CURRENT LONDON TOPICS

Taranaki Daily News, 28 November 1934, Page 2

CURRENT LONDON TOPICS

EGYPTIAN SITUATION GOVERNMENT KEEPING WATCH. THE STRENGTH OF STERLING. London, October 4. The British Government, I understand, is watching the political situation in Egypt with considerable anxiety. The recent cancellation of all King Fuad s public engagements has not been allowed to excite any wide degree of public attention, the .official explanation having been that his Egyptian. Majesty was merely suffering some slight indisposition. In well-informed circles here, however, it is now understood that the state of King Fuad’s health is considerably more serious than has been publicly acknowledged. King Fuads personal influence has been pf the greatest assistance in the maintenance, of Moderate rule in Egypt. The Wafdist extremists, however, are still active in the country, and are awaiting the first opportunity that may present itself to them to make a bid to capture authority. Sterling Leads the Way.

People in this country who have been perturbing themselves over the possible actions of the gold standard countries, to be taken as the outcome of their recent conference, will find comfort in one of the latest publications of the League of Nations. This is entitled “World Economic Survey, 1933-34,” arid the statistics which it contains all go to show that the countries which adhere to gold are faring badly as compared With those which have attached themselves to the sterling group. The unemployment figures are particularly illuminative, showing that, whereas there is improvement in each of the sterling standard countries, the situation has actually worsened in such leading gold standard countries as France, Belgium and Poland. In the light of this survey it seems more probable than ever that the Gold Standard Conference adopted its resolutions with a view of hiding from the world this anxiety that is felt in the gold countries. It is extremely unlikely that any practical effect will be given to them. No Ovatibns.

It is most noteworthy how _ little enthusiasm has marked the admission of Soviet Russia to the League of Nations. M’ Litvinof’s Geneva debut evoked nothing at all in the way of ovations or triumphal arches. It was very different, one remembers, when Germany joined the magic circle. There are several reasons why this is so. One is, no doubt, the hostility felt in many quarters to the Soviet’s admission to the League, in view of its known and avowed public policy. But perhaps still more damping to any international enthusiasm is the patent fact that Moscow has embraced the League from no altruistic motives of international brotherhood dr pacifist ideals, but purely because, with the possibility of war with Japan in the Far East, Russia desires the protection of the League on her western borders. It is a gesture not of goodwill but of mere fire insurance. Mr. Lansbury’s Credo.

Mr. George Lansbury’s “My England leaves one, in military metaphoi, as you were.” Its engaging sincerity and devoted under-dog sympathy are no new revelations to anyone who has listened to the author’s speeches, and his boox carries no further the obstinate problem of how to achieve the Socialist G.O.M. s millennium; except perhaps for ,a .hint that he would lump financiers, bankers, and money-lenders as one fraternity, and in Lord Fisher’s favourite phrase, “scrap the lot.” Even then it is‘ “f* J all clear what practical substitute, beyond a benevolent bureaucracy of which one finds no realistic in the existing fish-blooded Whitehall regime, Mr. Lansbury would create to manage all these matters for us. Mr. Lansbury’s sentiments are unimpeachable But his constructive ideas lag far behind them. His England remains the roseate but baseless fabric of a somewhat disjointed dream. Fur Will Fly.

The drastic criticisms in L.G. s War Memoirs of famous Army and Navy commanders, most of whom are now dead, have evoked no response from the survivors. But this silence does ndt imply any lack of retaliatory animosity. The storm may break a year hence; when Mr. Duff Cooper’s biography Of Earl Haig, with which he was enW'“ t ®“ by the field-marshal’s widow, will be published. Mr. Duff Cooper has collected all his material, and volume one is already complete, but awaits th second and final volume which will bv ready about next autumn moved by L.G.’s attacks and Lady Haig s strong appeal, Earl . . Halgs . have, despite the field-marshals stipu lation that these were not to be published for fifty years, allowed Mr. Duff Cooper to use Earl Haig’s voluminous and outspoken diaries now in the custody of the British Museum. So the fur iS likely to be flying next autumn.

Uncle Tom Cobley’s County. Mr. Ernest Brown deserves all the praise he is getting as Mines on his successful mediation in the South Wales coal trouble. He is a typical son of the West Country, sturdy of build and outlook, full of energy and go, and, like Uncle Arthur Henderson, f lay preacher. His fat her was for years coxswain of the Torquay lifeboat but .it was with the Army that Mr. served in the War, and he won both the Military Cross and the al * an Medal for valour. When first an_ M. Mr. Brown was inclined to talk too much, but he has curCd that fault since he became a Minister, though he remains still one of the fastest speakers in the House of Commons. His voice is deepset like his chest, and its resonant qual?ty has earned for the Mines Minister the good-humoured nlc J f “Bashan.” He is proud of his tine library, which he says represents what he has. saved as a non-smoking teetotaller.

Trade Record. In future the Board of Trade’sl usual quarterly returns will be , chan^ ed monthly reports. This is being done to enable those most concerned to keep accurately abreast of current trade movements. One fact is well worthy Of note. For the first time on record out exports for the completed eight ninths of the year have been actually bigger to British Dominions than to foreign countries. Both categories show some slight increase, the Empire trade 14.2 per cen . and the foreign trade 2.9 JA total figures are, for the period ■ named respectively just under ninety-nme mil lions and just over ninety-eight millions. These figures are indicative of the way our Empire commerce is trending, and suggest that trade foreign countries are not adveise y affecting our Imperial trade relations. Our Air Defences. Apparently the military experts are fairly confident now that Londons mt defences are on the right lines and just about as efficient as they can be made in existing circumstances. They ar ’ all events, now turning then- attention to similar air protection for other parts of the coiuitry, and notably for im-

portent industrial areas. The two new R.A.F. aerodromes recently acquired in Norfolk are part of these preparations, and I hear that the Air Ministry .is negotiating fdr two more elsewhere. All this is part of the R.A.F. extension scheme now being carried through, and it is paying due regard, of course, to the changed conditions, and vastly increased range, of aerial attack since the war. Places like Manchester, Liverpool, and even Glasgow, in any future war, would share the hostile raids mainly concentrated twenty years ago on London. The Queen Mary.

The World’s biggest and fastest liner, whose colossal bulk of 72,000 tons is held together by 16,000,000 rivets, has been well and truly launched on the Clyde by Queen Mary, and. bears her-Majesty’s nhmC. This is a complete break riith Cunard tradition, but, as Shakespeare’s King Hal tells us, nice customs, courtesy to great kings, and the historic occasion warranted some Royal innovation. Little the builders of the Britannia, the Canard’s first paddle-wheel steamer, and the first vessel to cross the Atlantic without sails, foresaw the day, less than a century distent, when their 1,100-toji ship would be succeeded by a 70,000 ton monster over 1,000 feet long, with streets of shops aboard, a cinema, a theatre, and a church with stained-glass windows. Let us trust the Cunarder Queen Mary may have better fortune than her namesake of the battle-cruisers, which was sunk at Jutland. He.r speed is given aS 30 knots, equivalent to slightly over 35 m.p.h., but this is probably an official under-estimate.