CURRENT LONDON TOPICS

Taranaki Daily News, 2 December 1933, Page 2 (Supplement)

CURRENT LONDON TOPICS

DISARMAMENT CONFERENCE GERMANY’S PETULANT SECESSION. FRENCH SUSPICION JUSTIFIED. (From Our Own Correspondent.) London, Oct. 19. Whether the great Powers that still remain in ■ the Disarmament Conference proceed to draw up a convention among themselves, or whether they decide to abandon the whole affair, there. will be no more actual reductions of arms for some time to come. That is one positive result of Germany’s petulant secession from the League of Nations, a result which for us at least may well prove to be of benefit. We alone of nations put our desire for peace into. definite reductions of our armed defences, and it is just as well that we have been given this blunt warning of the dangers we have been running into. Germany, by her action on Saturday, has done more in one day to justify France’s suspicions of her than all her friends in the course of years have been able to do to allay them. As a member of the League of Nations Germany had many sympathisers in her aspirations. How many of them will remain by her now ? It is a vital question, for on the answer will rest the future peace of the world. If she has isolated herself completely the world may well be more secure for civilisation than it has ever been since the Peace Treaty.

Fifty-fifty at the Show. According to all accounts, this year’s Motor Show at Olympia is the best ever. What struck me about it, when I went the rounds, was the fact that on this occasion the makers are bidding for both sexes on a sort of fifty-fifty basis. There have been years when it was the male motorist who was specially catered for with all sorts of formidable engine mechanism. On still more frequent occasions it was the ladies for whom the makers spread their particular lure in the shape of natty inside gadgets and de luxe fittings that appeal to the feminine heart. This year, so far as I could make out, the appeal is to both sexes and in both directions. The mechanical side of the 1933 car is emphasised, and so is the sumptuary side of the chassis and upholstery. Many a car bargain has been clinched, I was told in strict confidence, by a cute little dodge that captured the feminine fancy when the masculine judgment was still wavering. Shy and Dry.

It is unlikely London will see much of the Lindberghs during their visit to England. No encouragement will be forthcoming, so far as the famous American airman or his wife are concerned, to any attempt by Mayfair to lionise them or by Fleet-street to exploit them. Col. Lindbergh, though quite a pleasant personality, is extremely shy, devoted to mechanism, and absolutely out of his element in social functions. He neither smokes nor drinks, within the meaning of that phrase, and has staggered a cocktail pai-ty before now by sipping plain milk. Mrs. Lindbergh, a petite American with a soft southern accent, has got over the tragedy of her kidnapped baby boy better than was at one time feared. She wears riding breeches when flying with her husband, but does not disdain a small pair of mascot ear-rings too. Perhaps she docs not quite share her husband’s implicit faith in +he machine.

Kingsford Smith’s New Record. Sir Charles Kingsford Smith’s aspiration to achieve the distinction of being “the oldest living airman” does not prevent him from setting up other and more sensational records. By bringing Australia within a week’s flight from London he has knit the ties of Empire a wee bit closer, and has foreshadowed what will be the normal time of communications with the Antipodes in the near future. Sir Charles himself believes that regular passenger transport will be carried on at the pace he has set before sb very long. That well may be, but I imagine the shipping companies are not yet greatly perturbed by the swiftness of their rivals in the air. Though many passengers who have made long distance flights declare they never want to travel by sea again, the question of cost will keep the great majority of the world’s travellers to the surface of the ocean. The return journey by air between London and Cape Town for example costs upwards of £3OO. By sea, amid luxury, the return fare is £9O.

Cockney Seagulls. . Early last spring I quoted a rural friend, who predicted that we should have a fine dry summer. This prediction he made on the strength of the fact that crows were nesting high in the trees. I have now received from a City friend a sort of counterpart prophecy about the coming winter. This expert is convinced we are in for a remarkably hard cold winter this time, and he bases his opinion, not on the proverbial belief that a warm summer brings a cold winter, but on the London seagulls. These somewhat degenerate Cockney relations of those hardy birds whose cry deep-sea sailors say is that of drowned seamen are now crowding back to their London quarters much earlier than usual. They generally stay away in coastal places, or even rural ones,’ till November. That they are making for London in early October, my friend says, means that they smell hard weather coming. Crusade Against Slums.

Socialists attempt to deride Sir Hilton Young’s big housing push, but there is a distinct note of party chagrin in their cat-calls. The z Health, Minister’s proposals involve rehousing about a million slum dwellers within five years, effecting a clearance of over 200,000 houses, and affording work for at least 80,000 men. Laggard local authorities, who fall short of their duty, will be brought into line with progressive ones. Since the war, in spite of all the sweeping criticisms made against different Ministries, we have built two million homes in this country, and rehoused by so doing between eight and ten million people. Sir Hilton Young’s plans will cost nearly £100,000,000 in five years. This huge outlay will justify itself only if effective steps are taken to efface slum mentality as well as slum ’ dwellings. Otherwise the disease will be steadily recurrent. Prime Ministers Birthday.

Mr. McDonald’s 67th birthday is a reminder of what seems now the surprising fact that, when he was first electled to the House of Commons in 1906, he was still under forty. Before that he had made several unsuccessful attempts to get there, and he has had one serious gap in his Parliamentary service. Looking back, it seems as though he was as old then as he is now, the only manifest changes being an additional whiteness and curtailment of his locks. Even in the days when a certain untidiness was deemed a necessary mark of advanced political opinion, Mr. McDonald was well-groomed, and to-day, without being a dandy, he would be awarded high marks in any sartorial examination. His health, too, is better than either himself or his friends would have predicted a quarter of a century ago.

