LETTER FROM LONDON

Taranaki Daily News, 14 February 1931, Page 14 (Supplement)

LETTER FROM LONDON

NEWS FROM THE HOMELAND. -J b contrast. ® . ' Is (Special to News.) London, Dec. 24. h It is a coincidence that, just when 1 p. Sir Francis Floud gave us the official d survey of our unemployment problem, r with its £62,000,000 annual deficit and h 400,000 uninsured participants in a n bankrupt insurance scheme, Dr. Cam- o agna, the London correspondent of s “Popolo d’ltalia,” outlined what Mus- p solini’s Government has done to grapple a with a similar emergency. The con- g trast is startling. The Romo Mims- c try admits no dole to unemployed except in a few abnormal cases, but recognises the State’s obligation to find work for every willing citizen. . As the result of a great land reclamation plan, t spread over 12 years, Italy’s unemploy- 1 cd are adding one-eighth to her produc- f tive area, which is equivalent to about h five million acres. It appears there is t a very practical side to Mussolini’s t much-derided “theatricalism.” a a ITALY IN THE AIR. f I The attempted East-to-West Atlantic a flight by 12 Italian seaplanes is the a most ambitious -demonstration of air r efficiency yet staged, and, whether it 2 succeeds or not, marks a new . inter- t national epoch in flying. Italy is ouu, c under the energetic and vitalising 1 Fascist regime, to capture the supre- 1 macy of the air, and it is impossible to c mistake the political significance of 1 this latest aerial reconnaissance in t force. The fact that the daring platoon f flight is led by General Balbo, the Italian Minister for Air, and one of Mussolini’s most trusted colleagues, still further emphasises the adventure. The Italian air aces are amongst the best I in the world, as the Schneider Cup has i shown, and Italy has won a foremost 1 place in the competition of the modern c high-power speed engines. I douot j whether either our own R.A.F. or that 1 of France would venture to attempt an t Atlantic flight en masse. « MR. BIRRELL’S DIAGNOSIS. I Myself I am persuaded it emanated f from the Socialist camp, and that its « raison d’etre was to be found in what was undoubtedly a very big effort to 3 wet rid of Mr. Ramsay MacDonald as leader of the party. It was just about ’ the time Sir Oswald Mosley’s manifesto was brewing that the rumour spread, 3 and I have a lurking suspicion that, 3 perhaps quite without any complicity < on his part, Mr. Arthur Henderson was marked out as the Prime Minister s successor. The Foreign Secretary is persona grata with the Socialist rank and file in an intimate way that Mr. - MacDonald never could be. And I recall an occasion years ago, when Mr. 3 Augustine Birrell was Chief Secretary in a Liberal Ministry, and rumour was ’ similarly persistent about his retire- ’ me nt. It was quite untrue, and I asked ; Mr. Birrell how he accounted for it. - “It usually means,” said that literary K.C. “that somebody wants your job.” SPORSTMAN AND STATESMAN. ’ Lord Willingdon’s appointment is ; even more popular in India than it is here. There the masses appreciate the officials who are sportsmen to a degree little appreciated here, where a large number of our prominent politicians are 1 little known in the sporting world. The new Viceroy is not only a good man in ■ the saddle, but an all-round hunter of repute, with a splendid bag of big game to his credit. Then the “mauve and primrose sleeves” have been popular colours on the Indian turf, and, should the new Viceroy win some races during his term of office, he will get a tremendous reception from Indian sportsmen. The great assets Bord ■VViHingdon has in returning to India are that he knows more than half of British India intimately already, and that the natives of all classes add castes know he will “play the game. The combination of sportsman and statesman is more valuable in India than in any other part of the Ernpire and never more than now. >THE ARMY SHORTAGE. There is strong conviction in Army circles that the new recruiting scheme for the Regular Army is eye-wash. The shortage is in the infantry, and under present arrangements recruits pass to units most in need of them, though any man expressing a wish to go to a particular county battalion is posted thereto. In future they will all go to their county battalions. The change is of no o-reat consequence, and those best qualified to judge do not believe it will make any substantial difference in attracting men to the Colours. Making up the° shortage of 9000 is not to the Government’s liking, as it will mean a large Addition to the Army estimates. In °round figures the annual cost of a battalion of the line, with a home establishment of 790,. is £107,300, so that an immediate filling up of the gap would mean a charge of over £300,000 to the estimates in this financial year, and nearly a million and a quarter during the whole of 1931. INDIA’S CORAL STRAND. Some of the Indian Maharajas and Maharanees hope, I imagine, to see something of the winter sports before . they return to India. I came across a party of them at one of the London ice rinks, where they were practising i hard to become proficient at the sport. Their visit occasioned quite a flutter of excitement, for it is the graceful cus- - tom of the Maharanees to bestow some small memento in the form of a jewel- ■ led scarf pin or some other trifle on the , instructors and others with whom they ! come closely in contact. They are not l finding skating an easy art to achieve. They °seem to lack the necessary in--1 stinct which belongs to people of more I northern climes. Still, it is character- ■ istic of their thoroughness that they i should think it worth while to take • skating lessons in order to equip for the 1 occasion when they pay a short visit - to St. Moritz or Murren. They will certainly find 110 opportunity of enjoying > the pastime when they return to India . and purdah is again strictly enforced. i 1 SO THAT’S THAT! One thing at all events Lord Willing- . don’s appointment to succeed Lord , Irwin has done. It has finally scotched 1 that extraordinary rumour, which was so widespread and so persistent, about I Mr. Ramsay MacDonald himself going 1 out as Indian Viceroy. Apart from r j the inherent improbabilities ' of the 1 ’ Prime Minister resigning his supreme 3 j position here for the harrassing one • at Simla, it was incredible that a polii I tician in the sixties, far from robusj; > and with no experience of the East, ’, I could have dreamt of such an adventure, , I especially at a time of such sinister ■. j hazard as now. Yet this story that Mr. cl MacDonald was going to India was -e--r peated by people usually exceedingly ,r i well informed. Several lobby journalr, ; ists have tried to pierce the mystery ’of its obstinate currency in London gossip centres.

