LETTER FROM LONDON

Taranaki Daily News, 19 August 1933, Page 14 (Supplement)

LETTER FROM LONDON

THE UNITED STATES ENIGMA. STABLE CURRENCY NEEDED. (From Our Own Correspondent.) London, July All the city experts I meet ai;e blankly puzzled by the U.S.A, attitude at the Economic Conference. That political causes have affected President Roosevelt's judgment is assumed, but it seems absurd that, any explanation of that sort should be advanced to account for one fact. President Roosevelt wants, as the first step towards economic recovery, to raise prices. What intelligent business people want to know is how that can by any conceivable chance be done until currency has been stabilised. Tire City view is foat, until the latter has been achieved, neither tariff reductions nor price raising can be of tire slightest avail. If President Roosevelt’s attitude is really due to his Middle. West supporters, and their prejudice against stabilisation, then Dr. Woodrow Wilson’s view about American democracy s abject ignorance was not exaggerated. CITY AND THE CONFERENCE. An astute City man, with whom I dis 1 - cussed last night the prospects of the Economic Conference, was in unexpected mood. He thinks that the United States will not listen to any proposal for stabilisation until that country has carried out a much-needed policy of domestic inflation. Most of the great industrial concerns there are hopelessly overloaded by debenture debt, to pay foe interest on which is difficult in prosperous times and impossible in lean times, and until that burden is lightened nothing is likely to be done. Incidentally, my friend was confident that Holland will resist foe strong and obvious temptations to abandon foe gold- standard.

GOVERNMENT AND INDIAN POLICY.

The ribald suggestion that . Mr. Baldwin would be quaking while he sat i P the Friend’s Meeting House has been given the lie most handsomely, Mr. Baldwin’s leadership of the Conservative Party is more undispupted than everNot only foe ballot majority of 482, but also the acclamation with, which he was received, settled - that point most satisfactorily, The minority vote of 356, however,' does show that foe Conservative Party has shoals ahead in the matter of Indian policy. Opinion within the party may veer one way or another during the next few months, but it is unlikely to move so unfavourably against the present official attitude as to threaten the disruption of the National Government'’when Indian matters come to foe legislation stage. Eight to three is roughly the proportion of foe vote of confidence, but in foe House of Commons I find that it is generally believed that the dissentients form an even smaller proportion within the party. H therefore, be seen that even should their numbers be augmented to some extent before foe autumn, the Government will still have plenty of Conservatives at its back to prevent any chance of its being forced into dissolution. HONOURS EVEN. There will only be a very few of the most crusty shellback Tories who will not be glad that an amende honorable has been arrived at between ourselves and Soviet Russia. The rights of our case are patent that we can well afford to allow the Soviet authorities what little saving of prestige in the eyes of their proletariat they will gain through the settlement of the disputeWhat we wanted was to get our citizens out of Russian prisons, and get adequate security for other Britons whom business duties may take to Russia. We have got both, for foe eagerness with which foe Soviet has welcomed the settlement is sufficient proof that care will be taken against any action that would incur another embargo. That is better than any documentary guarantee, and consequently no .one here need feel any surprise foat Sir John Simon did not insist upon one. LABOUR’S G-O.M. Seldom have Labour organisations put forward a proposal that will meet with such unanimous approval, both within and outside their own ranks, as that of giving expression of their regard to Mr. Lansbury. Mr. Lansbury has always won the esteem of everybody who knows him personally, As first Commissioner of Works in foe Labour Government, he gained for himself widespread popularity as foe founder of London’s Lido, and the sponsor of foe people's amusements and pleasures. In the present Parliament, however, he has gone much farther to earn lasting fame. When foe debacle of foe last election was known, there were many, who laughed at foe prospect of “Old George” as leader of his Majesty’s Opposition. It was an invidious task, and one Mr, Lansbury took upon himself with obvious reluctance, but it is to be doubted ..whether any other Socialist ex-Minister could have acquitted himself so. well. His absolute sincerity, love of fair play, and whole-hearted support for the cause of the “under dog” have invested him with a dignity which no amount of eloquence or skill in parliamentary debating could have brought him. It is a pity he so often imagines people to be jeering at his ideals when they are only laughing at the quaint way he expresses, them. UP AGAINST IT. The R.A-F. pageant has not been lucky this year. First and foremost, it was ruined by the wet weather. I think this is the first year it has not been favoured by a baking summer day. The crowd soon found that, of all open-air shows, an air display most of all requires good weather conditions. Nobody can look upwards into drenching rain. But that was not all. Some extreme pacifists, who apparently control a neighbouring locality to Hendon, banned the R.A.F. posters in its area as a protest against the “militarism” of the pageant. And now the usual Labour M-P. lias been put to ask in the House of Commons how much the show cost. That it is in aid of service charities no doubt renders it additionally objectionable to this class of mentality. But how strangely the Socialist attitude to such shows, which the public revels in, contrasts with the Socialist platform subservicieiice to democracy. TRANSPARENT HISTORY. Four candidates of English history find translucent expression at the exhibition just staged in the Vintners’ Hall in London. It is an exhibition of wine glasses, and the style and delicacy of the craftmanship connote the habits of the- changing generations who used them to drain “the purple joy.” Amongst foe exhibits is. a. Glamis Lion cup, lent by the Duchess of York’s father. The Elizabethan glass challenges compare with any, and seems somehow to typify the spacious days of gentleman-buc-caneering. Prince Edward Stuart’s quaich, of an unusual model, is one romantic item in the collection. But the exhibition is perhaps of more interest to the psychologist than to the connoisseur of precious glass. It is fascinating to speculate what once fair or daring fingers clasped those elegant aridslender stems, and v/hat lips quaffed

