OUR LONDON LETTER

Taranaki Daily News, 23 August 1930, Page 19 (Supplement)

OUR LONDON LETTER

SMEWS FROM THE HOMELAND. TEMPTING FORTUNE. London, July 3. The latest lobby rumour at Westminster is that the Cabinet is contemplating an autumn general election. Such a coup has obvious attractions, and would appeal to a good many Labour people. Thanks to Lords Beayerbrook and Rothermere, it would catch the Conservative Party, which is the real enemy, decidedly on the hop. It might give Socialism that independent majority, the lack of which ia supposed to be ite great handicap, and, if it did not, it would be a favourable pretext for shuffling out of a hopeless unemployment tangle. That is how many Labour M.’sP. regard the question. They realise that it is sound tactics to let the other fellow shoulder the ’bad times, and wait oneself for the crest of the wave. The question is whether such a coup is too heroic for well-salaried Cabinet human nature.

HEAVY WEATHER. According to all the most -reliable experts, we may expect our army of unemployed to touch the 2,000,000 mark this autumn. Hpw serious that prospect is may be realised best by reremembering that, even after Mr. Snowden’s additional. £12,000,000 per annum towards it at the taxpayers’ expense, the unemployment . fund is already insolvent, and piling up new debt at the rate of £500;000 a week. How long wall our finances, at the present fantastic rate of national expenditure, be equal to that deadweight strain? If we have two million people unemployed in this country, and anything like a revenue collapse ensues, with currency reactions thereto promptly following, the crisis will be the most serious we have had to face in our history, not excluding the darkest days of 191413. SIGNIFICANT BY-ELECTION. The result of the polling at Shettleston, the late Mr. J. H. Wheatley’s constituency, is rather staggering. Although the successful Labour candidate, a strong local man, has been returned by a majority of only 396, as compared with Mr. Wheatley’s 6724 at the general election, and his total poll is a little more than half what Labour recorded on that occasion, the Conservative candidate, who is second in the voting, received ever 2000 fewer votes than his predecessor of the general election. That the Scottish Nationalist and the Communist polled about 4000 votes between them hardly explains this slump. Glasgow is not given to lethargy in politics as a rule, but here we have a remarkable example of political indifference. It reads ominously like “a curse on both your houses.” In these days of economic stress the country may be getting weary of party politics.

SIR ROBERT HORNE, By general agreement, Sir Robert Horne was the hero of the Conservative Party meeting, but he will not be grateful to those over-officious friends who, for their own purposes, are suggesting that he has been generous in view of Mr. Baldwin’s treatment of him. On that subject Sir Robert has never uttered a word of complaint, or allowed it to divert him from his public path. In the worldly' sense he has had no reason to regret his absence from Ministerial office, and I doubt if he has lost anything politically. The connection of his name .-with possible succession to the party leadership has received no encouragement from him, and' if he is ever called to that post it will be, as it was in the case of Mr. Bonar Law, without his seeking it. BISHOPS IN LONDON. There were a number of bishops at the great service of re-opening St. Paul’s Cathedral, but only half, and not quite that, of the still greater number —3l2 —that assembled this week in tlie famous library of Lambeth Palace, for the iLambeth Conference. Now the number of, bishops is so great that half the library books have to be moved to give them accommodation. When the first conference took place/in 1867, at the suggestion of Canadian bishops be it remembered, there were only 76 bishops present, and the conference lasted but three days. Each succeeding conference has been a greater number present, though it is as well to recall that in 1841, excluding the few bishops in America, there were only 10 Anglican bishops outside the British Isles, and .the whole of Australia was but “an archdeaconry” of the diocese of Calcutta. HYDE PARK AS AN AIR PORT.

The crass suggestion to utilise a portion of Hyde Park as an air port has again been to the front, to be again emphatically and rightly turned down. About one-sixth of the park’s area would be required for this purpose, leaving-some 500 acres untouched, its central position and accessibility The site would make an ideal Great London air port, but the objections to the scheme have out weighed all the considerations urged in its favour. Apart from thid being a Royal park, an ‘nsuperable objection was interference with the- public’s enjoyment of all its amenities, and, again, the annoyance that would be caused to very heavilyrated people in the vicinity by tha noire of the air traffic. The nuisance of an air port to a residential environment is particularly pronounced at Croydon, whose population is regularly awakened from its slumbers in the early hours of the morning by the passing Continental air mails. BRITISH ARMY BANDS. Very shortly all the bands of the • British Army will be equipped with instruments of a lower pitch, dropping a semi-tone. Thus what has been known as the “Kneller Hall pitch" will finally disappear. The change was ordered by the Army Council a couple of years ago in order that our army bands might be brought into line with’ private ones, and so able to play in conjunction with them when required. The order found no favour in military circles, the objection being that the higher-pitch instruments, having more ! carrying power,, were more suitable for'! troops °on the march. Naturally, the j turnover has been a slow one, as. the,.’

expense, amounting to about £35,000, must be borne entirely by regimental funds. The Household Cavalry and the Royal Artillery completed the change some months ago, and the Brigade of Guards will follow suit almost immediately. It is expected that the first mass performance of the lower pitch instruments will take place at the Cenotaph service on Armistice Day.

