LETTER FROM LONDON

Taranaki Daily News, 16 April 1932, Page 14 (Supplement)

LETTER FROM LONDON

NEWS FROM THE HOMELAND.

IRISH POLITICS.

(From Our London Correspondent). London, February 25.

'Some caustic one said in the old days that England should give home rule to Ireland, 'but retain the cinema rights. Grim point is imparted to that quip by 'Mr. de Valera’s success in the Free State elections. As much as anything, this is probably due to the Irishman’s traditional “agin the Government.” Mr. Cosgrave had a long run, and his firm rule grievously disillusioned all those compatriots who expected under the treaty a happy-go-lucky administration, especially in the matter of payment of taxes. Mr. de Valera’s potentialities for mischief are severely limited by two facts —dependence on the Labour group for his majority and the economic effect of putting Ireland outside tariff preference by any cutting of the Imperial painter. He is already roaring rather in the sucking dove manner. He realises that now the Republicans are the Government, racial predilection is “agin” them too. The acid deflator of political currency is responsibility.

DANGER.

It will 'be indeed a tragic joke if our ardent pacifists succeed in involving us in another disastrous war. Incredible as that may seem, it is unhappily not beyond the bounds of probability. Great pressure is “being brought on the National Ministry, from both sides of the Atlantic though with very different objects, to get us to urge the League of Nations into intervention in the Far East. Those influences include American commercial interests working astutely through Washington, which is believed to have a social “pull” on Downing Street, and all those earnest warabolitionists whose hopes are centred on Geneva. The latter believe if Japan is not stopped now the bottom will drop right out of the League of Nations,

FATAL DELUSION.

The fatal delusion of the well-meaning pacifists is that Genova can intervene in the 'Far East without actually resorting to arms. 'They are urging an economic blockade of Japan to force her to stop fighting. How can an economic blockade ’be made effective without the backing of a naval blockade, and how long will Japan consent to regard a naval blockade, in which the British Navy would have to play the leading role, as otherwise than the act of war it actually would be ? And what is likely to happen when our warships, as they would have to do, hold up and search neutral shipping on the high seas? It is idle to blink the facts. Pacifists are inviting another “war to end war.” The worst of it is that they may get it.

SOLICITUDE.

Since his eye operation in the nursing home, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald has been Overwhelmed with urgent inquiries. I

question whether, in anything like similar circumstances, any other Minister of the Crown has ever been an object of such extraordinary solicitude. And it comes from the most unexpected quarters, too. The more an M.P. differs from the Prime Minister’s accredited views, particularly on tariffs, the more urgently insistent he is that Mr. MacDonald ought to take a prolonged holiday to ensure complete convalescence. A sea trip is the favoured remedy, only Jamaica is not far enough. A trip to the Antipodes would be more certain to put him right. I do not know whether a sense of humour is Mr. MacDonald's long suit, but he has abundant opportunity just now for indulging in a quiet laugh.

GR'ANDPA DANSBURY.

Mr. George Dansbury, affectionately known to his political friends and foes as Grandpa Dansbury, was 73 last Sunday. He kept the festival in his 'beloved East End. It is hard to say w’hich was the predominant sensation in Grandpa Dansbury’s emotional bosom when, a few months ago, the contortions of political destiny made him Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons. It was a terrific surprise, and a huge embarrassment. Because Grandpa Dansbury never dreamt of filling such a role, and its official responsibilities arc a great trial. They cramp his style terribly. He likes to let himself go, bubbling up with effervescent passion that knows no malice. In the Middle Ages Mr. Dansbury would have been poleaxed at dawn. These times he is invited out to tea.

CONTRABAND.

Even Free Traders are ready to admit the new import duties will have the effect of stimulating one very old-estab-lished British industry—smuggling. Members of Parliament are eager to know what steps the Government proposes to take to strengthen the coast-

guard service to meet the expected increase in contraband trade. Major Walter Elliot, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, states that the possibility of Such illicit activities is to receive due consideration. At present the customs and excise service and the coastguard service arc not under the same Government departments, the former coming under the Treasury, the latter under the Board of Trade. It is thought in many quarters some re-arrangement will have to be made to meet new conditions. The coastguardsmen, so familiar at the seaside, use their telescopes more to keep a watch on the safety of passing shipping than to spot the entry of the smuggler. That fact has been taken so much advantage of by rumrunning gentry in recent years that the latter will be much disgruntled if they find greater vigilance is put upon their ' movements.

WHITEHALL NEXT?

