OUR LONDON LETTER

Taranaki Daily News, 6 December 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

OUR LONDON LETTER

NEWS FROM THE HOMELAND.

GOVERNMENT’S RESPITE.

London, Oct. 16.

There hag been much foolish .talk of a possible general election this Autumn. Such rumours merely demonstrate an utter lack of political intelligence on the part of those who circulate them. If one f thing ie more certain than any other, it is that no attempt will be made, either by the Conservatives or the Liberals, to defeat Mr. MacDonald’s Ministry until the Imperial Conference and the Indian Round Table Conference are over. The respite at Westminster will last no longer than the reassembling of Parliament after Christmas. From that date onwards Mr. MacDonald and his colleagues will face an Opposition in the House of Commons fighting with the gloves off. It will be then, if ever, that Mr. Lloyd George will have his chance to clinch a bargain over electdral reform. MR. LLOYD GEORGE. Curiously conflicting rumours are current about the relations between Mr. MacDonald and Mr. Lloyd George. At one moment it is said that negotiations fo. - co-operatiori between Liberals and Socialists' on unemployment have completely broken down, and at another that considerable success attends these informal talks.. It is difficult, amidst such diverse reports, to piece together a convincing jig-saw truth. But ones strong suspicion is that, while Mr. MacDonald js less averse than he was to working with the Liberals, Mr. 'George is && determined as ever to make electoral reform the price of such cooperation. At. the moment proportional representation plays much the same part in Mr. George’s mind as King Charles’ head did in Mr. Dick’s essay. ' t 1 UNDER WHICH KING, BEZONIAN? By squarely raising the tariff issue at the Imperial Conference, the Dominion Premiers have, at any rate, helped to clarify home politics. A situation has now been created which demands that all- three parties , in this country shall clearly define their attitude on the dominant issue of the moment. Though ; b’oth have .their waverers, the Socialist and Liberal parties are likely to stand by the free trade principle,, but with few exceptions Conservatives will embrace the Dominion proposals. Now that “Empire Free Trade” is vetoed by the Dominions themselves, as most people expected, there may be more possibility, of something like economic agreement within the Conservative ranks. The removal of the central office’s ban on the adopted Conservative candidate in South Paddington is z one symptom of this tendency already manifest. THE RlOl TRAGEDY. '• A famous authority, discussing the Beauvais catastrophe, emphasised the importance of solving the mystery, in v : ew of thb RIOO’e plans. If the RIOI had an adequate margin of lift, hb was puzzled by the low altitude her experienced navigators kept, even across England, flying at not more than 500 [ feet, as she appears to have been doing in France. Her two successive nose dips, which could be corrected only by first ’ bringing her stern on the level of her bow, would mean a loss of at least 300 feet in altitude. This left small margin for clearing the hilltop on which she foundered. One fact he remarked on was the infinitely greater horror that must have ensued had the airship collapsed in flames on the town. RUSSIAN WHEAT. Some discreet enquiries have just been made in the fity on behalf of Dominion Governments in the hope of discovering what is the real quantity of Wheat the Soviet Government has available for export. This is an important question for both Australia and Canada, because there can be little hope of-an improvement in prices until the dumping has come to an end. I am told that the beet-informed opinion puts the total surplus available to the Russians at 9,500,000 quarters, of which so far only about one million quarters have been shipped. Many people do not regard this as a real surplus, and expect to see.RussiA buying wheat again in the •turn, of the, year; . BRiTISH CIVIL- AVIATION. Compared with that of other countries,' British-s’.'civil aviation is making slow?-.’progress? .'.A great impetus was given to civil’av.iation in France last April, when,the , -French Government . offered contributions towards the purchase price'jand running expenses of ap- ; proved marines ’ privately bought. As a result, ftp', fewer, than 100 light aeroplanes have been purchased by civilian owners in that country. Sixty-eight have been secured by individuals and 32 by aero clubs; In this country there are altogether only 295 privately owned aeroplanes of some 42 different types. Twenty-four owners possess two machines each; four possess three each, and one owner has- four. Of the balance, 25 belong to women. In this country at present 15 light-hero clubs receive a State grant of ' £15,000 among them; which is £3OOO less, than last year. There are altogether 26 such clubs with a total membership of 3000., BABY OF THE CONFERENCE. Though the Newfoundland Prime Minister, Sir Richard Squires, is much th; ’ youngest of all the Empire’s assembled Prime at the Imperial Conference, he is turned 50. But he was no more than 37 when, he first became Newfoundland’s Liberal Prime Minister. He belongs to both branches of the law, being both a barrister and a solicitor, a-'combination possible in otnoversea Dominions, but not 4n this country*. Lady Squires is also a politician, and, as in the case of Lady Astor here, was Newfoundland’s' first woman M.P. Two of their sons have been educated at Harrow, and a 'younger one,, the baby of the family, is now at school at Haelemere, where Lady Squires visited him directly they reached this country to attend the Imperial ? Conference. TERRITORIAL GUNNERS’ “TREK.” By this time next year all the artillery of London’s two Territorial Army Divisions will be completely mechanised, as will be many of the gnns of the 12 other divisions. London’s only wholly mechanised brigade did good work dur- . ing the recent camp. It had four days “trek.” During that time nearly 400 miles were covered without casualty or accident, excepting some slight engine trouble which put one of the tractors out of action for a few hours. The first “march,” begun after the day’s camp work was over, resulted in the brigade moving 80 miles in eight hours, the pace being restricted to 10 miles per hour. At greater speed the gun carriages get badly shaken, and to mini