! FOG SABOTAGE. The much-discussed economic depression is having novel manifestations in quiet London suburbs.. A. friend of mine, a city man who lives in a sedate North London avenue, was amazed on the morning after the last heavy fog, on leaving home for his office, to discover that his were the only garden posts in the road which were still upstanding and intact. All the rest were prone on the ground, as though levelled hy a minor suburban earthquake. But 'he found that his own had been tampered with, too, but probably, resisted demolition owing to just having been reinforced with cement. All the irate householders made complaint at the nearest police station, but their tale of woe was calmly received. The police said it was now becoming a regular practice with “some person or persons unknown” to commit this sort of sabotage, presumably in order to create employment.” THIS FREEDOM. I have not had an opportunity to test the conditions under the new motoring law yet outside London, but friends who have done so tell me. things have improved. Their impression is that all drivers are thinking less, about the new freedom from speed limit than about the formidable new penalties tor all forms of recklessness. Even those festive youths who combine a scarlet beret with a roaring sports car . are amending their ways, so my friends aver, and instead of the normal 65 m.p.h., are crawling alona nearer 30. Moreover, everybody is living up to the new road code’s spirit, of noblesse oblige. To me it sounds almost too beatific to be true, but we shall be better able to judge the effect of the changes in the law after a summer’s motoring. Much depends on whether the heavier penalties, in cases of infraction, are rigorously enforced. QUICK-CHANGE CAREER. Mr. W. G. Constable, who has just been appointed director of London University’s new art institute, has been a remarkable example of successful quickchange career. He .is probably the youngest man occupying such a post as he now fills anywhere in this country, and yet his art experience did not start seriously until after the war. Mr. Constable is now no more than 43, and, before he joined up for the duration in 1914, was a barrister. When he left the army after the Armistice, he joined up again but this time as a recruit to the famous Slade Art School. Afterwards he became a lecturer on art at the Wallace ' Collection, and graduated thence as assistant at the National Gallery. A year ago he was made assistant director at the Trafalgar Square institution, and now become# first director of London University art. BY CAMEL POST. Lieut-Colonel Sir Arnold Wilson, D. 5.0., who served for many years as soldier-diplomat in Persia? gives an account of unpacking the art treasures for the forthcoming Persian exhibition, at Burlington Houee, that makes the connoisseur’s mouth water. It will bo the first time that students can survey Persian art in all its many branches rithout laboriously picking out isolated work in different scattered museums am. galleries. Marvellous wealth and superb craftsmanship are wedded to produce some of th© rare -exhibits that will be shown, many of which have been brought by camel across miles, of barbaric country to reach Piccadilly. It may be that some visitors will find the taste of these Persian art treasures somewhat vivid or even gaudy, but, as Sir Arnold justly points out, they were designed to match a vivid and gaudy climate.

BOW BELLS. Pending the raising of £15,000 to restore the famous Bow Bells, the experiment has ben tried of using gramophone substitutes for those ancient and decrepit chimes. I trust no enterprising commercialist will seek to exploit the possibilities thus revealed. The gramophone bells, though far more penetrating in their range of sound, lack the dulcet harmony of the originals. Some people even describe them as raucous. It has been suggested that, in order to stop the latter as soon as possible, subscriptions will pour into the. fund for casting new real bells. Obviously there is here infinite scope for musical blackmail. Any vicar , who desires an attractive carillon in his church steeple mio-ht harrow a quiet suburb with longranoe gramophone substitutes, and thus hold an entire London parish to ransom of its repose. PUFF-PUFFS. ■' A friend. who . has consorted at a meeting of members tells’ me that Wimbledon boasts a regular club of railway ' enthusiasts. These include nearly every profession and calling you could -mention, with the marked exception that there are no genuine railw .ymen amongst them. Their hobby is the making and running of. toy trains, and it affords them supreme entertainment. Some of the trains are wonderfully faithful miniatures, even to the “To seat Six” labels,, and scenic photographs in the toy carriages. But their equipment embraces goods as well as passenger stock, and every detail of a railway company’s, shunting, signalling, and siding ramifications. At their set club meetings , the members compete m tackling big traffic congestion problems I wonder what their wives—-and small sons —think about them.