OUR LONDON LETTER

Taranaki Daily News, 23 November 1929, Page 18 (Supplement)

OUR LONDON LETTER

AM EMERGENCY FIGURE. Despite unprecedented. efforts to prevent it, and every possible influence that could be brought to bear politically and commercially, the bank rate has been raised from .oj to 6J per cent. This is admittedly an.emergency figure. and higher than any time since 19-21. when it was retained for only two months'at J that level. The measure of the opposition that the Bank of England has been compelled to ignore is the measure of the extreme urgency that impelled this step. Some of the Labour Government’s ..eople are already accusing the Bank of England authorities of political bias, and hinting at the eloven hoof of “capitalism.’* But the plain fact'remains, that our gold reserves,' eveji including-the new gold from the South African mines to the extent of £750,000 a week, ■ have been gravely depleted by foreign exports. In a year we have lost £89,000,000, and our reserves are already below the safety minimum suggested by an Imperial Royal Commission. THE HATRY DRAMA. If the full story of the Hatry affair is ever disclosed, which might not be essential to the most comprehensive legal proceedings, the public will get a ready-made film thriller. According to current eity gossip only a few days, made the difference between. success, and an almost incredible coincidence, which would have meant soniewhere about £3,000,000 profit, and the- present debacle. Even Mr;' Edgar Wallace at his best could hardly furnish a more exciting story of romantic big' finance, and'sudden collapse of daring and stupendous enterprise. It is the' sort of ehse that' the late Sir Edward Marih.-ill would have handled with forensic zest. The city is in no mood at the moment to be tolerant of reckless finance, but privately one hears even now some cynical admissions of ‘‘hard luck.” UNDER-VALUED SHARES. The city is already coming round to the view that many of the shares of companies unconnected with the Hatry complications were marked down too drastically in the first flush of general panic. I hear that the managing director of one well-known shipping company, after a busy week-end on the telephone to business friends, raised a fund of £50,000, and started on Monday last to buy small blocks of shares in about 30 well-known and well-managed concerns. All these shares had been marked down owing to the general nervousness, and, in the opinion o. ! the buyers, were obviously under-valued. POSSIBLE PASSING OF BATTLESHIP There seems to be a strong feeling in Washington that America will be quite prepared to consider, in connection with disarmament proposals, the total abolition of the battleship. There is little doubt this country would assent if the other naval Powers agree to such a proposal at the round-table conference to bo hold probably at the end of the year, or not later than the beginning of next. Japan also has given indications of acquiescence, and, so far as France 'and Italy are concerned, neither of those Powers has shown any great leaning towards capital ship expenditude since tile war. The national savings from this policy would be immense. Our last two great battleships, the Nelson and the Rodney, each cost upwards of £6,000,009, while their annual upkeep is enormous, plus about a fnillion apiece which will be involved for periodical overhaul and reconditioning.

POWDERED FUEL FOR SHIPS. Apparently the Admiralty is making no experiments of its own in using powdered coal for fuel. The board is content to watch the research work of private enterprise. Some months ago they certainly agreed to put an obsolete warship at the disposal of a private firm for experimental purposes, but in consequence of certain hitches, which have never been fully explained, the offer was withdrawn. In the meantime many big vessels in the mercantile marine have been converted t'6 use the new fuel, and long voyage experiences have fully justified the enterprise of the owners. Apart from Cleanliness compared with the use of ordinary bunker icoal, the powdered variety . makes for economy in both consumption and handling’, and many vessels now on the stocks are being constructed, with a view to its use. It promises to become a keen competitor with oil for marine work, and its development should greatly assist our coal industry. POINTS FOR MR. MONTAGUE. Mr. Montague, who is Labour’s Undersecretary for Air, is at the moment on an intensive European tour, the purpose of which is to compare foreign organisation and equipment with our own. His interest is, of course, purely concerned with the civil side of aviation, but he will certainly find much to startle him in Germany. A network ■of air lines now covers Germany, and by means of an admirable’ pocket diagram travellers can readily find the quickest routes with suitable connections between all the chief cities and foreign aerodromes. The number of air expresses exceed daily almost any train expresses between distant cities in this country. Excellent 'accommodation is provided at all the German aerodromes for passengers waiting air connections, and they are duly apprised in three languages' when a ’plane is due out. Mr. Montague may also .note that all the German planes are steel built and I readily convertible to military use. . JIG-SAW CLUB. Mr. ,G. K. Chesterton’s list of imaginary queer- clubs never envisaged anything more bizarre than one that actually exists, and has flourished for 20 vears in London. I refer to the club whose members dedicate themselves to the solving of jig-saw puzzles. It is run on much the same lines as a circulating library, and now has over 2000 jig-saw sets, the. pieces in each of which range from 300 to 1700, and the use of which is controlled ‘by subscriptions varying according to the size and complexity of the puzzles required -by the subscribers. This remarkable institu- ‘ tion can claim royal patronage. It harks back to the period when the; jig-saw was .almost as much a crazo as the cross-word is now, and when King Ed-