London’ ratepayers hear with mixed feelings that the L.C.C. has just acquired a new toy. This is a robot machine that weighs a hundredweight, am. elatedly signs cheques. It signs them at the rate of 1000 an hour. This sort of mechanism seems to me, in an epoch of most urgent economy, to strike rather a discordant note. It is lucky its weight and size' militate against the cheque-robot as an item of domestic equipment. Otherwise those extravagant wives, for whom Mr. Justice McCardic has such tender regard, might fairly run amuck at the winter sales. But it is odds on that, the L.C.C. having set the pace, Whitehall will promptly follow suit. A reliable robot that can reel out 1000 cheques an hour mi,st, in the view of jaded Treasury officials, fill that long felt want.

•WHOSE STRONG ARM?

When the Dartmoor prisnfi mutiny occurred, the natural comment made by most people was that, whatever happened, the loyal convicts must bo pro- • tected from reprisal's by the desperadoes. This is just what has not been done. Apparently a loyal convict, who refused to join in the mutiny conspiracjb has been shockingly maltreated by two\ ruffians, who kicked his teeth out.’ It may be difficult to safeguard such an occurrence as this, but it was vitally important to do so. Prison discipline wall never survive any impression, amongst the inmates, that the arm of

the law is less powerful than the boots of hooligans. Dartmoor presents (Scotland Yard’s most pressing problem in a nutshell. Which is the stronger, the truncheon of the police or the automatic of the car bandits? WATERLOO 'BRIDGE. The new Waterloo Bridge, designed by the famous architect, who planned Liverpool Cathedral, will be handsomer than the old, and take double the traffic. The £1,295,000 cost will foe borne three-fifths by the Treasury and twofifths by London. Factious opposition from highbrows and sentimentalists has delayed 10 years a work that will take only five to complete. To have made the old bridge safe would have cost nearly as much as building a new one. The bridge, which is only just over a century old, commemorates Waterloo only by a commercial after-thought, and is beautiful only by comparison with uglier ones near it. Its best vista is seen at night, when Thames mists veil its pale lemon lamps, and some hint of mysterious river romance haunts its tall arches. The newness of the Gilbert Scott bridge is a thing Time will cure.

TURNING THE CURRENCY TABLE'S.

I am told that more business is now being done by Imperial Airways than formerly with passengers from the Riviera and the Mediterranean. Numbers of people living in Southern Europe are availing. themselves of air facilities, which now bring the Riviera within seven hours of Piccadilly Circus, to come to London on shopping excursions. This tendency is mainly encouraged by the existing currency inequalities. Whereas in years gone by, but not very distant, we used to exult in the pur-

chasing power of our English money in Paris, Rome, or Cannes, the French and Italians are now discovering a very exhilarating reverse process with the franc or lira in London. Quite a big attraction of the Riviera air express, however, is less sordid. From the plane’s windows passengers get a breath-bind-ing view of the Alps.

ON THE STREETS. There is tragic evidence in London that times are hard for many kinds of entertainers. West End and suburban theatre and cinema queues are now beguiled by a variety of street performers, many of whom have obviously seen far better days, and more attentive audiences. Some of the street vocalists are palpably concert singers of training and quality. But tho vocalists do not stand alone. There are conjurers, mimics, paper tearers, athletes, musicians, and strong men “working the street queue” nowadays in London. In fact, it is often quite conceivable that a theatre queue, paying nothing but a few coppers showered into a hat, may really get a far better “show” outside in the street than inside in the theatre.

OLD ETONIANS. Not being an Old Etonian, I cannot say how those privileged persons relish some recent manifestations. The latest is a wrestler who challenges the world at catch-as-catch-can, and gives public exhibitions of his prowess. He claims, no doubt correctly, to be an Old Etonian, and wears a tight-fitting mask over the whole of his face, the nose and chin alone protruding, in order to conceal his real identity. Evon this is not so bad, from the Old Etonian point of view, as the cocktail-mixer, formerly employed in a West End resort, who sported an Eton necktie. The limit is the ingenious and successful adventurer, who proclaims himself an Old Etonian and wears the school colours, and sells lucky mascots on racecourses and in the streets. That Old Etonian is reputed to be making £l5O a year at the business.

ATLANTIC AIR MAIL?

