CURRENT LONDON TOPICS

Taranaki Daily News, 10 February 1934, Page 14 (Supplement)

CURRENT LONDON TOPICS

BIRITI3H POIHIIJAI Ill'll* CONHDI'INI'W OF NATIONALIJITIt COULD FACE I IllltlHlttA L ELW "I‘IOM (ll’min Our Own Cm 1 > Lniidnn, t-lnv. Parly poliliidaria raaemliln Urn 11010 bona in iinll.lier Inmiihiti H'<r folgnll,lllg nnyllilug. They ru« now nrrl/ilniliig, Soclallwls anil < ,’oriatu vnl.l dlnliUKln alike, Ilin Govern meld"# rmluner'l byelection major!llea proof punitive that feeling in Ilin counliy in r.ot dnad ugajpfit the National group. How any aanaHd* l human being coulil pofl/slbly «xp«et that electoral feeling would romaln id, tlm same level now tin whan the general election took, place, and tlio country saved itself by swamping the fiochdlatrt by the biggest electoral majority ever recorded, It Is really hard to Imagine. It would bo as rational to expect a prime donna to be always on her top note. Ministers realise this, if their critics pretend not to, and are quite confident that, if it camo to another general election on the existing Issues, their majority in the House of Commons would not bo appreciably smaller than it Is now.

Sample ? Students of modem democratic tendencies may find food for furious thought in Newfoundland’s example. According to the unanimous report of Lord Amulree’s Royal Commission the affairs of our oldest colony have been brought “by greed, graft and corruption” to such a pitch of insolvency that it needs “a rest from party politics,” and had best be controlled from London by Whitehall experts. This ignominous abdication, sugared by a grant in aid at the expense of the British taxpayer, Newfoundland may be constrained to accept. Though precipitated by the economic blizzard, the crisis is, the Royal Commission tells us, due to “the political abuses of a generation.” Newfoundland has been “exploited for personal and party ends.” This spectacle of democracy at the double-cross roads, some may hold, has an urgent moral that comes right home to roost. Does it explain why some people are so eager to get back to party politics here too ? True Friend.

The letters of the Earl of Oxford and Asquith to Mrs. Harrison are quite the talk of the day. Close as was the friendship subsisting between them, it is, nevertheless, a little difficult to understand the copious correspondence which the late Prime Minister maintained with the lady who has now published his letters. One who knew him well expressed the view to me to-day that Asquith chose this method of putting on record his fleeting thoughts on many subjects well knowing that the letters would be carefully preserved. Certain it is that he did not hesitate to ask for their production and to make use of them in his “Memories and Reflections.” He found in Mrs. Harrison one who was essentially a “good listener.” She was always sympathetic and visited him regularly during his last illness to pead to him at his bedside. Many of the letters were written from Downing Street, others from the front berich in the House of Commons at a time when the late Prime Minister was immersed in the conduct of the war, and might well find it a positive relief to unburden his soul to one whom he knew to be a true friend. Mr. Churchill’s Birthday.

At what precise stage does a middleaged man become an bld one ? Some people might say at sixty, a date on the human highway which has the same ominous aura that Mr. Hilaire Belloc attributes to the tenth milestone from Rome in the days of the legionaries. Yet this week Mr. Churchill, but yesterday reckoned a perhaps. too sprightly youngster, keeps his sixtieth birthday. It seems absurd to count Winston among the elder statesmen, and certainly he does not look it, though his life has been more compact with high adventure than that of any other distinguished contemporary. He has fought in more wars than most beribboned Generals, been in more Cabinets than most white-haired Privy Councillors. He was an M.P. at 26, a Minister at-32, and has held nine different Cabinet posts. To-day it would puzzle most people to cast his horoscope, dr even to say whether politics or literature will be his lasting memorial. Some Vista.

Winston’s memories include fighting on the' North West Frontier, in the Sudan, in Cuba, in South Africa, on the Western Front. He has not forgotten the thrill of his lone ride over the desert to join Kitchener on the eve of Omdurman, nor charging, a civilian with a whip, into the Dervish hosts with the Death or Glory Lancers. He heard Death whistle m his ear down the veldt railway cutting, as the Boers sniped him, and saw vultures hover as he escaped from Pretoria. Between crowded House of Conunons nights of exultant triumph and black depression came the writing of books, the painting of pictures, and the building of walls. There was the day he ordered the Grand Fleet to sea on his own responsibility, and the midnight .he listened to the Admiralty clock ticking off the seconds to Der Tag. Not a badly upholstered memory to have at sixty, while still young enough for dreams that make ambition virtue. Man Who Fought U-Boats.

