LETTER FROM LONDON

Taranaki Daily News, 2 September 1933, Page 14 (Supplement)

LETTER FROM LONDON

THE FOUR POWER PACT. RECEPTION IN BRITAIN. (From Our Own Correspondent.) London, July 20. The signature of the Four-power Pact has not been marked by any spontaneous outburst of joy here. We seem to have become rather blase about pacts, and one more or fewer does not make much difference. If the Mussolini-MacDonald formula meets its purpose and keeps the peace of Europe for ten years, it will be the greatest boon conceived in postwar years. The passage of another decade will presumably see us well out of the epoch of depression, and once that is gone the main cause of the nervousness that leads nations to arm themselves will have been removed. The whole question about the Four-Power Pact is, will it do what it is intended ? Nobody knows, but it is certainly doing two very important things in the right direction towards the maintenance of peace. It opens up new prospects of better relations between France and Italy, and it places a considerable barrier against German aggression in Austria. On the whole, the probability is that both Signor Mussolini and Mr. MacDonald will receive much greater merit for the effort in the future than they do to-day.

FAMILY DISSENTER.

The India Defence League, which has been organised by the opponents of the Government’s White Paper policy, is up and doing. Succinctly drafted pamplet’s setting forth the main objections and dangers of the Government’s proposals are being circulated, and the league’s trump card is a reprint of an article by Sir Michael O’Dwyer, in which he emphasised the huge preponderance of India’s 350,000,000 who are illiterate and unable to grasp the first principles of democratic control. The league’s president is Lord Sumner, and amongst its vice-presidents are Mr. Churchill, Lord Lloyd, and Field-Marshal Sir Claud Jacob. I observe, moreover, the name of Mr. Rudyard Kipling, Mr. Stanley Baldwin’s brother-in-law in the list. Evidently the Poet of Empire and the Barrack Room dissents from his own relative’s views about India. DRASTIC LAW AGAINST GUNMEN. There are parts of the world where it is a comfort to feel the hard form of a

six-shooter snuggling closely in one’s sleeve or hip-pocket, but they are not in these isles, and all law-abiding L" Britons will endorse the Government’s . determination to strengthen the law for a dealing with gunmen and armed bandits. Fourteen years’ penal servitude for endeavouring to resist arrest by means of a firearms will make burglars and their kin “ think twice before arming themselves ■ when they set out on a professional job. 9 A still better deterrent against the carry- \ ing of lethal weapons will probably be 3 found in the penalties ranging up to '< seven years for being found in possession “ of firearms. Z 3 REGIME OF MURDER. i • An Englishman from Central China • forecasts the downfall of the so-called 3 “National” Government. His report of 1 recent events differs strikingly from 3 orthodox versions. The British com- > munity and other foreigners are amazed ■ how implicitly officialdom, in London and at Geneva, accepts as gospel stories of ; injured innocence told by Chinese emissaries. The Chinese take no exception to Japan’s military activities, either ! in China proper or Manchuria so long as they are directed towards the over1 throw of the Nanking regime. Accus- ■ 1 tomed to the rough treatment of the 1 ' old Tuchuns, or military governors, the > 1 Chinese have found in their new rulers ! a terror surpassing anything before. The methods of Nanking are those of Chicago and Moscow, and the Kuomintang clique have kept themselves in power by the simple process of murder. Chinese who < show any sign of taking a lead against 1 the group in office are quietly “bumped 1 off” by a body of youths known as the c “Blue Shirts,” who carry out Chiang 1 Kai-shek’s behests. My informant tells me that in Hankow alone there were 1 eleven kidnappings during the month of t April, and the bodies of eight of the ® victims were subsequently found in 1! ditches outside the town. *

JAPAN’S REWARD. The most extraordinary part of the story, from our point of view, is my' informant’s assurance that the coming of the Japanese has brought a revival of hope to the Chinese. It is realised that Japan’s quarrel is with the Kuomintang and not with China, and that, with such a mighty Power against it, Nanking will not be able to stand for long. For this reason the Japanese are more popular among Chinese civilians than ever before. Even the foreign communities in the Treaty ports now look towards the Land of the Rising Sun as the only hope for order and safety. This viewpoint is entirely in conflict with what has gained acceptance by the League of Nations, but receives confirmation in statistics my informant was able to produce. So far from there being any boycott, Japan’s trade in China is booming. Customs returns for March and April show an increase in Japanese exports to the Yangtse Valley of 467 per cent. In the Canton region Japanese trade is even more flourishing, the increase in exports being up to 564 per cent. Even in the British colony of Hong Kong, Chinese traders have shown their approval of Japan to the extent of buying 167 per cent more of her goods during those months.