miee vibration all gun-wheels are to be fitted during the winter with solid rubber tyres. A regular unit at Aidershot is experimenting with pneumatic tyres. A GEAT MAN’S IDIOSYNCRACY. The intellectual standards of the great Marquis of Salisbury ■ were high, but in matters of comparatively minor importance his mind was apt to wander. When in 1898 he appointed Mr. St. John Brodrick, now Earl of Midleton, as Under Foreign Secretary, he dated the letter he wrote to George Wyndham offering him the Under-Secretary-ship for War 1896—two years before the actual datp! Ih the same missive he spelt Brodrick’s name as Broderick. In another letter he misspelt Wyndham’s name, making it Windham. An amusing tale is' told of Lord Salisbury walking down St. James’ Street with a bishop.° A - gentleman saluted them cheerily, whereupon his lordship asked the bishop: “Who is your bucolic-look--ing friend?” The cleric amusedly replied,' “Well, my lord, I should have thought you might have known JValter Lonb- by sight, seeing that he is a member of your own Cabinet.” BESPOKE! A friend just back from a holiday in the Free State tells me economic conditions have much improved in the South of Ireland lately, and that even unenthusiastic Irish people now admit that things are locking up. Another piece of news my friend brought back, to which I certainly have seen no allusion in s>ur newspapers, is that partridge shooting has been tabooed all over Ireland for a year in order to give the birds a chance to multiply a bit. Finally, and this is what took my fancy most of all, the Irish still the Irish. My friend went into a village post office and asked for some stamps. The postmaster said. he was very sorry, but he had only two stamps, and they were bespoke! .Gunmen who specialise in raiding country post offices in Ireland look like having a thin time. ... GAUCHE! Most people have been studying their income tex assessments for the current year with brooding intensity. These buff documents have been delivered with spartan promptitude, and contain the o-rim confirmation of Mr.' Snowden s new Budget exactions. I have been Iqd to wbnder whether my assessor, in a melting mood of sympathy for taxpayers, who are, after all, fellow citizens and human beings, has endeavoured m so far as in him lay to temper the wind to the shorn lamb. For the first time in my painful recollection, pinned to my assessment, was a neat buff ticket bear-,, in J the soothing legend, “With the income tax assessor’s... compliments. in my case, unfortunately, much of - the soothin o- effect was ruined by the fact that I pricked my finger very thoroughly with the pin. A paper clip would be more tactful. ", BLUE BOXER. ' ■ An exhibition of Soviet art, the first of its kind, has been opened at the Bloomsbury Gallery, and will last till the end of the month. The promoters got into, touch through the society-for cultural relations between the Soviets and foreign countries, and a Moscow, committee was formed to . collect representative drawings from all over what we know as Russia. The presently Russian claims no school ot his own, and is selecting the best of other schools in establishing a, tradition. Hence, perhaps, the vigour and crudity of so much that is here on yiew, though of its formative power there can be little doubt. In book-illustrations and. woodcuts, with a clear derivation from Byzantine sources, the work is very fine, and some suggested by the Kipling, iungle tales show that in art at least the Soviet is not afraid of Imperialistic contamination. In fact, a number of skyscraper, studies from New York are almost idealised. Not so the scenes of everyday life also depicted, or pome humorously alive glimpses of a boxingmatch where the vanquished is carried out—-blue. ..

FACTS VERSUS FAIRY TALES.'. Ih a few days we shall have the motor show opening at Olympia. Every year the . same impressive legends are circulated about this festival. The attendance invariably reaches vaguely record figures, and the fir&t day’s eales total a sura which .might almost stand unbonneted in the august presence of the American war-debt. I have eometimes incurred a little unpopularity by respectfully questioning some of the facts. This year it is admitted that, so far, there is nothing like the usual rush to see the show. There was a time when even the Turkish baths were nightly crowded out by visitors who could not obtain hotel accommodation, but this year the hotels have, plenty of room to spare. No doubt the general trade depression is hitting the motor show to some extent, but the truth is that it does not wear so well as the older and rival horse show. HOTEL OR HOSPITAL? I hear there is a possibility _of yet another huge West Ehd hotel arising in London. The president of the C.P.R., Mr. Beatty, attended some months, ago the launch of one of the company’s new vessels on the Clyde, and whilst in London he made searching inquiries for a suitable site on which to build a C.P.R. hotel. Whether or not his quest was successful remains to be seen, but one site that greatly attracted him was that of St. George’s Hospital at Hyde Park corner. This would be a magnificent location, for a palatial hotel, beino- both central and fashionable and witlr a delightful outlook. Will the hospital authorities be willing to sell in order to translate their institution to some more restful locality? In 1913 an offer of over £500,000 for this coveted site fell through, and land values have increased fantastically since those days. ■ PAINTING THE FLEET. Many naval men will regret that a change of colour will not come within the purview of the • committee which the admiralty has set up to consider questions relevant to the supply of paint to ships of .the Royal Navy. The sombre drab-grey of the larger type of battlecraft, chosen for economical reasons, and as presenting a more, difficult target for hostile guns, has becoip,e so monotonous to the eyes of the service that there is a longing, to revert to the one-time black hull with white and yellow superstructure and spars. In those days, however, the maintenance of a ship’s smart appearance- meant no small expenditure in the matter of paint, and the Constant labour of the crew in laying it on. As the admiralty was rather parsimonious in the supply or material, the balance required had to be found out of the officers’ pockets, and the charge was a sore tax on poor ■ men.