LETTER FROM LONDON

Taranaki Daily News, 1 August 1931, Page 2 (Supplement)

LETTER FROM LONDON

NEWS FROM THE HOMELAND. CABINET AND DOLE REPORT. , . , . y. -'(From Our. London Correspondent.) London, June 11. Ministers are scratching like hens to find some means of getting round the interim-report of, their, own Royal Com-, mission on. dole abuses. It must be re-■ membered that shortly after .Mr. Mac-; donald’s ; Ministry, took office a council of three,, representing, each of the ppi-, 'itical/parties, investigated tjie unemployment./insurance morass, and. niade. strong ; recommendations. crisis the Cabinet sidetracked by appointing the Royal Commission, whose warnings they now want to <J°dge. All this time the insurance fund’s debt of over £BO,-. 0.00,000 is being swollen every, week tq the tuno of £1,000,000. We have been told by our best Treasury expert that, we, are heading for national bankruptcy and current collapse. But, seated stiff.', by their own irresponsibilities, /Ministers still refuse to act.. MIDDLE-CLASS PACK MULES. Two means of dodging -the facts en-1 ? r age the Cabinet's 'frenzied attention.-; One is a grandiose scheme, of rationalisation applied to all pensions ’and poor ! law relief, whereby it is contended' that. overlapping and administrative costs /might be saved', and the present largesse still maintained. The other is a simpler plan for roping in the middleclasses, called the “black' coat workers, eo that their "contributions to the dole, to which they already pay handsomely in taxation, might give its derelict insurance fund a new show of solvency. , Of 'the two projects, the latter-looks at? the moment the mbre likely to -be adop-, ted. The Cabineit’s 'back benchers arc indifferent to'what happens, :so long as no Stole economics, -either in-the shape of increased payments in cr- reduced payments' out, are suggested. RUSSIANS AND SHIPS. British Ministers are not in' the least impressed by the suggestion that the want 'to build ships /in. this country, and' the trade unionists, who went to the Government'to : urge that British credit should be given for the purpose, made themselves merely the unconscious agents of Soviet propaganda. If the Russians really need ships they can buy or charter them much more cheaply and quickly than they can get them built. Idle tdnnage is only too painfully abundant. They evidently prefer to-create the impression that they are prevented from handing out wholesale orders by the short sightedness of a capitalist Government. In other trades the same parade of possible business in return for credit has been made. '. The truth is, if Russia wants to buy in this, country she can best begin by spending the cash she is being, paid here for the goods she is selling below, cost price. When that is exhausted,< it'will be time enough to think about credit. -SIR -WILLIAM JOWITT, P.O. The-appointment of Sir William Jowitt to the IBrivy Council is an unusual honour for an-Attorney-General or for so young a man as 'Sir William. I . believe Lord Hali'sham was the last At-torney-General to be made a Privy Councillor during his. Attorneyship, but he was several years older than Sir William. -Only two lawyer P.C?s have achieved that honour at an earlier age ; than Sir William Jowitt, and they were/ Lord Birkenhead and-Mr. Lloyd George.; Tho precocious infant of the law—was a Councillor before his 40th. birthday, and Mr. Lloyd George at 43. ■* ' COST OF WARSHIPS. L ’■ One of the claims to distinction made on behalf -of the recently-launched Ger-man-“pocket battleship” is that-she is the rriott expensive warcraft ever put afloat. The-precise cost of' the Deutschland cannot as yet be ascertained, but, 1 -according to' estimates, it will reach the heavy figures of £4OO per ton. Her successors, however, will work out cheaper, as it is an established fact that the first vessel of a totally' new. type is always very much more expensive than those afterwards built on identical lines. Britain’s pre-war original Dreadnought cost £129 per ton, and the post-war Nelson about £l9O. Generally speaking, small warships costmore per ton to build than large ones, the latest types of destroyers, for instance, averaging out at a little over£3oo, and the first batch of the 10,000ton Sin. gun cruisers working out at a little over £2OO. Higher wages undoubtedly assist in increasing present over pre-war prices, though the real explahation of ascending charges for construction lies in the ever-expanding scientific equipment of the modern warship. TABLE D’AIK. We shall now have all the bright young hustlers, who own aerial twoseaters, . tuning up to beat Captain Hawke’s exploit. That expert airman, who must surely derive a certain inspiration from his name, has succeeded in setting up a new gastronomical record. He is so far the only human being who has taken meals in three European capitals in the.same day. To. breakfast in London, lunch in Paris and dine in Berlin, however, is now tolerably within the compass -of anyone whose digestion will stand it, and who travels in the central blue. The obvious ambition, after Captain Hawke’s achievement, is to include a late supper in some other European capital. Why not reverse the order—breakfast in Berlin, lunch in Paris, dine in London, and flip over to Dublin for a midnight bacon and eggs? AN OVERHEAD AERODROME. Amongst the latest projects of transport development is one to transfer London’s terminus from Croydon to King’s Cross. It is said the scheme is prepared, ready for (Parliamentary sanction, and that existing railway sidings at King’s Cross may be roofed over to make an overhead aerodrome. The cost would be about £5,000,000. Eventually no doubt we shall have overhead aerodromes, but Croydon will probably remain where it is. The existing trouble is the disproportionate time taken in getting to Croydon, compared with the quick transit once there. But is it necessary to carry the mountain to Mahomet? Aerial taxis, operating from King’s Cross overhead aerodrome, would solve that problem easily enough. LONDON AND THE SWEip. Some notion of the grip that, the Dublin sweepstakes have got on London, and of the task before the Home Secretary'if he is to obey orders and rigorously suppress the traffic in tickets on this side of St. George's Channel, is afforded by newspaper sale statistics. On days when the drawing of prize numbers takes place in Ireland all the London evening newspapers experience a. booni circulation. One journal, whose normal sales are about 800,000, found