Though perhaps unknown by name and personality to the general public, Admiral Sir Alexander Duff, who has died at the age of 71, played a vital role during the Great War. He joined the R.N. as a cadet fifty-eight years ago, but saw practically no active service afloat until the Germans signalled Der Tag. In 1914 he went to sea with the Grand Fleet as second in command of a battle squadron, and later, when Lord Jellicoe became First Sea Lord, was put in control and inspiration of the anti-sub-marine work. At that juncture the German U-boats, by their ruthlefes disregard of tradition and humanity, in their “spurlos versimken” campaign, were causing the gravest anxiety to the British Government. It was Admiral Duff, the profound theorist, whose brain directed and organised the practical measures that so effectually checkmated the U-boats. So England owes something to this gallant and capable old seamans memory. Busy Divorce.

Various explanations are advanced, for the big increase in our divorce petitions. Last year’s total was 4638, and the tendency is steadily upwards. In some, quarters it is argued that the figures justify modern changes in the law, indicating that in the past, before sex equality was established in divorce, many wives, who form the vast majority of petitioners, suffered under a grievance. An experienced divorce court practitioner gives me a different view. When Parliament e- tended the grounds for divorce, on the sex-equality plea, and also made, divorce cases virtually secret, it gave an immense stimulus to domestic upheaval. My informant states that some divorce actions involve deliberate collusion by husbands, who would object to a charge of cruelty or desertion but do not mind one of infidelity, under pressure by wives who are merely anxious to marry another man,

Augiistiim Birrell. Mr, Blrrell’s death at the age of 83, after i, week’s illness, robs us of another illiistiimis Victorian. He may not have b>=tm n great parliamentarian, but, with single exception of Tim Healy, he WrtS l|ie most Interesting personality at V/oslniinet«r in my time. Ho scattered quolrifinns in Hie tlebatos like pearls befi.m swine, uri'l bls v/it and humour enliw!iit<'l *»‘/en Hie dreariest controversies. Mnli Ito I ions I let and Uk.torman alike wliwi lie ww« f.'litof Hecrctory, noon learnnil In beware of ancoimtorlng this mild I lonronforniiet wiHi the gleaming spec|nl toe, i v/t-. trni'k'vl. dov/n seventyHifn« clifTmnnt r-lnsslwil qintationu in bls faniniis E'lutwlinnal Bill speech, compo.cwl on « bwi'di in Ji:it,t.rirf!n;i Park, nnili'lat « ennatant clamour, ns he told na, fioiii small Iti'l'llaa anxious to know llm Hm«. “Thai," r.ald Mr. Birrell,” remiiiile'l mo 'if what v/e «o often forget in our a'lnriiHon rtohiitott-dhn children!” |''uritir.l>«d Offices.

Lomlmi li»r- tong been perfectly familiar with fuinlsliod fiato, hut the fully fiuntolicd huaincafi offiw is n novelty. It to oii«, however, that to rapidly being developed. The new furntohed office, on which principle many huge now blocks of biiildinga are being lot, to cornplcto to the lnr;t detail. Not only to It carpeted, furnished, and equipped with all manner of up-to-date gadgets used by business people, hut staffed a/-, well. You walk straight in, take your office chair at your well-stocked office desk, press the electric bell-push, and a competent shorthand-typist appears with notebook and pencil ready to start. I believe even the office boy is thrown in. Only he to usually a girl, the latter being warranted not only a non-whistlcr, but much less addicted to reading on urgent office errands. Icelandic Depressions.

It may be remembered that some months ago very careful weather observations were conducted at about sixty stations in the Far North. This scrutiny was mentioned in this column at the time it was being planned. Experts at the Air Ministry are now most meticulously studying thp reports received, and I hear they are exceedingly pleased with the results. They even go so far as to prophesy that by an adequately attentive study of Polar conditions, it will in future be. easy to tell the weather conditions in this country and Europe generally for a week in advance with comparative certainty. Whether this official theory is unduly optimistic I cannot pretend to guess. All I do know is that, during the last year or two, the Meteorological experts have frequently been sadly at sea in predicting even the next day’s weather. At the Air Ministry, however, they now believe they have discovered that conditions South are obviously settled by Polar conditions.

Long Links. Instances keep cropping up of what seem amazing human links with the past, it has now been placed on authentic record that our cavalry at Mons in 1914 included a horse actually shod by a smith who shod another horse that charged with the Heavy Brigade at Waterloo. This apparent miracle is explained by the fact that, when he put the shoe on the Waterloo charger he was 15 years of age, and the charger was a veteran of 36, whereas the smith was in his 85th year when he shod the Mons horse. I have myself spoken to an old gentleman who, as,a youth, rowed out into Torbay, and saw Napoleon, cross armed and traditional, standing on the rear gallery of H.M.S. Bellerophon, known to contemporary blue-jackets as the “Bully Ruffian.” But after all, as I heard a distinguished Professor of history point out not. long ago, it needs only ten very old men’s lives to take us back to William the Conqueror.

