OUR LONDON LETTER

Taranaki Daily News, 9 August 1930, Page 3 (Supplement)

OUR LONDON LETTER

NEWS FROM THE HOMELAND.

MR. MacDONALD’S. FISCAL IDEAS, London, June 19. I believe the statement attributed to the Prime Minister, in the interview with him on the Government’s agricultural policy, has come as a bombshell to some .of his Ministerial colleagues. They are shocked by the fiscal tendencies disclosed. Denunciation of various trade agreements, to free ourselves to deal with German bounty 1 fed cereals, would in itself be alarming enough to Ministers, who know the compensating advantages which such treaties give to certain British industries; but for the moment chief concern is expressed at. the underlying suggestion that there might; be a countervailing duty op imported foodstuffs to meet the effect of the cereal subsidy. Therein, it is said, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald would se selling the free trade pass across which Mr. and Mrs. Snowden have stretched themselves with determined zeal. The whole matter will come up for decision immediately the Cabinet resumes its sittin«s, and the fires of the old. fiscal controversy will rage furiously in Downing Street. It will be hard, to keep tne smoke from penetrating to St. Stephens. TRADES DISPUTES BILL. Ministers have let it be known thau the Trades Disputes Bill cannot be proceeded with in the present session, and that'in the following session only 'amendment and not repeal can be contemplated. Y Both the delay and the limitation have angered the trade, unioniflte,- who threaten not to be I oblicnntr to the Government in the <rainainder of the session as they have been since the beginning of the present Par- . liament. When the intelligentsia felt free to abstain from attendance as it •iiited them the trade union members always loyally obeyed the wishes of the Chief' Whip. Some of them now tell me that during next month they may have fihpbrtant engagements in the country, which will . prevent regular attendance at Westminster,’ and that family arrangements • will necessitate an . Angus <». holiday, eyen though the House of Commons should be sitting. THE BEST BRAINS. The Select . Committee on Ministerial salaries is. hoeing a difficult ,row. Every sane argument is in favour of the Lord Chancellor's view, which is that the country stands -to lose.. more millions than it can gain thousands by refusing to pay for the best brains available for the task of running the Administration.’ But it is realised that, apart from the attitude of Labour’s Left- Wing, the general feeling of the country just now is hostile to any increased expenditure on officialism. One proposal was for payment of an additional £5OOO a year ‘ to all Cabinet Ministers, but that has already been discarded. Tnere is likely, however, to be a recommendation in favour of an allowance for the Prime Minister, upon whom the social side of his duties .imposes a heavy drain. A TRAGIC THIRTEENTH. Even habitually unsuperstitious people j are marvelling at the aggregate ajnount, of ill-luck which Friday, ®June 13, brought in our world of sport. .The ft disaster of Miss England and the tragic death of Sir Henry Segrave‘ and his mechanic ■ fe, o£ course, the and most lamentable example. .It is understood that Sir Henry's staff had been working for months, almost regardless of rest, in order to bring Miss England 11. to a state of mechanical ’ perfection, and a good many qualms were felt on Friday when it was known that he was determined to put his speed, boat to another , trial. Til-luck seemed to hairn.. befeii-dogging tthe.. enterpri.se,, and many of those, who were gathered at tne lakeside would have been glad to near that the trial was to be postponed to a '• more propitious date. When the crash came many of the superstitious were heard to say, “I knew that would happen” • IDYLLIC COTTAGE. The tragedy of Sir Henry Segravo’s death is emphasised, for those who know it. by his cottage just off the Coombe Hill golf course. This charming little place, which Sir Henry had only recently taken, was originally merely a golfer’s vveek-end lodge. It nestles amidst woods, and its very existence passes unsuspected till you are -within a few yards of its front door. Sir Henry was immensely fond of the small abode, which he enlarged and improved. Particularly was he proud of its garden, which he delighted to show to visitors'. Even here, however, one o remarked the characteristic obsession .of the world's speed record-breaker. In the garden Sir Henry had a* little electric train fitted up, on the trucks-of which he loaded his garden rubbish. INDIANS AND THE REPORT. Between the Simon Commission report itself and the vehement comment by 'lndian Nationalists the British public is given an opportunity Of understand-in"*something-bf the sublime' illogicality of°tbe oriental mind. Of .the -commenta-. tors there are few if any who,'/ with equal relevance, might net have issued. ■ their fulminations a week -in’ advance in the Blue Book. Almost .without, exception they disregard the fact that the portion of the report already published is only a survey of the situation,- and contains nothing with .regard to recommendations or findings.- --As .they jump to conclusions what those findings will be, and denounce them in advance, .it requires no perspicacity to realise that they really appreciate the justification of a policy which is not in accord with their desires.. Had they refrained from attacking the,, commission’s recommendations until, they . were set forth in black and white they would have at least not have- given away their utter prejudice. '■ IN JAPAN. One is not surprised to hear that the Bar Association of Japan is giving voice .'- 'to disapproval of the ways of the -Japanese police.' The extreme vigilance • of the police- system is perhaps only part of-the almost demonic efficiency ot a- wonderfully enterprising nation, but it is irritating to lovers of personal