DRAMA ON' THE THAMES. A fleet, of 28 brand-new speed-boats, specially designed for their peculiar work, has just been ordered for the Thames river police. This departure may be regarded as somewhat overdue, for the criminal proclivities of the motor-car on land have been fully equalled by those of the motor speedboat on the water. All manner of grab-and-rush pilferings are on the increase from vessels and wharves along London’s river front, and it has become urgent to equip the river police to cope with these motoring pirates. The new police fleet will have complete command of the London reaches over 37 miles of river, and will be both the fastest and most manageable craft on the Thames. Mr. Edgar Wallace should gather new inspiration from a river flying squad.

GREAT CRICKET. ’By winning the second Test match at Lordri on their merits the Australians have made it a neck-and-neck race for the Ashes, and proved that some critics under-estimated both their batting and bowling. Even Chapman, when he gave the word for “Duleep” to hit out on Friday afternoon, was too optimistic. We have had some superb cricket in this match, with the ‘bowling as well as the batting honours going to the Aussies, but the fielding honours to England. Nothing was finer than the way our men, magnificently inspired by their captain’s example, stuck to their guns all through Australia’s record innings under a gruelling sun. Whether our side was well 'chosen is quite another story. Pqrhaps the time has come when we should have a Cricket Control Board, representing all the leading counties, and the Marylebone Cricket Club should gracefully retire on its dictatorial laurels.

TO BE OR NOT TO BE ? Sir J. M. Barrie and G. B. Shaw are patrons of St. Mary’s school theatre in Kilburn, the director of which is Mr. J. C. Jones, who has had sound experience of repertory work. The boys of this school formed a dramatic club, built their own theatre, and are the only elementary scholars licensed to produce plays. Yet they are all under 14. Their standard of acting is said to be remarkable. It has impressed the two distinguished dramatists mentioned, as well as eminent actors and critics. Mr. Shaw has eyen gone the unusual length of presenting, his autographed photograph' to the club. It will be interesting to see whether one lad, whose Shakespearean flair is declared to mark him out as a coming Hamlet of renown, fulfils his horoscope.

IRONY OF ENTERPRISE. At Covent Garden boxes of love-in-the-mist and delphiniums • have been going a-begging at 3d each. The explanation is a glut of flowers on the market, due less to the present summery conditions than to the mild winter. From the Scilly and Channel Isles, and from the West Country, the blooms have arrived simultaneously at perfection. A curious fact about love-in-the-mist is that, as it is rather difficult to grow, a great number of people have concentrated on its cultivation m the expectation of high prices. But it has been an unusually successful year for all the growers, and the market is glutted. Much the same applies to strawberries. Even Wimbledon week finds the market glutted and prices down.

GROWN-UP MECCANO. Daily from my office window I have watched the swift ascension of Fleet Street’s architectural chef d’oeuvre, the most imposing building in London yet dedicated to journalism, the Cinderella of the Muses. And I have been' impressed by the revolution in modern building methods. Surely nowadays all right-minded small boys, forsaking such obsolete ambitions as engine-driving, yearn to be builder’s workmen. It is neither more nor less than the nursery meccano set on a grandiose adult scale. No longer ii there laborious and wearisome laying of brick on brick or stone on stone. You rear a fairy filament of slim steel girders, and hoist your structure, ready-made and numbered blocic by block, into its right position. Perhaps the meccano metaphor is wrong. It has all the joys of gigantic jig-saw. And the thing is done in no time. To-day you tap the foundations with a trowel. To-morrow you hand up the weathercock. A. HIGHLAND TEST PLAYER, S/otsmen figure so little in the cricket world that it is interesting to recall one of them who played in a Test match against Australia so long ago as 1878. He is Francis Alexander MacKinnon of Mackinnon, ,35th chief of the clan. Those who value his friendship, however, do not make use of his Christian names; to them he is simply Mackinnon. Though now 82 years of age. Ii is still hale and hearty, and keenly interested in the game. He was educated at Harrow and St. John's Cambridge, and served for some years in the Royal Engineers. Now he spends most of his time at hie pleasant residence near Forres.

M.P.'S TENNIS SON. . Members of all political parties in the House of Commons followed with sympathetic interest the"progress of Mr. S. l?erry in the Wimbledon tennis tournament. He is the only son of Mr. F. J. Perry, the co-operative member for Kettering, and Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Board of Trade. Mr. Perry decided some time ago to give his son'a year’s holiday in order that he might develop his prowess. He is a handsome and modest young fellow of about 20. and, when he dined with his father at the House the other night he was the recipient of many good wishes. Captain Cazalet, M.P., was one of the competitors iafr Wimbledon, but was soon set free to attend to his political duties.