LETTER FROM LONDON

Taranaki Daily News, 4 March 1933, Page 14 (Supplement)

LETTER FROM LONDON

TOPICS OF THE TIMES. BIG DECLINE TN INCOME TAX. ■ i (From Our Own Correspondent.) London, January 5, 1933. Budget prophecies based on existing Exchequer figures are valueless. It is the final quarter of the revenue year that counts, and present totals bear no relation to the ultimate ones. But common knowledge ominously supports the symptoms of a big decline in income tax. My information is that, even though tariff receipts double their present figure of £30,000,000, they will hardly do more than cover the slump in income tax. And it is not encouraging to tnose who hoped the National Ministry would, get through big economies, that expenditure is not down by quite £10,000,000. But if the taxpayer can hope for no relief next April, it is tolerably evident that income tax can never again be raised. That may be a melancholy satisfaction, but it seems about all we can derive. I suppose a macabre humour inspires the London newspapers to announce that there is “no rush” to pay January instalments. GOLD FETISH PASSING. Fog still surrounds a good deal of the South African political situation, but the fact that the Union appears to have detached itself,, from the gold standard will at least bring satisfaction to the minds of many in this country. The establishment of a really staunch sterling group of countries has been considerably hampered by the standing out of such an important member of the British Commonwealth. That the Government of the country has clung to gold has also not been to the interest of South African traders, who have not only been unable to compete with countries on the sterling basis, but have also had to pay additional taxation to provide subsidies on exports occasioned by the retention of gold currencies. As the greatest goldproducing country of the world, South Africa’s abandonment of the metallic standard of currency will harden the growing conviction that the gold fetish is almost at an end. AMERICA’S OPPORTUNITY. How great is America’s opportunity for making such a gesture as would stir the world is disclosed in the Budget estimates drawn up by President Hoover. Out of the total United States expenditure 43 per cent, is to go on the upkeep of the fighting services. America’s total estimate for military expenditure is £325,000,000. With that on the conscience, it is difficult to see how America can talk to Europe about laying aside arms. If America would pare her military expenditure to . the bone as we have done, she could reduce her national outlay sufficiently to compensate for the annulment of war debts. Such a gesture would indeed stir the world, and at the same time remove from it the greatest barrier to security—international independence. Fifteen months ago we set all political differences aside to cope with a great national emergency. Why cannot Mr. Roosevelt join with Mr. Hoover in making an American national effort to restore confidence, security and prosperity to the world? NON-PARTY HONOURS. From the six new peers created, it is possible to discern the. keynote of the New Year Honours List. It has been made as varied and impartial as possible to make recognition of all manner of public work, as distinct from the biassed party spirit of other times. It is typically a “national” list. In Sir Joseph Duveen, one of our greatest benefactors to art has been recognised. Sir Thomas Horder, as foreseen, has received the highest award that goes to the medical profession. The eminent soldier is honoured in Field-Marshal Sir George Milne, or “Uncle George,” as he is affectionately called in the Army. Sir Charles NallCain receives his barony as a benefactor and general organiser of charitable undertakings. Sir James Rennell Rodd is the distinguished veteran diplomat of the new group of peers; and, lastly, Sir Walter Runciman is the “Grand Old Man of Shipping,” the millionaire owner of cargo and tramp steamers, who ran away to sea as youngster and started life as a cabin boy. THE CHRISTIAN ERA. The Papal decree making 1933 a Holy Year in commemoration of the 19th centenary of the death of Christ may solve a doubtful Jfoint for devout Catholics, but will not dispose completely of the controversy amongst scholars jS to the precise date of the Crucifixion. There various authorities on this absorbingly is a difference of six years between interesting question of fact and history. The earliest date advanced is 27, the latest 33. but the Vatican has now given its verdict .for 33. That middle date, which seems most in accord with authentic tradition, is probably supported as well by the majority of scholarly experts. Nineteen hundred years is a prodigious period of mortal history, and those 19 centuries have witnessed a stupendous evolution in human society. It is possible that the latter create an illusion for many people of profound changes in human nature that have not really occurred. DUKE’S SOUDAN EXPEDITION. After a busy day’s shopping, the Duke of Gloucester set off on his rapid journey to the south and sunshine. The Soudan is not a far ci-y nowadays, and within a fortnight the Duke will be in close proximity to the big game he hopes to shoot, both with the rifle and the camera. The Soudan has a fauna almost as varied as that of the Tanganyika territory, and if the Duke pushes his expedition to the swampy regions of the south along the banks of the Nile and Bahr-el-Ghazal, he should have

