OUR LONDON LETTER

Taranaki Daily News, 13 December 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

OUR LONDON LETTER

NEWS FROM THE HOMELAND. ECONOMY AT LAST. London, Oct. 23. It is sensation news that L.G. is making national economy and land settlement the twin stars to which his waggon trill he hitched at the next general election. The abject failure of politicians, even outside the ranks of Socialism’s conscientious spendthrifts, to sense the strength of the growing popular demand for drastic national economy, which alone can save us from Sharing the fate of once prosperous Latin countries that are to-day impoverished back numbers in Europe, Js amazing. But now L.G.’s political instinct seems to have awakened, and he is calling for a 10 per cent, cut ‘in our expenditure. This would mean £80,000,000 off the Budget. It is a- comforting picture if L.G. really means business, and can still spellbind the electors. LOWER WAGES. Lord Inchcape is entitled to credit for his courage in being the first to Say in public what, most industrial leaders are saying in private that a general reduction in the level of wages is an essential preliminary to any trade revival. That is particularly true of the sheltered industries. I am told that a recent inquiry conducted by the Government showed that, when every allowance is made for economies that can be effected by rationalisation and similar arrangements, a ’ substantial margin remains between the cost of production of some of our staple manufactures in this country, and. the cost in other lands. The only possible alternative is greater output, and that is difficult to secure in. view of the shortening of hours. I believe , the situation has been explained confidentially tc some of the most influential leaders of the trade unions, but they plead, that they are helpless.. THE DAILY BATTLE. ; IBetwess San Sebastian and Biarritz, just on the Franco-Spanish frontier, is the charming little town of Irun. A Fleet Street man has just been spending a Ute -holiday, there, and has brought back *•' pretty ■ little story. Every day at' noon, a gun is fired in Irun, just like the one o’clock gun that enables Liverpool’s stockbrokers to regulate their wrist watches daily. That Inin cannon is the sole survivor of an indent ritual now unfortunately discarded. Formerly on the note of that gun a boat put out from each side of the river that forms the Franco-Span-■iib boundary, and the stalwart, occupants forthwith engaged in battle. On the issue of that midstream encounter depended—aceoniing to local legtod still depends—-the fishing rights in thq jrlvto for the ensuing 24 hours. . Mtt MINISTRY: SURPRISE. J To the complete, surprise of most people, including the knowledgeable London clubmen. Lord Corel! has not been chosen by Mr. MacDonald as the late Lord Thomson’s successor. It may be, of coarse, that Lord Gorell was offered the job but preferred not to accept it. The new .Minister, Lord Amulree of Strathbraan, was created a baron about a year , ago, and that honour Sir William W. Mackenzie, a strenuous Scot and son of Edinburgh, certainly merited on the. shore of conscientious public service. He has probably served on more Royal, Commissions, public comifixttees and-expert inquiries than any o(\er .living/person of his age. Notably, he was chairman of the Royal Commission on- Licensing and one of the economic experts called in to advise the present Government on the world depression. Industriq-legal topics are Lord speciality, and he knows nothing about the air. He allows himself but oiie distraction —golf—and his London address .is on the democratic S.W. ride of the riven. • : .T A OANASS. WeriffhJn&ter has in our time had its 'Speaker whose near ancestor was a champion of the pugilistic, ring, but Ottawa’s new Speaker can beat that vicarious romance. Captain George Black, ■whose .charming- wife was well-known iin London, during th® war, was one of tb« genuine Yukon ‘‘toughsand < his wife shared the great advanture across the Chilkodt Pass. He became Coxnmiri gionar of the Yukon, but side-tracked that man’s job for the bigger one of company commander in a Yukon battalion, and later command of a ma-chine-gun battery on the. Western Front. With Black, eenr., served Black, junr., and won . the M.C., too. That is the sort of;romance Canadians appreciate. The Canadian Parliament- will have a great Speaker in Captain Black, who will combine breadth of. tolerance with fenappy , "he-man” determination ; when necessary. AT THE MOTOR SHOW. Facts and fancies are pretty evenly matched at Olympia in the 24th Motor Exhibition, which is to last till Saturday—facts indicating the steady .growth of the industry at home and abroad, and fancies inspired by all, the inventive and artistic skill which makes the pre-ssent-day self-propelled car or boat ornamental as well as useful. Passing the latest models, either rivalling an express locomotive in nobility of design or snatching at more moderate purses by their extreme hardiness, the ordinary visitor naturally makes for the historic section, where the original Lanchester, King Edward’s first daimler, the RollsRoyce “Silver Ghost,” and the MorrisOxford two-seater of 1913, which was driven here under its own power, are displayed amongst others. Then it is quiek-sticks to the Empire. Hall for the sea. add river craft, which a sense of vast power leash tugs. at the imagination of a constant crowd as fully representative as the exhibits themselves. FOR GLASSWARE ENTHUSIASTS. ; An exhibition very much after the feminine heart, is just now being held in the new Moser Glass Galleries at Latvley’s of Regent Street. Glassware that changes colour in artificial light is a, ndvelty .that must be seen to.be ptoperly appreciated. A lovely violet hue, for instance, becomes a no less attractive ■.red-mauve. Sipiilarly, a bluislired playa the chameleon role in glowing ruby. Green assumes a richly’autumnal shade of reddish-brown. The rare earth from which thO -glass is fabricated .holds the changeling secret. Long ago it Was discovered that two elements could be extracted from a' certain ..sand from which glass of uncommon colours could be made. Persistent, experimentation provedv-tha two elements would absorb two entirely individual colours. The exhibition alluringly reveals the resultant prbduet.