Unemployment Problem. Happily our unemployment problem is one that seems to be gradually solving itself in the best possible way by reviving industrial activity, - But there will always be a residuum of unemployed, as well as unemployables, and the Government’s Bill to deal with our National Insurance scheme next session will be a measure of the first importance. Those acquainted with the facts assert that there is still a good deal‘top much exploitation of the system by certain sections of the community and, if the drones were made to realise that “the dole” is not a form of inalienable national benefaction to the undeserving poor, there would be a lot more money available for the genuine people. The big question, however,-is how to lift the whole scheme above and out of party politics. That will not be best done, in the view of sound judges, by allowing the central Government to cut out local authorities, and constitute itself a centralised Father Christmas. Off the Embankment

It is really distressing to hear that the members of the Seven Seas Club are far unanimous about tile use to which the schooner “Friendship” should be put. This pleasantly-named craft hag been anchored, or moored, off the Embankment hard by Charing Cross for some time now. But apparently her former owners, who gave her the admirably punning name, have disposed of the vessel to the S.S.C., the members of which are past and present sailors engaged in the Merchant Service. It seems that some members regard the proposal to turn the schooner, under a new name, into a club house for the S.S.C. as rather outside the original scope of their institution. I should love to belong to that club, and to have a club address “off the Embankment.” Maybe the controversy will adjust itself, when the objectors see what snug quarters the old craft makes.

Edwin Booth Centenary. London is shortly going to . commemorate the centenary of Edwin Booth, and, though this famous actor’s brother, John Wilkes Booth, assassinated Abraham Lincoln, I hear that Americans, as well as distinguished English people, will take part in the celebrations. The actor Booth, who was a rival to the grent Kean himself, was bom on November 13, 1833, and played with immense artistry most of the big Shakespearian roles. He also built a theatre for himself. The U.S.A, tragedy caused his withdrawal from the footlights for some little time, but the playgoing public welcomed him back with enthusiasm even in those days. Edwin Booth was a tremendous Realist on the stage, and it is a tradition of the green room that to play opposite him in a role demanding a stage duel was to run imminent risk of getting hurt, so fiercely did he press the simulacrum of the fight.

Booby Trap. An almost dazzling display of academic learning has been made by one London journal on the subject of elephant booby traps. It arose from publication of a legend that certain ancient tribes, convinced that elephants lacked knee-joints, used to saw through trees to capture these cumbersome beasts, their theory being that, unable to lie down, the elephants leant against tree-bowls at night in order to snatch a little sleep. This arresting anecdote has led to editorial consultation with such eminent scholars as the librarian of the Bodleian and Professor Gilbert Murray. The former traces it back to the sixth book of the Hexahemeron of Ambrose of Milan, and the latter to an error over a passage in the Greek naturalist, Aelian. Schoolboys who have never even heard of these authorities, however, will recognise the story as another version of the ancient British manner of capturing deer narrated in Caesar’s Commentaries.

Tough. . , ' Time was when some up-river Thames landowners hired toughs to keep campers off their lawns. Jerome K. Jerome, in his “Three Men in a Boat,” gives a lively description of an encounter with one of these strapping fellows. Years ago I was on a Thames camping holiday, and one of our party was a powerfullybuilt amateur boxer, a gentle soul really, but with a ferocious physiognomy that entirely belied his real character. We were away foraging for supplies at a neighbouring village one evening,, somewhere above Goring, when a surly-look-ing fellow, obviously one of these hired bravos, aproached our camp. The arpatuer boxer was there alone, bending over the fire. The chucker-in addressed him belligerently, but, when our; ' man straightened up and looked at him, discretion proved the better part of hired valour.- The chucker-in vanished.'

Another Vanishing Landmark.' Old timers in Fleet-street, who .remember when journalists wore long hair and velvet jackets and could write the King’s English, have had another heart pang. Radford’s “Segar Shop” at the corper pf one of Fleet Street’s oldest and most literary alleyways, is to go. It is one of the oldest tobacco shops extant. Rumour alleges Dr. Johnson among its celebrated patrons—for snuff, of course—and logic demands that Boswell must have visited it. too. Much more certain is the tradition that Edmund Bourke and Charles Dickens were clients, and .-welcome cross-counter gossips. The shop is at least two centuries old as a tobacco emporium, and I was attached to it because of the fine romantic navy ,cut plugs and bags of Boer tobacco, its window always displayed. In fact one might parody King Henry V’s classic lament about Falstaff, and say one could hive better spared a better shop.

Britain’s Finance Champion. Sir Frederick Leith-Ross, who is leading in the case for Great Britain at Washington, is of mixed Scottish and Dutch descent, and of Balliol and Treasury training—antecedents which suggest, that he has both the tenacity and the skill required for his task. He has, besides, an engaging suavity which is proof against either cajolery or threats. His experience bn the Reparations Commission, and at The Hague Conferences, has given him an unrivalled knowledge of the European financial tangle. Sir Frederick is only 46, and his reputation as a hard worker is high, even-In a department of hard workers like the Treasury. American Debt Tactics.

Even eminent people reckoned right “in the know” are mystified by our American debt tactics. Widespread dismay, when Mr. Chamberlain’s last Budget brought no relief to struggling taxpayers, was silenced with a soothing: whisper. To reduce taxation, it 'zraa pointed out, on the eve' of asking America to reduce our war debts, would be not only foolish but almost indecent. Our experts are now in Washington, wrestling with hawk-eyed U.S.A, officials to that end. The day they arrived the 8.8. C. sent out to all stations a jubilant song about l our most flourishing financial outlook. A day or two later, at a City banquet, Mr. Chamberlain himself announced that a handsome Budget surplus was now assured “for debt reduction.” It beats wiser heads than - mine.