"beaded bubbles winking at foe brim” in days long since. PINCHED BY A PAGEAN?. Greenwich is justifiably proud of its pageant, and its tremendous popular as well as striking artistic success. It is prophesied that the producer will some day, probably soon, make hjs name as a film impressario. But whilst Greenwich rejoices and is exceedingly glad, Blackheath, a neighbouring township, is wailing and gnashing its teeth. This is not a case of mere local rivalry. Blackheath adfnires the Greenwich pageant, and all Blackheath has gone at least once to see it. But that is just where the trouble comes in. All Blackheath shopkeepers, especially in the poorer parts of the locality, declare that the pageant has sent their, weekly takings down to the lowest point ever remembered. This is true even of butchers and grocers. People have actually saved on fo&d in order to see the pageant. CHU CHIN CHOW. We are to have an ambitious film version of Chu Chin Chow. That amazingly popular stage production, which so exactly filled the aching void of its particular epoch; had a record run at His Majejsty’s Theatre during the war. It was going strong well before the Somme, and was still running long after the Armistice. Men serving on the old western front, to whom leave came only once a. year at most, used to talk of seeing Chu Chin Chow again next time in Blighty, For many it must have been almost their last memories of London 1 and home. How jt will succeed as a film ; is a very interesting problem. Will the film recapture the stage rapture, or was ■ Chu Chin Chow just a wartime anodyne ? | That British studios are tackling such a ; thing, on adequate lines, argues that our ' film industry has at last lost its post- ; war inferiority complex. ‘ INVADERS. | Golfers and tennis players are by no ( means foe only American .invaders now in London. There is a small army of American collectors bivouaced at our I best hotels. They are interested not at j all in golf or tennis, but are concentrating on the July auction sales. Amongst the treasures to be auctioned this time are the Rosebery library, with its first, Shakespeare folios, the Huth copy of the authorised Bible, and other : gems. There should be some exciting struggles for these coveted things when they put up, and we shall see how far America's, economic slump has hit the 1 high bidders from across the Atlantic. ; Hopes are entertained here that at least

some of the Rosebery relics may be kept 1 hr this country. But there ■will be some hard fighting if that is to be achieved. These American auction fans look fierce, and their cheque books bulge like auto* matics. HANDED OVER. Bast Saturday the L.C.C. trams were, | lock, stock, and barrel, handed over to the new London Transport Board. The L.C.C. Highways is not tak* iirg this valedictory gesture without qualm. The L.C.C. trams are not to be allowed “to float upon their watery bier unwept.” A brief but pregnant synopsis has been drawn up, and duly circulated,, giving the short and simple annals of the London* tranis since then inception not quite half-a-century ago. If they have never been a paying concern, they have done yeoman service to the travelling Cockney public, espcc- • ially of the bright, fierce and fickle southern suburbs. The yearly passenger roll has grown from 169,000,000 to 700,000,000. The staff of thirteen thousand connotes a wages bill of £2,500,000. I wonder will the L.T.B. keep up the L.C.C.’s prodigal twopence-any-distance mid-day regime ? ET.TU BRUTE I It seems that we must now include the British oyster amongst the battle casualties of the Great War. Nearly 70 per cent, of our beautiful and unrivalled Thames oysters, as advertised by no less a person than Julius Caesar himself, have been destroyed by the reckless dumping in the Thames estuary ■ of buckshee high explosive and poison gas for which the owners had no further immediate use. Apart from the : actual casualties, the tragic fact is that i even the survivors are so anaemic that i they may be unequal to recruiting ' themselves back to establishment again. J It is recorded that Colchester, which ! formerly turned out over 3,000,000 oysters in a season, last year totalled less than. 1200,000. I wonder whether it is true I that all the damage is done by war [ dumpage, and not by oil refuse ? I RIBBONS. I i Sixty-eight different Governments have ’ contributed to the collection, now being shown at the Spink’s Gallery, of the world’s ribbon decorations. It is claimed, probably with perfect truth, that the display is unique.’ If includes practically ■ every known ribbon attached to the medals and orders of all nations. The work of getting together this fascinating collection has been undertaken, ■ at i the instance of the Foreign Office 1 ; hear, by Capt. Arthur. Jocelyn. It has I taken twenty years to complete, One