liberty. For a foreigner to lose himself in Japan is an impossibility. If he travels by train, from the moment he takes his ticket till he reaches his destination he is gently ushered at every turn along the way he ought to go. If he takes a ride in a jinriesha, he may be confident that the coolie who has pulled him w’U promptly report every street he has traversed to the nearest police station. Should the sirens of the teahouses beguile him into breaking away from the lady members of his party, the fact is well-known to a hundred and one plain-clothes men, who arc never off duty. And the ladies in question can always find the truant by merely calling rieshas, and saying, “Me wantee go same side master.” NOT SO UNSPEAKABLE. One frequently hears people refer to the “unspeakable Turk.” But soldiers who have met the Turks in warfare will tell you-that, ruthless as they can be on occasion, there are unpluinbcd depths of courtesy and consideration in the European followers of Mohammed. Such an instance I heard of the other day on the authority of-an eye-witness. When Kitchener in 1915 visited Suvla Bay and the adjoining lines ho held a reception—half parade, half levee ot all the troops from the trenches, the men vacating the trenches in relays. During the .whole of this function the Turks’ forbore to. harass the troops by any shell fire. When, however, Kitchener had re-embarked, they threw two or three shells over the ground, just to show what their forbearance had amounted to. It is doubtful whether such an exquisite piece of courtesy would have been shown by our enemies on any other front. DAMRONG MAY BE RIGHT. It is 40 years since Prince Damrong, the Siamese statesman and scholar, last visited these shores. He is here now, with his two vivacious daughters, on a sort of busman’s holiday. He is crowding an immense programme into his stay, and means to see everybody and everything. On his last visit Prince. Damrong talked, with Mr. Gladstone and the contemporary Lord. Salisbury. .Now he is keenly interested in the Labour Ministers. He talks perfect English, with no trace of foreign accent or mannerism. His daughters betray some slight intonation, but talk English we,l enough to express their devotion to golf and tennis, and their admiration for dur West End shops. It Is the comforting opinion o f Prince Damrong that there l will be “no more wars.” RECORD ACCIDENT CLAIM. I am told that ft claim for damages -ns the; result of a motor accident, which is now being negotiated in London, promises to be the largest any insurance company has been called up to pay. The accident caused the death of a successful contractor, who although in his early thirties, was steadily working up. to a.: very substantial income. I am assured that, by the time the claim is settled, the amount involved will probably not be far short of £25,000. This sum, however, will not be paid out by a single insurance company. Owing to the system of fe-insurance in force among the large offices, they will all contiibute to it. * HEAT WAVES IN HOT COUNTRIES. •- ■ ■ -.- " ■'' ' ’ ' : ■ • - ’ ■ ' The average Briton thinks natives of such countries as Egypt, Arabia, and'the Sudan are inured to high temperatures. The news, therefore, that Egyptians have been dying o.f heart failure through a heat wave will come as a surprise. From my observations, the natives of hot countries are more easily overcome, by a few degrees in excess of their normal than are the European visitors and residents'who live among them. I travelled once on a tramp steamer transportipg a -cargo” of Turkish troops from a Red Sea port to Constantinople. A heat, wave'set in, the thermometer standing at a steady -125 degrees. The steady twine of the jiscrew was punctuated all across . the. Red , Sea by the plopping of the . Turkish casualties as they were heaved overboard. On the evening Suez was reached the Pasha in char "o' 3 collapsed and died in his cabin. Yet lhe white officers and crew, though perspiring and profane, carried on their jobs on deck and in the stokehold. HITTING THE AIR. / I can sympathise with Mr. Philip Durham. Miss Norah Blaney’s'husband, who <rot' a lift the other midnight, after 'a breakdown halfway between Brighton and London, in a car that was being pursued by the Flying-Squad on motorcycles. Mr. Durham realised the situation after travelling 13 miles in Id minutes. Three years, ago I got a lift back to town from Royal Ascot in a super-taxi, which I .afterwards discovered was racing to Fleet Street with • press- photographs. We did only 17 miles in 18 minutes on pur best stretch, but might have improved on that, only I threatened to throttle the driver after we had grazed three other cars by cutting in. That Ascot taxi-drive is still more of a nightmare than 18 months in Ypres during the war., SCOTLAND’S PREMIER EARL. - The' Earl' of Mar, whose, death Is announced at his’Monte'Carlo villa in his 95th year,'was the p-remier Earl of-Scot--land, in- that' respect - sharing Earl Derby’s distinction -in England. But the ancestry of the Earls of'Mar., of whom the dead nonogenarian was - the 33 rd, o’oes even further back -into ancient - time' than, that of the- Stanleys. Whilst the Earl himself linked up with the 'reign of William-IV, since .he was born t ° year before Queen Victoria came, to the throne, his family, goes back to the Kings of Munster in-the days of .St. Patrick. The first Earl dates from 1065, which'"is good enough even for punctilious American natricians. The dead Earl was a Cambridge' graduate, and had written both songs and anthems. His only son, Lord Ganoeh, was born in 1868, and his chief pursuits in his younger days were shooting and fishing. GLIDING MARVELS. The new spor.t of. gliding, which was popular in America and Germany long 1 ore anyone took it up Here,-promises remarkable developments. It may, in fact, become a sort of handmaiden to serious aviation. During the past year the ;Spor t "has caught on. immensely; In j this country, and the British 1 Gliding