good chances of including hippopotamus among the bag. Elephants are also abundant in the forests of Bahr-el-Gha-zal and Bahr-el-Jebel. Most of the sport, however, will be found in the vast prairie region west of the' Nile, which forms an intermediate zone between the desert of the north and the jungle of the south. On these steepes not only are lions, leopards, and their natural prey gazelles and antelopes —plentiful, but there are still sufficient numbers of giraffes to make them fair game for the sportsman’s bullet. SIR ERIC GEDDES’ CAREER. Sir Eric Geddes, who has just left London for an 8000 mile air trip, can boast one of the most remarkable records of public service. The war raised many men to high pinnacles of fame, but they generally distinguished themselves in one particular department. Not so Sir Eric Geddes, who started his official career by becoming Deputy-Director-General of Munitions, and thereafter successively filled posts which entitled him to wear not only the uniform of a major-general but of a vice-admiral. His connection with the army came with his appointment as Director-General of Transportation at G.H.Q., and he became a vice-admiral by virtue of his appointment as Controller of the Navy. _ After that he filled a succession of Ministerial appointments, including that df first Minister of Transport after the war. In those days it was a grandiose department, with many highly paid officials, and curiously enough it fell to Sir Eric Geddes later, as chairman of the “Axe” Committee, to recommend the abolition of this Ministry as a measure of economy. Since then the Transport Ministry has often been threatened but still persists. PETROL PROHIBITION. It is presumably stark necessity which has driven the Chilean Government to put an embargo upon the use of petrol. It is too anxious to maintain the value of its currency to allow the large outgoing required to make payment for foreign motor spirit, and, as Chile has a plentiful supply of charcoal, it has told its motorists 'that they must get a move on with that. It seems a quegr fuel for internal combustion engines, but by means of a somewhat uncouth retort apparatus, the charcoal can be converted into gas. There are all sorts of strange substitutes for petrol, and I once met a canny Scottish engineer who was running his car economically on moth-balls. Were the British Government to follow Chile’s example, and place a ban on petrol, the coal industry would be prosperous again within a year. The motive power is there, and the means of converting it to motor fuel are known. All that is required is for Necessity to come along and mother Invention. AMERICA AND OUR LAUREATE. Some admirers of Mr. John Masefield are wondering how the Poet Laureate may fare in America, and particularly how he will get on witn the reporters. But this is not Mr. Masefield’s first acquaintance with America by any means. In his very early days, after he finished his schooling on the Conway in Liverpool’s river, and drifted about the world, the present Poet Laureate was a bar tender in New York, and knows all about .American ways and manners. As a firm democrat, moreover, Mr. Masefield will avoid the psychological clashes that his predecessor in office, Dr. Bridges, encountered when he visited the States about eight years before his death. Naturally his whole being revolted from being interviewed in the hustling American manner, and he severely snubbed the pressmen. According the splash New York heading was “King’s Canary Won t Chirp!” PATRONS OF THE TURF. No one would suspect that the Duke of Portland has just celebrated his 75th birthday. He is every bit as well preserved as was the Duke of Connaught at the same age—and that is saying a good deal. The duke does not now come to London very frequently, but you see him occasionally in club-land, renewing acquaintances with old friends on the Turf. For the duke is still remembered as one of the finest patrons the racing world ever had. His reputation stood in Victorian and Edwardian days very much where the reputations of Lord Derby and Lord Astor stand to-day. If a horse belonging to one of these great owners were ever pulled we should begin to question the integrity of the Bank of England itself. Lord Astor goes a step further. His horses are always ridden all-out to win, but it is not commonly known that he refuses to permit his jockeys to use the whip. OVERHEARD AT THE CLUB. In one of the West End service clubs the other day I listened in to a lively discussion. A peppery little infantry Major, who held Brigadier-General rank during the War, was enlarging, with all the sweeping enthusiasm of the pukka Irish militaire, on the fact that, as he averred, 90 per cent. of. the British Divisions that stood the brunt of the Mons fighting were either Irish or Scottish. This statement was warmly challenged, and, moreover, the point was made that, many Englishmen were serving in 1914. even in Irish and Scottish regiments, But the pugnacious little Brigadier stuck to his guns, nailed his colours to the mast, and did all the other things characteristic of a genuine Die Hard. At last one daring Saxon interpolated: “Anyhow, whatever the Celtic element in the Mons retreat, the English element preponderated in the Victory advance! That broke up the sitting. MR. MAXTON’S MISTAKE. Mr. Maxton’s sympathy for the underdog is one of his most admirable characteristics, but it often leads him astray. He was a long way off the mark, for example, in the anxiety he showed that Indian prisoners should no longer be deported to the Andaman Isles. Most of the Indians who serve their sentence in those islands are feud murderers, and they are generally very well content to be given the amount of freedom they can enjoy outside prison walls but within