There is no reasonable doubt that some day, we shall have a Transatlantic

air mail in full swing, and think little enough about it, except perhaps to grouse a bit when there is a slight delay in the deliveries. But whether that day is yet arrived may be a matter of some controversy. Flying experts claim that it can be done quite easily, and point with pride to the fact that last year British aeroplanes flew nearly two million miles with over 30,000 passengers and more than a million-and-a-half pounds of mails without one mishap. However, things have reached a stage when the practical possibilities of an Atlantic mail service by air are being seriously discussed. It may even be started next summer as a joint AngloFrench enterprise, with the Azores and Bermuda as what American sport fans would call “bases.” OCTOGENARIAN FEER. Tile Marquis of Huntly, who announces his return from Cairo at the end of next month,-will, by that time, hav© celebrated his 85th birthday, which falls on March 5. But no one looking at him would guess his age. Over 6ft. tall, and still as erect as a Guards subaltern, he is seen at his best when wearing the kilt as head of the Clan Gordon. Lord Huntly succeeded to the title in 1863, so he must be one of the oldest members of the House of Lords, in which he sits as Baron Meldrum—a mushroom title oi 1815 compared with his earldom of Huntly, which dates from before 1450. Formerly he had extensive estates on Doeside, but he now owns nothing there except Aboyne Castle, and spends most of his time at Orton-Longueville, near Peterborough. Though never an active politician, he takes a real' interest in public affairs, and has just published a pamphlet to show that he was the first to suggest the formation of a National Government to meet the crisis of last autumn. THE 'WASTING NEEDLE. i It is a long time since some eminent

scientist broke the sensational news on the Dean and Chapter that Westminster, Abbey was slowly turning into Epsom salts. So far as mere laymen may observe, that remarkable process is still no more than partially perfected. No Londoner is likely to be tempted to cure

£ his rheumatism with a pinch of the'A’bi bey in his morning glass of hot water. - ‘So we may take heart when another ex--1 pert assures us that the corroding Cocktj ney air is actually eating away Cleo- : patra’s Needle on the Embankment. > That the ‘announcement has synchronis- ; ed with the decision of Sir James Sex- ■ ton, M.P., to retire’ from Parliament at the rfext elections is. pure coincidence,’ , though Sir James was once afloat with the Needle on a derelict in the Bay. Other expert advice, however, argues

that the Needle'is wasting no more in London than it would have done by the Nile. OLYMPIC CHAMPIONS. All arrangements for the. next Olympiad, to bo held in August at Dos Angeles, have now been worked out. It is certain that most up-to-date accommodation will await all the athletes Who compete in the games, and the British contingents are to dwell together in one building specially erected. Our athletic authorities believe we shall have excelTent teams to represent us in every event that is on the programme of the games. A new distinctive badge has beten adopted for -Britain’s athletic delegates, consisting of a Union Jack surrounded by a tricolour ring. We shall, of course, have to face a considerable climatic handicap. Los Angeles in August is not quite the same thing, from an athletic' point of view, as Stamford Bridge, Dondon, FORGOTTEN GLORIES. Old playgoers, whose memories carry them back thirty or forty years, lament the passing of the St. James’ Theatre. The housebreaker will soon be at work on the old playhouse, though not with a (

view to turning it into a cinema. It is too near Pall Mall and St. James’ Palace for that. In the nineties a firs! night at the James’, under Georg© Alex, ander, was one of the social occasions oi tlie season. It took rank with a firsf night at the Lyceum under Irving, at the Haymarket under Harrison and Maude, or at the Savoy when Gilbert and Sullivan were there. No one would hav« dreamed of turning up at the St. James’ in anything but full evening dress. The old theatre may be said to have started the.vogue of setting fashions from the stage. Lord Alexander, whose good baste in dress is the by-word in society even to-day, has a good deal to do with this. George. Alexander himself was the Owen Nares of his day. And it was at the St. James’ that some of the most bril« liant of the Oscar Wilde’s plays were produced.

EDGAR WALLACE. The tragically sudden death of Mr. Edgar Wallace is a real blow to innumerable, old friends. But little hop© was entertained when it ’ was known that the famous novelist-playwright had developed double pneumonia following, ’flu. Old soldiers are proverbially tough, and Edgar Wallace was a pukka-infan-tryman before he exchanged into the R.A.M.C., and later became a war correspondent, but he was 56, and not of the build to withstand this sort Of attack. A workhouse orphan adopted by a railway porter, and brought up by the railway porter’s wife, who earned, part of their income at a washtub, Edgar Wallace. never forgets those humble days, or allowed the brilliant success that he won in middle age to give him the least affectation or- side. His generosity was princely. He must have made'a huge income during recent years, when he was a best seller as well as a best player, but he gave away with both hands and sometimes said he hoped he would know poverty again before he died. His was the spirit of real adventure, and never was there a more debonair’ Bohemian.