the vogue of the double-breasted overcoat is to continue during the coming winter. Practically all the top-coats displayed in West End windows are of this pattern, and most men are showing a preference for that type. But I hear that the smartest men, whose taste ultimately affects the popular tailor’s models, are showing a tendency to revert i to single-breasted overcoats of the Rag- ' lan type. Blue is again the favourite colour, but there is a wide latitude in choice of shades. This ranges from the familiar navy hue to somewhat startling powder-blue. Brown tweed is, however; another shade much in demand. What interests me most is that tailors are counting confidently on brisk business. Their ingenious calculations are that, owing to last winter being so exceptionally hard, overcoats were subjected io twice the usual wear. The hopeful deduction is that few men will be able to make their old coats go another year.

MOSCOW FIASCO. An extraordinary study in contrasted psychology may be obtained by anyone who compares photographs of the recent Bolshevik Boy Scout -jamboree in Russia with those of Lord B.P.’s rousing celebration at Birkenhead. Though the Soviet organisers have closely copied many details of uniform and equipment, the wearers present a shockingly different look. It is the difference between disciplined cheerful manly youth and unruly insolent precosity. Yet it is noteworthy that Lenin did not overlook the importance of'the Boy Scout movement, tie not only endeavoured to take measures to imitate it, but also to torpedo it. Elaborate literature, carefully edited to remove objectionable features, was prepared for dissemination in this country, but this subtle attempt to undermine 8.P.-ism was the -hollowest fiasco imaginable. Burning the propaganda became the day's good deed. TENTS FOR SMALL BOYS.

One of the immediate results of the Jamboree has been to increase the desire for eamping-out among small boys. I am told that .many mothers of'small sons, between the ages of six and ten, have been petitioned to. provide tents and other camp equipment for use in the garden, even though domestic caution will not permit of actually sleeping out-of-doors. At one of the stores which specialises in equipment of this kind the sales of small tents have increased by 50 per cent, above the average summer level. There has been a corresponding increase in the. sales of Scout, shirts, Scout hats, and all the other equipment of th« complete suburban fore looper.