I French military ribbon atone took fifteen years to track down and secure foe only existing specimen. The collector is publishing a book on his work in de luxe form, at £75 a copy. _What impresses me jibout the cpUection is the sheer impossibility of anyone memorising even a small section of foe decorations. King Edward came as near it as anybody could. CECIL RHODES FILM. We are to have a film of Cecil Rhodes, and it will be entitled “The Man who was Africa." Film biography is very much in favour just now, but some recent ventures have been strongly criticised as sacrificing foe eternal verities, and sometimes foe simple dignities, to box office appeal. The Cecil Rhodes film, however, so the producers assert, will be as accurate as historical research, patiently conducted during many months at foe British Museum, cap possibly make it with duo regard to the, dramatic needs of suburban cinema fans. Wc are to have Rhodes as a diamond master, the Jameson Raid, and the Matabele Rising, all apparently capable of being made most exciting episodes on foe screen. Whether, Cecil Rhodes would have liked the notion of being filmed is another matter- X feel pretty certain he might, at any rate, have kicked at being scenarioed by an American. EVEN THE RtvER. It seems fated that the klaxon horn shall silence for ever the pipes of Fan. Motorists nowadays penetrate into most ancient Edens. The most inaccessible rustic haunts are being invaded by brandnew tar-topped motor roads, and it is a rare, and happy Arcady which is so remote from one of these that no raucous sounds of vulgar mechanism echo through. But now the deadly march of mechanised progress is attacking even the Thames. Speed boats are roaring and grunting atong its quietest reachas, and the speed-boaters demand foat the river, like the roads, shall be plainly and thickly plastered with signposts, so that those who rush may read. I can' understand foe craving for speed on those hideous new roads, but what is foe mental outfit of the river hogs who want to scorch through fairyland? a more abject vandalism than this never bared its septic fangs. ZOO UPLIFT. At the London Zoo they are well abreast of foe post-War times. Not content with late Thursday night “sittings every week, Saturday is also to be a day of extended hours. Visitors seem

to appreciate this boon, and, indeed to j dine at the Zoo, at an adequate dis- ■ lance from the aroma of the carpivori, whilst listening to good orchestral music, with thousands of glow-worms f° r torches on the grass besides the ordinary electric light, is quite a pleasant entertainment. But if the crowds like these late houi-s, I am wondering how th? orthodox zoological residents and inmates appreciate such night club symptoms. It must surely be annoying to birds who live well up to the early worm precept, and most nervy for the restless insomniacs in the monkey house. The big game in the lion house, however, treat the thing with yawping indifference. THOSE BOATERS. The enterprising propagandists responsible for booming the straw boater have’ ' omitted one cardinal precaution. They , have not “squared” the clerk of the i weather. Cold days and damp ones are • not conducive to a revolution from soft- . felts to hard strays. Though the Prince I of Wales has good-naturedly consented ■. to wear a straw boater on several pub- . lie occasions, and even the kennel boys at the dog tracks have been ingeniously : furnished with them, as well as the wax ; models in hatters’ shop windows, I do ' not see more than a thin sprinkling on ■ view in the London streets. I hav« every sympathy with the straw hat trade, but I greatly fear that the boater has missed the boat. It has allowed 1 the cheap soft-felt to become thoroughi ly dug in, if one may speak in metaI phor of this kind about headwear. Only ■ one class of the community has remained true to the traw boater. The meat ; salesmen at Smithfield have never dis- : carded it as part of their daily business . uniform.