OUR LONDON LETTER

Taranaki Daily News, 2 August 1930, Page 3 (Supplement)

OUR LONDON LETTER

NEWS. FROM THE HOMELAND. SIMON COMMISSION’S SURVEY. London, June 12. Thcr? i». oc? surmises, a modicum of innocent Strategy in the way in which the report of the Indian Statutory Commission is being given to the woild. Itie huge Blue Book is merely a survey of the situation in India as seen through the eyes of the commission, and the recommendations will not be published until a fortnight hence. ’ This procedure, due doubtless to Sir John Simon's wide knowledge of the way in which Blue Books are generally handled, , will gain for the survey more attention than might otherwise be the case. There is a tendency in dealing with Blue Books to turn ud the back pages for the findings and leave the bulk of the vm k unstudied. Sir John probably considers that such a vast amount of work was expended upon the survey it is only right and proper that the public should have full time in which to acquaint themselves with the situation. It is a bi" book, but it is a far more human and lively document than is usually found within official blue covers, and a fortnight can be spent in its perusal. NO CASUALTIES. Though as a body the members of the Simon Commission are past their first youth, it m remarkable that neither the trials of the Indian climate nor the pressure under which the work was done caused any breach in ite ranks. Lo.id Burnham and Mr. Hartshorn weie oveicome by the heat in Bombay, but they have made a complete recovery. Mr. Hartehorn and Major Attlee have returned to, Ministerial office, and it may be predicted that, according to the fortunes of their party, other members will be called upon to undertake further official responsibilities. They will certainly have to take a leading part, in any legislation which may fellow tue recommendations of the report. NEW POST FOR MR. THOMAS. Everyone will be agreed, no doubt, that Mr. J. H. Thomas’ undoubted abilities will be of far greater service to the nation in his new office of Secretary to the Dominions than in his former capacity of Minister of Unemployment, How completely it is recognised that the change is due to the Government, having realised that its position regarding unemployment is becoming untenable was made plain in the House ol Commons by the ill-concealed smiles am occasional guffaws of Labour membenf as they listened to the Prime Minister ; euphemistic announcement of th necessity of having a separate Domm ions Secretary in view of the fortu coming Imperial Conference. It was th< ! sort of story to tell the “horse marines, J but certainly not the House of Commons Naturally the question now foremos in the lobby is what are to be th Government’s new plane with reg-aid v unemployment. The formation of j Cabinet'Committee for the purpose o dealing with the problem is now semi officially acknowledged. In so far a this shifts- the burden from one pair o shoulders it is, of course, all to the goor Much anxiety, however, is felt in Con seivative circles lest it may lead to th

introduction of much more expensive J ' proposals' for relief schemes. . Mr. Thomas, at least, was safe in oei.ig a. . bulwark against extravagant advenWill the Cabinet Committee, ’ anxious' to appease back-benchers, be as -prudent ’ COUP DE GRACE! ' We really ought .now to have heard • the last ot the Channel tunnel- Enthusiasm for it is mainly confined to London, 'and Cockney week-enders with weak'stomachs. While the Imperial Defence Committee remains as hostile to the project as all. our military experts’, Mr. MacDonald and his colleagues, realising how littie importance tiieii supporters attach to such opinions, have turned it down on the purely economic side. Their business experts support Lord Ebbisham’s strong arguments against the-scheme rather than the lukewarm approval given to it by tne majority of the commission that considered the question. The truth is that ' a Channel Tunnel is now several de- ' cades behind the times. There is OiV viously no use for it in an epoch that sr.lutes Mins Amy Johnson. ' DUTCH COURAGE. Dr. Addison's advent as Agriculture Minister may console the Labour Party • for the Channel Tunnel. At most that scheme, which jeopardised so much, might employ a thousand men. Dr. Addison’s Land Drainage Dill may find work for fifty times that number in the Fen country, where 2,000,000 acres o’ fine grainland, worth at least x100,000,000, is threatened by the sea. This is a scheme Mussolini would have pushed through in preference to elaborating the dole. It is significant that while wc have our armv oi unemployed round our necks, and le*t the sea invade some of our best country, the sturdy Hollai.ders, with no such incentive, are actuallyreclaiming the Zuider Zee. ■ . ■- FREE ADVERTISEMENT. Our French neighbours have set a fashion that may shortly be followed by the Italians and others. They are actually giving us a free advertisement on their city hoardings. English visitors may read display posters, holding England up to patriotic French people as a horrible example ot misgovernment. These novel posters eet forth the conditions m France, with no unemployment, reduced taxation, and good order at home and in possessions, and our plight of gargantuan Budgets, exceeeive taxation, millions of workless,' and political unrest. Thi<s intereritiog free advertisement is enriched with air inset portrait of Mr. Ramsay MacDonald; It ' is not a pleasinrr studv for patriotic Britons, but its worst feature is that it is punctiliously trim. LLOYD GEORGE’S REMINISCENCES. I am told that Mr. Lloyd George's speech to the Liberal members, when they presented him with a pocket-boou and & gold pencil as a souvenir of his completion of 40 years in the House of Commons, was in an interestingly re-