STRAIGHT TALK. ’ Will Mr. Lloyd George’s account of his talks with Count Metternich, some years before the war, help to disabuse some post-war theories about Germany ? L.G. has a most grim description of his efforts! at a specially arranged lunch, to show the German Ambassador that we did not in the least mind German commercial expansion, but objected only to her naval menace. L.G. pointed out that, if the German shipbuilding went on, and our people grew seriously alarmed about invasion, it would drive us to conscription. To this very reasonable argument, the curt reply of the German Ambassador was: “Do you think we should wait ?” Equally revealing is the ex-Kaiser’s marginal note to Metternich’s report on these talks: “Metternich should give that sort of fanatic a kick in the ” Hitlerism is certainly no new symptom in Germany. STUDENT DUELS. Herr Hitler has revived the German duelling system banned after the war. It obviously fits right into the Nazi gospel. The best account of this was written by Mark Twain. No personal enmity usually exists between the duellists, who belong to different university corps distinguished by the colour of their hats. Members of these duelling corps never fraternise with other corps, but fight them just as Oxford or Cambridge colleges play each other rugger. Keen two-edged swords without points are used, and no thrusting allowed. Duellists are well padded about the chest and sword-arm, and wear goggles, but faces arc left exposed, and these are the sole target of the duellists, who fight with outstretched arms and use wristflicks. As duelling scars are high- |

ly esteemed, students take elaborate pains to make any marks permanent. Some desperados improvise them with safety razor blades. . .

NEW TREATMENT FOR MALARIA. Sir Samuel Hoare’s announcement of the success of a new drug treatment in malaria cases will bring hope to many, not only in tropical lands, but in -our own country. There are plenty of people living in England who, having contracted this disease abroad,, find themselves unable to guard against relapse every time they get a slight chill. The new drug, aterin, is a German discovery, and is proving particularly effective in the treatment of relapse patients. Quinine, the old remedy, has serious disadvantages, the dose required to effect relief from malaria being sufficient to knock out most ordinary patients for two or three days. It is probably not generally known that there are plenty of malariacarrying mosquitos in this country, par-: ticularly in the South of England. The recent warm, wet weather has liberated quite a number of them, and they are actively operating in suburban London. Fortunately for the well-being of Londoners, however, they do not have, the opportunity of finding the malaria germ to carry, and are consequently comparatively harmless.

r CLAUSTROPHOBIA. s i A Harley Street specialist stresses the ’ need for special treatment of prisoners [ suffering from claustrophobia. He instances the late Mr. Horatio Bottom- ’ ley, who described in his Memoirs how ’ he suffered on being locked up within J the narrow compass of a cell. Obviously ’ the remedy is a complete remodelling ! of our prisons to equip , them all with 1 spacious rooms more on the lines of a West End luxury flat. We must, in fact, make our gaols fit for claustrophobjans. The late Mr. Bottomley often used a telephone cubicle, which is smaller than any cell, to communicate urgent advice to his broker or bookmaker, but ap- • patently the claustrophobic symptoms did not affect him on those occasions. After this advertisement of claustrophobia, we shall certainly have an epidemic of the complaint amongst Old Bailey habituals. The notion that the underworld does not read the papers is exceedingly naive. SIR JOHN ELLERMAN. It was Sir John Ellerman’s no doubt happy fate to come from his native Hull to London as a City clerk, and to end his days as reputedly the richest man in England. His death at Dieppe after a brief illness as the age of 71 will not only affect huge business interests but even the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Budget. Sir John’s income tax must have been a prodigious contribution. His estate may pay up to £10,000,000 in death duties. Besides his great shipping interests, Sir John was the biggest landowner in London, and at one time he was the principal shareholder in newspapers. His father was a German consular official at Hull, and left him a small sum of money wherewith to launch out on his future enormous deals. SETTLED OUT OF COURT. | Briefs have for some time been few and far between with most juniors at the bar. And a legal friend of mine complains that, even when a few do come along to his chambers, they are i mostly settled out of court, which makes ! all the difference, of course, to the barrister concerned. Some days ago, i however, when he reached his chambers, his clerk elately informed him a case had come along which must °f necessity ; go for full trial. He had been briefed i for the Crown in a murder charge. I “Oh,” replied the distruntled barrister 1 with grim sardonic humour, “You never ] can tell. The accused man will most <