DOMINIONS AND THE FLEET.

There will be one of the most imposing assemblies of British, warships ever seen at Portland on the occasion of the Dominion Prime Ministers’ official visit to the Royal Navy. No fewer than forty vessels of all types, mostly belongingto the Atlantic Fleet, will rendezvous at that port by November 1, when the visitors will embark on the Nelson,' one of the two biggest battleships in the world. Her sister ship, Rodney, will not figure in the programme. She is in dockyard hands undergoing refit at Portsmouth. The fleet will, put to sea for some six or seven hours, during which time tactical exercises and longrange firing will be carried out. It is doubtful, however, whether H.M.6. Nelson will take part in the firing. Bringing her nine great 16-inch guns into action would not be a too comfortable experience for the visitors on board, they will 'be better able to watch battle practice if firing takes place from the other battleships of the squadron. HUNTING MYSTERY. A friefid, who ten days ago was staying at a hostelry in the shires, tells me that mine host was complaining bitterly of the “slump” in hunting. He has 30 loose boxes, usually all let for the season, but this year all but three were still.unlet. He assured my friend that many fewer people Were hunting this year. Since then I have met two hunt secretaries, harassed men at this , time of year, and they both told me that hunting prospects are bright-as ever. Subscriptions are coming in much as usual, and there has certainly been no sudden falling off in this respect. One of them, however,- hinted that the reason why so many hotels an hunting districts were not doing well was because they put their -charges too high, and hunting men were' this year making arrangements with, farmers for the housing of their hunters. PHEASANT DIET. I have Ibeen talking to a director-of a coal mine,,, who tells me that landowners in ,th® neighbourhood of the mine are inclined' to complain that miners are zealous poachers. It seems that during a recent local strike some miners entered a farmer’s field and killed five sheep, removing the carcases, and brazenly leaving the fleeces. The police, in their efforts to find the culprits, asked the teachers in the local school to' find out from their pupils what they had had to eat for dinner on Sunday, with • a view to questioning the parents of those who had dined off mutton. The scheme was a complete failure. Practically every child stood smartly to attention, and replied that he or she had dined off .pheasant. . ‘ ‘ MISTAKEN TEARS, - / It - must have annoyed the Ancient Greeks "when they placed a tear bottle in,, the wrong grave, and it would irritate me if I wasted sentiment on a topographical error. This is precisely what some London journals have just done. The big block of property on the east side of Trafalgar Square, of which Mor*ley’s Hotel, naw South Africa House, is part, is coming down, leases having expired, ahd up will go, to the greater glory of London, a magnificent / new headquarters for the South.. African. Uommonwealth. Amongst the smaller fry included in the debacle is the familiar Golden Cross Hotel, opposite Charing Cross Station, and this. has been mourned as the passing of an old,coaching -house: beloved of. Dickens. This sentiment is misdirected. The old Golden Cross, where Mr. Pickwick put up and David Copperfield studied King Charles’ statue