Association now boasts eighteen British clubs. • The B.G.A. has engaged for some months the expert, tutorial services of Herr Kronfeld, the German exponent who holds the world's record for gliding. Herr Kronfeld, has. on his Wien model, without the use of engines of any kind, achieved a 93-miles flight, and reached an altitude of 11.000. feet. To those who have, never seen glider's in operation, this seems an almost incredible feat. TEST IMPRESSIONS. Our two Test team casualties, including Sutcliffe, our second best bat, and Larwood, our star bowler, more than even up any bad luck the Australians had in batting on a drying pitch in their first sensational innings. Moreover, my own impression was that, whereas the Australians seemed nervy and ill at ease when they went in to bat for the first time, young- Robins, batting for England, under precisely-the same "conditions, exhibited a perfect

mastery of the bail. Had Duckworth managed to keep his end up, Robins looked “set” for a century.'- And this despite the fact that he had to nurse the. bowline all the time. A pleasant incident, which nobody seems to have mentioned, was the ringing cheer the crowd 2-ave Duleep, when he ran across the field with someone’s sweater. Everyone is agreed that from first to last it was one of the most thrilling Tests ever witnessed, and there was great cheering for Chapman when he led his winning team back into the pavilion. THE GUINEA STAMP. Even in these democratic days most of the leading golfing clubs still uphold the pernicious rule under which professional players are not'allowed in the members’ dining-room. The only' exceptions are players like J. H- Taylor and James Braid, elected honorary ; members of their own clubs. The rule has frequently occasioned trouble, especially when an

amateur'team has been playing m professional team. More than once the amateurs have refused to go' on with’ the match unless the professionals were allowed to dine with them. Even the late Lord Balfour found, himself involved in a controversy of this sort on one occasion. He openly defied the rule at St, Andrew’s. Everyone is amazed, however, that an attempt should have been made to set up the same sort of invidious comparison .at this year's .“Open” at Hoylake. The open championshin is essentially 'a professional affair. Not more than half-a-dozen of the amateurs have' the ghost of a chance of winning, and it is hardly stretching a point to say they are there by the courtesy of the “pros.” Yet a separate dining marquee was provided for “amateurs only.” No wonder the Americans protested. The rumour is that they actually threatened to withdraw from the competition. The .'majority 1 "of golfers up and down the country, will approve their attitude. . .. , -