CURRENT LONDON TOPICS

Taranaki Daily News, 1 December 1934, Page 14 (Supplement)

CURRENT LONDON TOPICS

LAUNCHING OF CUNARDER TRIBUTE PAID BY THE KING. AMERICA CUP CONTROVERSY. (Special Correspondent). London, Oct. 4. In his speech at the launching of the Queen Mary the King paid high tribute to the founder Of the Cunard Line, Samuel Cunard. It is interesting to recall how intimately their Majesties have been associated with the descendants of that remarkable man. When as Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York they made their memorable tour of the Antipodes, Sir Samuel Cunard’s granddaughter, Lady Lawley, now Lady Wenlock, was their hostess at Government House, Perth, Western Australia. From 1912 to her marriage in 1927, Lady Wenlock’s daughter, the Hon. Ursula Lawley, was Her Majesty’s maid of honour; and both the King and Queen honoured the wedding of Miss Lawley to the then Colonel George Gibbs, afterwards first Lord Wraxall, with their presence. When the present Lord Wraxall was born In 1928 her Majesty became his godmother. Little Lord Wraxall, who succeeded his father in 1931, was, until Lord Waterford’s tragic death, Britain’s youngest peer. But the new Lord Waterford is five years his junior. Fed Up. A well-known yachting expert tells me it is highly improbable we shall send any more challengers across the Atlantic to try for the America Cup for a very long time, if at all. Not only does it involve great expense in time and money, but endless worry, and, at the end of it all, the chances of success are slender. The Americans have different ideas about these sporting events from our own. When the America won the cup, to which n 6 special interest then attached, our two best yachts fell out of the race round the Isle of Wight, one going ashore and the other promptly pulling out to her rescue. Besides which we, in our sporting attitude to a foreign owner, ignored the fact that the America was technically disqualified through not rounding one of the marking buoys properly. Only recently has America modified conditions which handicapped any challenger right out of the race, Since no modem eggshell racing craft could possibly cross the Atlantic, and flow apparently they have their own ideas about the luffing rule, too. An Unlucky Family.

Somehow one may be disposed to credit tales of black magic in darkest Africa or the immemorial East, but such things seem just impossible in twentieth century Ireland. Yet the tragic demise in his 33rd year of Lord Waterford, through an accident while shooting, is passing strange. Over in Ireland, where the name of Waterford was once anathema, they will now more than ever believe in the strange legend of “the curse of the Beresfords.” A former marquis is said to have struck with his riding stock an old Irishwoman who got in his way, and she declared that no head of the Beresford family should live to old age. It is true enough that a long succession of Lord Waterford’s ancestors have died young, and few of them natural deaths. The marquis who is now dead was formerly in “The Blues,” a keen hunting man like all his people, and extremely likeable. His tragic death comes shortly after the birth of his second son, and just before he and the marchioness were sailing for South Africa.

Our Imperial Alma Mater. Sir Michael Sadler is an education expert not given to Using picturesque phrases that mean nothing. He is certainly right in predicting that within a very short time London University will take precedence even of Oxford and Cambridge. Already a London degree in most subjects ranks higher amongst educated people than any other. When the magnificent new buildings in Bloomsbury, towards which the L.C.C., the city aha the famous City Guilds have aonated handsome sums, are in existence, London University is bound to become the academic headquarters of the British Empire. London will be the Imperial University, in fact, and attract most of the scholars and students who come here from overseas. Wealth has always drawn learning, and London now certainly has both the brains and the wealth. Mary Brough.

Miss Mary Brough’s death at the age 'of 71 robs us of a rare personality as well as a fine artist. She inh rited her genius from her father, and her inimitably comic landladies, charladies and assertive matrons were the stage children of Lionel Brough’s incomparable Bon Acres and Tony Lumpkin. It is unique testimony to Miss Mary Brough that her London debut was made the same night and in the same play as Lily Langtry’s, and yet half a century later this great comedienne was still at the zenith of her popularity on the stage and still more the film. King Edward, then Prince of Wales, was in the stalls the night of Lily Langtry’s debut, which was in “She Stoops to Conquer,” and his keen eye did not miss the clever little Mary Brough. He not only congratulated her after the show, but got the Jersey Lily to give her one of her bouquets as a souvenir.

In the Blood.

Acting was in the blood of the Brough family. Miss Mary Brough’s father, Lionel, was not only himself a famous actor, but the son of a playwright wellknown in his own day. Miss Mary Brough’s brother Sydney and her cousin Fanny Brough both had big stage names. Her father, who before he died was the sole surviving original member of the Savage Club started his career In Fleet Street. He was one of the savages who gave an amateur theatrical show at Liverpool in aid of the Lancashire Relief Fund during the American Civil War. He was a member of the Green Room, the Eccentric, the Bons Freres and the National Sporting Clubs, and, besides billiards, his great passions off the stage were gardening and long country walks. Hence perhaps Miss Mary Brough’s unconquerable vivacity and unquenchable joie de vivre at 71.

His Foster Mother. The London Zoo’s new baby African elephant, christened Jumbo 11., in memory of a namesake who in Victorian days was as famous as Mr. Gladstone, has now come out. Not in the migratory sense, of course, but in the accepted social sense. He is now on view, with his fond and zealous mother beside him, in the Zoo elephant house. He is a delightful little fellow, hardly more than two or three tons in weight yet, and his manners reflect infinite credit on his adopted maternal parent. She stands at side when visitors crowd in front of the barrier, and carefully supervises Jumoo ll.’s diet. Any offering that she considers too big, or perhaps too rich, for Jumbo ll.’s infantile digestion she promptly annexes, and, to remove all temptation, put out of sight down her own throat. Jumbo 11. accepts the position meekly. Foster-mother knows best!

Chance of a Lifetime. With commendable enterprise, the Austrian railways have sent to this

country a mission composed of ticketcollectors. These officials are travelling i-icognlto, or at any rate in mufti, and their objects is to study closely our British railway methods, - with a view possibly to picking up a few wrinkles. If they- board any first-class compartment on our London suburban lines about the rush hour, they cannot-fail to have ample opportunity to see how our “jumpers” handle passengers who possess tickets of a lower denomination than firrt-class. These “jumpers” lead a haggard existence, and wear the aura of railway Ishmaels, but they manage to keep their tempers, and the peace, in. a remarkable manner. It would be a great thing if a “jumper” actually caught some members of the Austrian ticketcollecting mission travelling first with third tickets. Poetic justice could aspire no higher.

The King’s Yacht. . Sir Philip Hunloke, Master of the King’s yacht, Britannia, tells me that the various rumours about -the King’s - not racing the yacht next year.need not the various rumours, about the King’s • fullest intention to bring. Britannia out _■ and race her.- This reassurhig statement _ from such an authority will give tha . greatest - satisfaction to everyone in circles much wider than • the yachting .■ fraternity, for it is felt that sentimental- = ly, if for no other reason, it would ba greatly to be deplored if the silver, anniversary of his Majesty’s accession should be marked by the absence of . the yacht from the racing lists, especially as she has figured there almost every, year--of the twenty-five of this period. : Sir Philip told me that he had also heard. of tire various reports, but gathered that they were mainly of American origin.,