from his bedroom window, was on a site, farther west, and vanished long ago. . ' LORD STONEHAVEN. ' , ■ Though the Army invites elegible youngsters to join up and see the world for nothing, it is really the Diplomatic Service that furnishes that opportunity- in excelsis. Take the case of Lord Stonehaven,, who is now homeward bound after five years in Australia as Governor-General. Son of a Scottish laird, and educated at Eton and Oxford, his Foreign Office experience included embassy appointment in Vienna, Cairo, Addis, Ababa and Paris, with adventures thrown in with, a Somaliland expeditionary' force. When he retired from the Diplomatic Service he entered the House of Commons, and old Parliamentarians still recall his immaculate tailoring, his dapper figure, his well-groomed hair, and a monocle that not even a Jack Johnson could have dislocated. How can .anyone, after a -life like that, settle down in a Scots Village? A NASTY ONE. Those who study with attentive interest- the evolution of’ modern advertising are aware of a new symptom. A tendency is growing not merely to boost" your own wares, but also, by subtle innuendo and within the strict limits of the law, to belittle and disparage your rival’s. How far this will, or. can, go is a really intriguing question. Fomexample, I noticed’To-day an attractive new art poster, put out by *a railway company, which depicts the empty spmmit of a steep road above, and below an electric train tearing along level lines. The lettering of this poster reads, “Don’t Travel Slow—Travel Electric,” and the hit at the road motor services is palpable. I am watching now for some adequate and permissible retort from the charabanc people. What about a poster showing an overcrowded railway “third,” a luxurious motor coach, and the slogan, “Don’t Travel Sardine —Travel Limousine! ” SAFEGUARDING BOOKMAKERS. The huge success of the Dublin hospital sweep, 10s tickets for which are selling like very hot cakes on both sides of St. George’s Channel, is alarming Roman Catholic authorities in .Ireland and embarrassing the Free State Government. The church frowns on such encouragement to the Irish propensity for gambling, and Ministers are awkwardly placed by demands by other ■ ; .is for similar illegal privileges. The Free State takes betting, seriously, and safeguards its native bookmakers. An Englishman recently in Ireland on holiday wrote out a telegram to his London bookmaker putting a. small sum on a horse. But his host 'told hint he was bound to. lose. He ,did not question the bona fides of. the -horse,. but observed that the penalty for -betting telegrams to anyone outside the Free State, was £5OO. ‘ - PILGRIMS IN ARMS. ■ Two famous;- London territorial regiments, the Scottish and the Queen'sAVestmihs'ters/ whose headquarters adjoin at Buckingham gate, have planned a joiit enterprise that others in dif-

ferenl parts of the country might like to emulate. Both these regiments had battalion's that served in the East with ( Allenby, and their graves lie out and far in Palestine. To revisit, those dis taut, scenes is beyond the purse of most ex-service men in the ordinary way, but the two regiments named are running a tour, with Jerusalem as headquarters for excursions to all the most important battlefields, at a cost of only 30 guineas. Past and present members are eligible for this interesting pilgrimage, which will leave London early next May.-