likely die’on'me before he gets to his trial!” Next morning the newspapers announced that the man in question had indeed committed suicide in his cell. “So you see,” Commented my legal friend rather bitterly, “even my murder cases are settled out of court!” O.K. Tire role of amateur detective is seldom primrose strewn. A City man I know has just proved this. He is an alert and observant person, and takes life seriously. This week he called at his branch bank and asked portentously to see the manager. That worthy received him in his sanctum, and was getting ready to dodge the usual request for an overdraft when his caller, leaning well forward and speaking in an undertone, informed him that his premises were about to be burgled. Haggard inquiry by the manager elicited that his client had seen, on several recent occasions, obvious gangsters and thugs studying the bank and people who went in and out. One of the miscreants, wearing a slouch hat well over his eyes and with gunman written all over him, was even now outside. The manager crept to the door, had a quick look, and wiped his forehead. “That’s all right, Mr. he sighed, “that’s our special detective!”

AFTER DARK. I am told by an adventurous friend, who has put the matter to the test, that Whipsnade Zoo is a different place after dark. When “twilight drops her curtain and pins it with a star,” the animals at Whipsnade throw off their company manners'and react to the call of the wild. Camivori scent their prey on the night air, may be in odours wafted from a neighbouring zebra enclosure, and patrol with restless strides. Wolves form pack and practise blood-curdling chorus howls. But night brings from outside raiders who also respond to the call of the wild. Foxes climb easily the 9ft. steel fences, and seek the roosting Whipsnade turkeys. So regular are these visitants, despite the efforts of keepers, that the turkeys are changing their habits. Formerly notoriously early birds, they now refuse to quit their treeperches till well after sunrise.

BIG FIGHT FIASCO. Boxing enthusiasts are shaking mournful heads over the Doyle-Petersen fiasco. Probably £25,000 was paid, by the biggest crowd ever assembled at a boxing match in London, to watch a fight between the only two British heavyweights who really cut any ice. And. all they saw was three minutes’ rough house devoid of the least pugilistic interest. Perhaps the trouble nowadays is that “the game” is too highly commercialised. In the old days, when real champions fought for hours with bare fists for a few pounds, and there was no “thin end of the purse” for the loser, things were very different. The only redeeming feature about the present affair is that the referee’s ruling was carried nem con. There was not the faintest question about Petersen being hit low and often, and' I thought he comported himself with thorough sportsmanship. Petersen obviously wanted a fight.

LURE OF THE RING. The White City crowd for the fight was an amazing one. King Alfonso sat amongst the elite. There was a Smart Set contingent with any number of lipsticked beauties who were not conspicuously over-dressed. Famous actors, lawyers, doctors, painters, and literary people were there, with bookmakers, pugilists, a sprinkling ,of priests, City men, and a whole platoon of Irish Guards. Esprit de corps is a grand thing, but it surely reached its limit when it prompted his old Guards’ comrades to cheer the disqualified boxer to the echo

as he left the ring. So long as glove fights draw crowds 'like this, some ’of us will continue to. believe that the • League of Nations has an uphill. job. Relatively few of the at the Doyle-Petersen fiasco knew enough about “the noble art” to follow its finesse.--What drew the evening-dress crowd may not be very different from what filled the Roman circuses for a gladiatorial display. Human nature does not change much. ■3DQIHS Imagine inventing an electrical recorder for duplicate Bridge matches ! Thia elaborate affair enables enthusiastic Contract “fans” to follow the play without crowding the actual gladiators, out of their chairs. What joy the fans get out of duplicate Bridge is a mystery to me? I like a rubber of Contract, and played a form of that game before Mr. Culbertson was discovered.. But playing duplicate, to me, is about as interesting as the treadmill, and watching it far less thrilling than looking on at Patience. Most card players realise that Bridge, in any form, is a gamble in which luck is the main factor, however tempered by skill. Duplicate loses all the psychological elan of rubber Bridge. Even at rubber Bridge I would prefer a moderately good player as partner, who was a good holder, to the heavyweight duplicate champion of the world.