the confines of the islands., I have been in the islands mvself, and,. contrary to Mr. Maxton’s belief, the climate is not unhealthy, while the heat is not as as that of many parts of India. The only drawback to the Andamans is their aboriginal population, which a tenderhearted British administration is too humane to exterminate. These little people have a great liking for ,the metal number rings which the convicts are obliged to wear round their necks. As they are rather good marksmen with poisoned arrows, the prisoners find, it advisable not to stray beyond the military patrols. >, • UNCONQUERED EVEREST. The New Y'ear rings up the curtain on the Everest drama. Two expeditions are setting out from this country to attack that still unconquered Himalayan peak, one by air and the other on foot. It is hard to say which has the better chance of succeeding, and it is certain that neither is an odds-on adventure, is doubtful whether, even with the latest scientific aids, human beings can climb Everest to its summit. In the rarefied air of a peak nearly double Mont Blanc, towering 5} miles above the earth s highest platea,“whose-glaciers make the Alpine ones look like icicles, every 100yds. above a certain limit mean an h° ur s desperate struggle. And though airmen and balloonists have made far higher altitude records, nobody has ever flown amid such conditions of icy cold and furious gales. FLEET STREET TO HIMALAYAS. , Every member of both Everest expeditions, therefore, has had to undergo a most stringent medical test, and to be passed absolutely fit. Rowing is supposed to place a tremendous strain on the heart, as does really serious mountaineering, but Mr. Brocklebank, the famous- Cambridge stroke; has had no trouble in passing examination. He is a sub-editor on a financial newspaper in London, and climbing has always been his great hobby. He has done a lot of notable work in the Lake district and in Wales, and is as fit as possible. He is only distantly connected with the wellknown shipping family that gave its name to Liverpool’s Brocklebank dock. In one respect the Everest expedition on. foot resembles the University Boat Race. One of the dangers of boat-race training is frapped nerves amongst the members of an eight, and climbing at great heights tends to just the same symptoms. WHERE PITT LIVED. Efforts have so far failed, I understand, to save from demolition the old home at Putney of England s most famfamous Prime Minister. This is Bowling Green House, the fittings of which have already gone for old songs under the auctioneer’s hammer, and soon the bricks and mortar will be picked to pieces by housebreakers. William Pitt the younger dwelt here, and over the front door was a stone shield bearing his family coat of arms, surmounted by the royal crown. That relic brought, under the hammer, just £5, and a fire-bell from the back of the house, though it dated so far back as 1771, went for £2 7s 6d. Admittedly it is hard in hard times to buy up as national souvenirs all the homes of once illustrious people, but I confess to a pang of sorrow that the Putney house of the immortal Pitt should thus pass into sheer oblivion. We could do with another William Pitt junior at this epoch. BLACKHAM. Old-stagers remember J. M. Blackham, the greatest wicket-keeper Australia ever had and perhaps the best of. all time, who has died at the age of 77. He was “keeping” for the Australians against Gloucester some time in the 80’s of last century, when I was taken to see my first cricket match, as a very tiny | boy, on the Clifton College ground. I | remember him catching E. M. Grace, who I skied a ball from Ferris high above the wicket. E.M. did not wait to see Blackham make the ’ catch. He was half-way back to the pavilion by the time the ball reached the extended paws of that veritable “carpet bag.” In that match W.G. hit one ball clean over the College chapel. It was a very hot day, and, after he was out, ,W.G. came with.a huge

jug of water and tumbler to give thirsty Australian fielders a drink. One tall fellow, Spofforth, I think, emptied the remains of his tumble-• over W.G. Whereon, amidst Homeric laughter, W.G. retaliated by emptying the whole jug over him. SEA LIONS I have always had a soft spot for sealions. As a boy I liked the way 'they roared for dinner an hour or two before zero, and later in life, while marvelling at their conjuring tricks on the musichall stage, I admired their fielding in the slips when the keepers threw fish into their enclosure at the Zoo. There is an elderly sea-lion in Regent's Park now, with a huge voice and skilful hands, which never drops a fish on the coldest day, no matter how hard the “chance” afforded by the batting. Moreover, sea lions are obviously such modest animals, and react so appealingly to the least public acclamation. The Zoo artist practically “takes a call”, when an unusually marvellous catch arouses popular applause. But my affection is cemented now Captain Woodward tells us how his sea-lions helped the R.N. to locate submarines during the War, did it much better than scientific hydrophones, and took a pride in their' job. NEW ARMY UNIFORM. I had a brief bright and brotherly talk recently with a smart Guards sergeantmajor. The subject of our converse was the suggested new Army uniform, and my military friend voiced the unofficial but emphatic opinion of the Brigade of Guards with what politicians call “no uncertain sound.” ■He was eloquent enough about the web gaiters and plusfour trousers. His voice took on a firey crescendo, however, when he dilated on the non-polishable buttons. When he came to the open-neck hiker’s tunic I really thought he was going to break down. But, as he proved when he finally gave his views about the deerstalker hat, his powers of higher profanity were equal to the occasion. “If they want to put us in that rig,” said the gingermoustached S.M., flicking a dust spot from his sleeve, “I’m growing sidewhiskers and putting in for a job with the Ancient Order of Buffalos!” The rest was silence, and a rhythmic gurgla of canteen beer, '•