ward’s hoits - were expected in the ordinary way to supply new and interesting jig-saws for their-Royal guest and his friends.. It is said that jigsawing is more soothing than Patience. | CLICK! ! In these pampered day’s of local anaesthetics and cocaine injections the ' dentist’s chair has lost its Victorian • terrors. So possibly sufferers no longer I have the experience of finding their | tooth ceases to ache the moment they j see the dentist’s brass plate. But a I friend of mine, a well-known* London journalist, has just had a more embarrassing experience. He ricked a knee badly, and for months limped around on a rubber-tipped stick. At last his editor insisted on ringing up a Harley Street specialist, and ’ making an appointment for him, and off hobbled my friend to keep it. He took a bus,to the West End, but as he crossed the road to his surgeon’s door, a taxi suddenly honk-honkefl right on top of him. His leap ftfr the pavement gave him a shoot of agony in the bad knee, and something seemed to click. He found he was perfectly cured, and put his stick under his arm to interview the incredulous surgeon. OVERCOATS AND SKATES. Those whom we call rustics, and R.'LS. termed “landward folk,” have firm superstitions. And though a sue-: cession of wretched summers preceding despite . abundant berries in our..hedges, may have exploded-one of those for townsfolk,'country people still cling to others. From two different rural sources I have received positive assurances that an exceptionally hard winter lies ahead of us. One of these prophets bases himself on the fact that the local squirrels are laying in their winter stores earlier and more assiduously than usual. The other is a West ( Country beekeper, whose bees are this year building their hives of a double thickness. This is, he avers, an infallible omen of a very hard winter — as infallible as were last spring’s highnesting crows of the glorious summer we are still savouring. SPRING IN AUTUMN. The dry summer may have been bad I for farmers, but it has certainly good for flowers. Last week-end I found violets blooming in the woods round Blackdown. Such a discovery, within a few day’s of October, is outside my recollection. Hampshire is now, I lancy, the least spoiled of all our southern English counties, and despite the depredations of motoring vandals, the richest in wild flowers. But the Blaekdown walk had other thrills. We turned a leafy corner to run right into the Chiddingfoid pack, a forest of white-and-tan tails in a narrow line, being taken home by two . scarletrcoated huntsmen. And we found, miles from anywhere, a charming cottage, with rosegrown verandah complete, whence came grand opera harmony. It was, of course, only a wireless miracle, but we half expected Marguerite to step out of that balcony’ window. WALKING STICK CAAIOUFLAGE. The walking-stick in its time has played many parts. The sword-stick is, of course, almost an antique now. Even more familiar is the seat-stick, with which sportsmen and golfers sometimes tempei’ the distance to the town legs. In HF ol’ New York they carry tanglefoot-sticks, the ingeniously contrived heads of which conceal tiny spirit flasks. I have heard whisper of sticks that held even more deleterious things than tanglefoot whisky. The American police know all about “dope” sticks. In the Strand you can buy a stick that holds a small automatic and a few live “shells,” as the Americans call our cartridges. But this is the first time I have met the walking-stick umbrella. These are now displayed by West End shopkeepers, and are being patronised extensively. The stick is a smart enough crooked-handle affair, of no unusual girth, but contains, exactly on the sword-stick principle, an effective umbrella. JOHNNY HILL. . The death of Johnny Hill, our British flyweight boxing champion, is. sad news. ' He was only 23, and, though he. never looked really robust, was one of our best little fighters since jimmy Wilde’s palmy days. His father, a stonemason with a boxing flair, taught Johnny, all he knew, and was his manager-trainer in all his fights. He brought the boy along to an amateur championship at the Albert Hall three years ago, and Johnny amazed everybody by annexing the flyweight championship. After turning “pro,” Johnny had a brilliant career, and, though Emile Pladner, the Frenchman, knocked him out in Paris, for the one and only time in his history, many experts considered Hill z the better man, He was unwell when he met Pladner, whom he had twice before outpointed in London. His painfully early demise is probably due to severe training and sweating down to poundage. An attractive boxer of the orthodox upright school, Hill got remarkably little damaged in most of his bouts.