Mr. Baldwin as Chancellor. . Mr. Baldwin Is Chancellor not only of his own University of Cambridge, but also of St. Andrews, and his visit to that picturesque city last week-end was for a congenial purpose. He had to accept portraits of Principal Sir James Irvine, who has done so much to develop the university, and of Mr. Edward Harkness, the American of Scottish descent who has been a munificent benefactor of it. Mr. Harkness was also the founder of the Pilgrim Trust, with a capital of two millions sterling for charitable work in Britain, and Mr. Baldwin and Sir James Irvine are two of the five trustees. When the St. Andrew’s University authorities desired to put the coat-of-arms of Mr. Harkness on one of the buildings he presented, they were in a difficulty, for he had none, and, being an American citizen, could receive none. But a grant was made in favour of his grandfather, who was bom in the South of Scotland over a centuary ago.

Story of the King. Though they keep a scrap book, for all the odds and ends of gossip published about them, the members of our Royal Family never attempt to contradict anything that appears unless it is really libellous. But though it may, therefore, be safe ground, I cannot think the “Nautical Magazine,” without absolute authority, would venture to print the fact about King George’s tattoo mark. It appears that, when a middy on the Bacchante, and serving on the Far Eastern station, our future King succumbed, as so many other youngsters have done, to the decorative fascination of Indian ink, and had a small Chinese dragon tattooed on one arm. Most of our gallant admirals, who date back to about the same middy period, wear* similar ornamentation. It serves to remind us how time flies, and things change, if we recall that, in King George’s early days afloat, muzzle-loading guns were still mounted on naval ships. The Immemorial East.

Major C. E. Radclyffe, soldier, sportsman, club habitue, has written an entertaining volume of smoke-room yarns. As he was a Life Guardsman at the time, and in charge of the escort concerned, we may take this story as authentic. Amongst the royal visitors for King George’s wedding was the Shahzada. He was immediately taken with the appearance of his Life Guards escort. So much so that he offered to buy the squadron,' troopers, chargers, plumes, baldricks and all, from Queen Victoria. He wanted to take them back home with him. This was not his only fancy. He offered George Edwardes to buy the entire Gaiety Theatre beauty chorus. Major Radclyffe’s comment on this is that “In those days I fancy their combined price would have been a bit more than even an Oriental Prince would like to part with.” There is a real beau sabreur touch about that. Exhausting Rest.

London shopkeepers are going in more and more for window demonstration. Anyone with an afternoon to spare might profitably make a round tour of the West • End, ' extending even so far as Ludgate-hill, and study how all sorts of goods are made, packed and handled, as demonstrated by well-drilled window mannequins.. But I have already seen enough of these shopwindow exhibitions to realise how much tact the shopkeepers must use. It is the easiest thing imaginable for a demonstration to defeat its own object rather badly. Take a recent case. One shop decided to place in its window a patent foot rest and have it demonstrated by a good-looking young woman. It sas a great success at first. A big crowd assembled, with noses glued to the glass, to watch the young woman exhibit the foot rest in two different positions. She did this four times a minute—24o an hour. After an hour or two she began to look like a marathon runner on the last lap.

Mr. Shaw’s Latest. Mr. Shaw, who was in a box with Mrs. Shaw, enjoyed a wonderful first-night audience’s reception of his new play “On the Rocks.” It is yet another political satire, right up-to-date, and full of brilliant talk with little action. It looks like being a far bigger stage success than “The Apple Cart.” But one can never judge what the normal London audience will think of a Shaw play from the first night Mr. Shaw has such a devoted following, who always crowd to these festivals, that the enthusiasm is apt to be deceptive. “On the Rocks” gives me an impression of, splendid finality of judgment by the author, but will upset the unco’ democrats. Because it .is really an extension of the earlier Shavian epigram about Socialists and Socialism to an argument that Democracy might be all right if it were not for the Democrats. A hypothesis which seems to me unimpeachable. Pepys as Undergraduate. The centenary exhibition of books, pictures and documents relating to Samuel Pepys which has been arranged by Messrs Bumpus, Ltd., of Oxford-street does not include the MSS. of the famous diary, and for a good reason. When , the good Samuel left his library to Magdalene College, Cambridge, he expressly provided that if a single volume should be lost the whole collection would not merely be withdrawn, but actually transferred to a rival college! The college authorities naturally enough do. not wish to let the famous shorthand script out of their sight, but have kindly lent the college register of the period, which, sad to relate, contains the following entry: “Oct. 21, 1653. Pepys and Hind were solemnly admonished for having been scandalously overseen in drink ye night before.”