itself with a circulation last Saturday of 1,600,000. No doubt Londoners have been attracted by the luck that London ticket-holders have experienced hitherto in these lotteries, but that luck, on the law of averages, argues an extensive London patronage of Dublin’s enterprise. NONSENSE’JOURNALISM. The earthquake has completely unbalanced the London papers. One. sug-• gests that the centre of the seismic upheaval, which actually was in the North Sea, was in Mid-Atlantic, and that, owing to. the. Gulf Stream being diverted, the British Isles may now “go Arctic.” A soberer journal argues that the visitation was quite normal; and.in no way, different from shocks which have been. Belt here every year for a thousand years. . This ignores the fact that Sunday’s, tremors were felt throughout the .whole country, and.to that.extent undoubtedly more significant than any others ever recorded. Nobody knows /what turmoil is taking place in the .earth’s interior. Like suburban tenants ■moving into.'a, new house, too soon, wc inhabited this planet before, its cooling processes were complete. WALPOLE’S EARTHQUAKE. Quite a high proportion of Londoners are bitterly' resentful that they slept •blissfully right through the only authentic ' earthquake London has experienced for generations; 'This, is reminis-' cent of Walpole's account of the 1750 visitation, which until now has been considered/ / the “best” London ever achieved- “A parson came into White’s this morning,” he records, “and, hearing' bets laid whether it was an earthquake or the blowing, up - of a powder mill, went away' scandalised;” ' An eminent soldier, however, predicted', a worse shock, stud immediately filled the yoads out of London with vehicles. People | sat all night in coaches in Hyde Park I wearing’ earthquake gowns, while one busy quack' eVen sold ‘earthquake pills.’ Nothing, /happened. It was a clear case of “wind.up.” Expectation had.,affected the public nerve far worse than the actual thing.' ENNlli AT WESTMINSTER. . It.Used.to be said that the House of Commons was the 'best club in. London. I doubt whether that was ever anyway near true, but it is, certainly .far from being so now. ■ Apart from the fact that the company is very? mixed, and that women are members, the'House of Commons bans practically all rational forms of amusement. You. may play chess or draughts —two Socialist M.P.’s actually did so last night inside the debating chamber—but billiards, bridge,?. , and shove-halfpenny are barred. If the object is to keep members from absenting themselves from the. debates, it signally fails to attain it. In these days, when the average debating level is deplorably dull, and far below either Codgers or the Oxford Union, it seems a disputable point whether at least “old Maid might not be sanctioned. CULT OF THE IRIS. \ The Iris. Society provided; a show at the Royal Horticultural Hall this week which eclipsed last year’s, and had some remarkable contrasts to' offer. The biggest blossom hailed from Turkestan, called Gatesii, with broad silvery petals marked by innumerable tiny dots. The largest yellcrw flower, was to be found in the vast Orpington-Nurseries’ display and it is; significant that true yellows

and true pinks are engaging the attention .of enthusiasts. A new French growth, magenta in hue, a German with margins like the picotec, and an American newcomer shading from maroon to reddish purple were ako displayed on this comprehensive stand, along with a new seedling of red and yellow, while the Grace Sturtevant, chocolate with golden beard, was admired. Dwarf varieties are encouraged nowadays, as well as decorative classes, and the wild varieties are not overlooked. ■STARLING DRIVES. Anyone who strolls in St. Jaqies Park about 9 o'clock in the evening just now might easily wonder whether innumerable small boys were being chastised by stern parents. The sounds of whacking however are not those of parental discipline, but arc made by grim-faced park-keepers beating sheets of thin wood with sticks. This is to prevent the thousands of starlings from settling in the Park trees, and in particular from overcrowding the Mill Island at the Whitehall end where the ducks—the park’s honoured guests—have their nests. It. is very curious to watth the agitated way in which the flocks of starlings are chivvied from tree to tree, until they abandon hope and fly off to the trees in Leicester Square. The ducks stay placidly on the water as though well aware all this noise is not aimed at them. SHOE-BLACKING 'SEASON. A shoeblack, who has for years been a landmark in the Strand, tells me that, the shoe-blacking season has officially opened with the arrival in London of the first Americans. sle would not be able to stay in business, he said, but for the Americans, whose patronage makes the summer months exceedingly profitable. He has “clients” who come I th him year after year, although they now know that they can have their shoes cleaned free of charge at their hotels. They are so accustomed to having their shoes polished in the New York shoe-shining parlours while on their feet that they prefer to pay a shoe-black in London than to-remember to “put their shoes out” at their hotels. During the rest of the year my shoeblack friend makes more money as an expert on racing than by shoe cleaning. ATHLETES AMONG FILM STARS. Thanks to the public-spirited generosity of Sir Harold Bowden, the new president of the British Olympic teams, it is certain that Britain will be'strongly represented at Los Angeles next year. Public assistance is certain, even in these hard times,, to be forthcoming to swell the fund, and in all events Britain will have adequate champions to meet the challenge of other nations. It is hardly necessary to state that Los Angeles is ( already making big preparations for its Olympiad visitors, ahd amongst other things is, I am told, building a special “village” for the visiting athletes, close to the huge stadium where the various events will be decided. Hollywood’s film stars take more than a sporting interest in this unique occasion.