CURRENT LONDON TOPICS

Taranaki Daily News, 14 November 1934, Page 15

CURRENT LONDON TOPICS

EVENTS AT WHITEHALL UNEMPLOYMENT APPOINTMENTS. HERRING TRADE DIFFICULTY. (Special Correspondent.) London, Aug. 30. Whitehall is in the occupancy of invaders —painters and decorators—but despite the customary summer somnolence of Government departments, there is a good deal of excitement in the minds of many members of the Civil Service. This is because of the important new appointments that Sir Henry Betterton, chairman of the Unemployment Assistance Board, is at the moment making. Sir Henry, as Minister of Labour, had a strenuous task in piloting the Unemployment Bill through Parliament, but that was nothing by comparison with the stupendous work of organisation of which he is now the master mind. He not only has to build up this vast administrative machine, but lias also to assure himself that it is in full running order before the appointed date of the switchover. The staff alone will consist of several thousand persons, and it is the Government's policy that these workers shall be recruited almost entirely from within the Civil Service. Appointments, especially to certain key positions, are eagerly sought for, and Sir Henry will have no difficulty in getting his pick of Whitehall’s ablest administrators. After he has taken his choice, there will be all sorts of opportunities for promotions in the established departments. Hence, no wonder that there is a general buzz of anticipation.

Herring Trade Crisis. Sir Andrew Duncan’s report on the parlous state of the herring industry is a notable addition to the many public services he has rendered. I doubt if even those engaged in the trade realised before how desperate is. the position, both individual and corporate. At present it nominally employs about 15,000 men, and it is evident that the number must be drastically reduced unless the export markets can be restored to their former ‘dimensions, or the home consumption of herring can be increased. It is difficult to understand why, during even the last few years, home consumption should have fallen by nearly half. Mr. Boothby, M.P., who sits for a fishing constituency, got himself into trouble for suggesting that housewives are too lazy to cook herring nowadays, and it is evident that one of the first duties of the proposed board will be. to attack the home market.

Don’t Try It On the Troops. I am not by any means sure that our troops will agree with any great amount of cordiality with Scottish members of Parliament and local councillors in their conviction that the herring is the right “stuff to give ’em.” One can quite sympathise with the efforts of those interested in the welfare of the fisheries to bestir the Government into including the herring in the official dietary of the Navy, Army and Air Force. The Government, however, knows its Tommies and Jack Tars too well to be inclined to tamper with their “tummies.” The herring undoubtedly possesses all the high calorific food values claimed for it by its interested boosters, and in the form of kipper or bloater it might well be relished as a teatime extra in the masses of our fighting forces. Fresh, or in the state that claims that title in our fish markets, its appearance, even once weekly, as the principal fare at dinner time must seriously undermine discipline. Out of Bounds. The report that the Treasury Department in Washington has issued demands to the banks and brokers in London, calling upon them to make income-tax returns in respect of their transactions on behalf of clients in the Wall Street share market, is said in certain quarters to have shocked and excited the Cityshocked possibly that /American Treasury officials should have so overstepped the bounds of their authority; but I can discern no signs of excitement. Hilarity is rather the word to use in describing the City’s reactions. President Roosevelt has on several occasions caused London no small amount of amusement by the zeal with which he embarks upon new projects to set America once more upon sound financial legs. In his latest and “biggest income tax drive” ever known, London will wish him “good hunting,” but will certainly not permit him to go out of his own preserves. A request for information might possibly receive a friendly response, but there is no power under international law that can authorise the American' Treasury to demand such particulars in this or any other country outside its own territorial jurisdiction. Deadlock. There is, I believe, no need to regard as final and hopeless the breakdown which has occurred in the negotiations between the British and French Air Ministries in regard to the opening of a Paris-Marseilles link in Imperial Airways communications. France is quite naturally jealous of her monopoly over this air route, as the Air France Company at present does a thriving trade in carrying. British passengers to the Riviera, and in making connections with steamers sailing to the Orient and East Africa. France desires conditions for the pooling of receipts from this traffic which the British negotiators deem inequitable, and it is failure to compromise on this matter which has caused the present breakdown. It may be remembered, however, that Anglo-French negotiations for a general trade agreement suffered similar vicissitudes, and that it was only after a period of rupture that final agreement was reached. In that case Mr. Runciman’s “bargaining weapon” played an important role in bringing about a settlement. There is reason to believe that similar tactics will be adopted, as we hold a level 1 in the present facilities we grant to French air services in the matter of crossing India and Rhodesia. Relations With Japan. Official denials, both here and in Tokio, have not succeeded in discouraging the Japanese Press from continuing its publication of reports of an impending revival of the Anglo-Japanese alliance. Such an idea is, of course, too far-fetched to meet with credence here; but there are many symptoms that a rapprochement in relations will be effeeteo in the not-far-distant future. The Japanese are not unlike the Chinese in their lack of love for foreigners, but they have always made an exception in their regard for the British, and there is nothing which, as a people, they would welcome more warmly than the resumption of the warm friendship which used to prevail between them and ourselves. It is, of course, the League of Nations attitude with regard to Manchukuo and China that has been the real cause of estrangement. If, as would now seem to be indicated, our officials are beginning to take a more individual and dispassionate view of Japan’s actions in those countries, there should be few difficulties in the way of a return to such a good political understanding as will make the settlement of Anglo-Japanese trade rivalries a much easier matter.