miniscent vein. He does not accept the general view that the standard of debate has fallen. In the old days most of the speeches were delivered by only a few members, and the House consisted largly of men who had neither the desire nor the ability to speak well. Now most members have both. Mr. Lloyd George thinks also that its manners have improved, probably because fooling does not run so high. Differences of opinion do not rouse tne fierce passions of former times. FOGH UNVEILING. A "i-cat popular tribute was paid to Madame Foch, ire well as to the late Marshal himself, at the unveiling in her presence by the Prince of Wales of M. Georges Malissard’s characteristic bronze statue in Grosvenor Gardens. The ceremony was brief and businesslike, but the' mingling of French horizonblue with the British scarlet and gold, and the playing in full of the “Marseillaise” after the first part of “God Save the King” emphasised the Entente €ordiale° A better position for the memorial could hardly be conceived. From Victoria station our hosts went overseas, and the Marshal seems to be looking in that direction. Manystreets converge at this point, and the fi"iire stands up so well that when the mingled Union Jack and Tricolour fell away from it, the crowds that stretched away on all hands could see for themselves how happily Lord Crewe and his committee had carried out the wishes of two friendly nations, STABLING THE AIR HORSES. I hear that there are now actually 100 iv w civil aerodromes projected in England alone, and that nearly a score of them will be ready before the summer is over. The most important ones will be at Liverpool, Blackpool, Carlisle, Ipswich, Cardiff, Sheffield, Plymouth, and Portsmouth, and there is no question but that all these links in our aerial equipment will bring the places named into close touch with Croydon. Mie'S Amy Johnson’s renown has given great stimulus to air development in this country by imparting to civilian flight a now aura of practical achievement. When a city typist in liens spare time can equip herself to fly from London to the Antipodes in a second-hand “blip- : per,” there is no 'longer any doubt that “the air” has definitely arrived. Crowds of young women are now besieging the flying instructors, all afire with a new j ambition to emulate “Johnnie.” i NEW FISHING GROUNDS.

A new experimental fishery boat is being built, at a cost of £90,000, for the small Government fleet employed on testing deep-sea fishing grounds. It is proposed to use this new vessel to try f rt the fi.'hiim banks round the lonely Bear Island, in Arctic seas, which arcreputed one of the moat prolific as well as extensive trawling fields yet known; There will also be tests of the fishing potentialities of banks off the east coat of Greenland. That State-aided efforts to discover new fishing rounds should proceed simultaneously with the jetisoning i of whole cargoes of fish at our ports ; in order to maintain market prices I seem slightly futile. ’ All the trawlers I ar- • now fitted with wireless, by the I way, the Greenland station recently i complained that its signals were being [ jammed by passing trawlers sending } each other" football results, ! MAGNATES OF COMMERCE. Few people quite realise how completely the old landed aristocracy of England, who played so large a part in our best history, have been eclipsed by the new order of great industrial patricians. If one touns the Home ’ counties, and inquires the- owners of the 1 stately homos encountered, most of the names are household words on the advertisement hoardings. The late Lord Ashton, one of the richest men in 'the country, wa<? an example of the loom aiipplant-ing the plough, or the mill the broad acre, as the basis of our modern nobility. No doubt his daughter by his fiivst wife, Countess Peel, will inherit handisomely, but the Great War curtailed her prospects. When the Germans took Antwerp, despite the gallant futility of Winston’s naval division, they burned down Lord Ashton’s big factory there. SOCIALIST FLAPDOODLE. It i<s really comic how Socialist Miniistero in charge of our fighting services play up to their pacifist supporter. They arc trying to pretend now that the navy, army, and air force are philanthropic finst-aid societies. Nothing “militant” is allowed at any of the popular displays given on behalf of ser- < vice charities.' Even the forthcoming • R.A.F. . show at Hendon has ' been • bowdlerised. The most to be permitted ’ is to be the bombing of a “pirate lair.’’ Al suggestion of fighting reality io ’ rigorously taboo. The R.A.F. inan--1 oeuvree have been made fit for pacificte L to watch. Apparently this sort of flap- ! dooodle is good enough. Maybe Social- ! ifite do not read Captain Marryat, and ’ are unaware of O’Brien’iS comment to Peter Simple, “Flapdoodle, Peter, U the ’ stuff they feed fools on.” TALKING HEN. Lord Buxton is so full of the Inter-, national poultry Congress to be held at ' i the Crystal Palace in July that, even ,r j though" no longer officially concerned in ' the Ministry of Agriculture, he is cerL tain to be a prominent figure there. His • idea is that-the show, despite ite in--5 ternational flavour, may do something to encourage our citizens to eat home ' instead of foreign eggs. Why precisely • we should contribute 8s 4d a head of our total population to foreign egg " exporters is aS" great a mystery as why I we now import so many billions of oranges from abroad each year, when ' only°a few centuries ago Surrey grew • them nite well. Amongst the attracri tions at the Poultry Congress will be, '• I irather, an ancient Egyptian incubator ‘ and an up-to-date American mechanical s hen that will give periodical lectures on y egg laying. GIGLI I. Signor Gigli, who.made a great imprecision last week at Covent Garden in II hw first appearance in opera in tais k country, ifi called “a second Caruso, but he’himself energetically disclaims >f ; the title.. He protests that he merely 5- follows in the great master s wake, and

is, not Caruso IL but Gigli I. ■ He has had a romantic career. As a peasant bov in his native Italy he sang in the cornfields. He tried to get into opera m Rome,'but encountered fiasco, and became a footman in a nobleman’s household. But he still sang, though only to Ifis fellow-servants. The Marquis happened to overhear h-in, however,-and je•coomised uncommon merit in his voice. He was sent' to a Roman academy of

music, and graduated at Milan.' He io now a millionaire at 40. OLDER THAN THE DERBY. The Oaks, which nowadays excites far lefts interest than the Derby, is a year older, having been founded in 1779. Both 'races- -dwij their origin "largely to'the 12th Earl of Derby. It is said that he and Sir Charles Bunbury tossed a com

to 'decide which of' them tlie Derby should be named -after. ; Sir Caailes had his consolation by winning the’*“ ot * a with hi 6 horse, Diomed. • The was named after a shooting box on Banstead Downs, ; which was sold to Lord DerbV by his brother-in-laW, John Bingovne—the General who later gained an : unenviable notoriety by surrendering to the American rebels at Saratoga during the American War of Independence,