CURRENT LONDON TOPICS

Taranaki Daily News, 13 July 1935, Page 9 (Supplement)

CURRENT LONDON TOPICS

OIL SEARCH IN BRITAIN FEAR FOR THE COUNTRYSIDE. DANGERS OF DESECRATION. f (By Air Mail—Special Correspondent.) London, May 23. London’s stunt journals are all agog with excitement at the prospect of an oil rush in Britain. Next month the Act comes into force by which approved persons may be licensed, with royalty rights reserved to the State, to prospect for oil and mineral in the United Kingdom. Fleet Street is in an ecstasy over the chance of striking oil, and parts of our lovely English countryside being made into something resembling the hideous reeking desolation of American or Mexican oilfields. Most people would prefer an earthquake. Happily the chance of striking oil here is remote, though even prospecting activities may, unless the Mines Ministry has more aesthetic sense than one suspects, cause damage and vandalism enough. The late Lord Cowdray, with the best expert advice available, spent millions on trying for oil in this country, and never saw the remotest prospect of anything commercially remunerative. Oil prospecting here is just about on a par commercially with goldmining in Wales.

Swing of the Pendulum. According to an influential American, who is at present in London, a definite reaction against President Roosevelt is now discernible in the United States. The main charge levelled against him is that the vast expenditure of money entailed by the New Deal has failed to produce results which have been at all commensurate. According to one authority, President Roosevelt has spent more money in two years in public works than all his predecessors since America broke away from Great Britain in the 18th century. This is an effective way of putting the position, but it is also somewhat unfair. The trouble seems to.be to some extent that the President is now in his last year of office, and, as is. usual in such circum--1 stances, he - is already “jockeying” !for position for next ye. r’s Presidential election. In conformity with the usual tactics, he has already begun to “wobble,” and in the result he is pleasing no one. But if President Roosevelt has done nothing else, has unintentionally brought conviction to the minds of the American people that you cannot restore prosperity in a community by making the people take in each other’s washing. Expenditure on public works as a means of solving unemployment is deemed to be in that class. ’■ Ypres Now.

A .friend who served with me in Ypres during the war has been revisiting the city He tells me it is hardly recognisable except to the men who saw it during the early stages of the bombardment, before it had been reduced to a colossal waste heap. The cathedral is completely restored. So is the great tower of the Cloth Hall, the walls of which are also slowly arising again. The railway station and the town itself have, of course, long been restored,; but the whole place presents a queer impression of new oldness. The Menin Gate Memorial, where the bugles ring out Last Post at 9 o’clock every night, is a solemn architectural pqst-war addition to the city. My old comrade, who doubled with the battalion through the Ypres streets when the place was ablaze, searched in vain for the spot where, in 1917, we spent one thrilling night. German shells-had set alight a building near an ammunition dump, and burs was the unchancy job of acting as fire brigade, in the fierce light of the fire, whilst the Germans did some fine sniping with four and eight-inchers.

Overdue. We were told that Mr. Buchan’s cold spell was to last four days. Ifc has outstayed its welcome by over a week, and is’ still, in spite of the meteorological of ke’s bland assurances of warmer weather, obstinately with '■ us. Cricket enthusiasts at Lords have been " wearing overcoats and warm gloves'on the stands, and fast bowlers have performed their activities in sweaters. At the Oval, for the first time in cricket history, hot drinks were taken out to the players. Suburban gardeners tell piteous tales of ruined flower beds, and the casualties amongst young birds have been tragic. Whether owing to the severq', cold 1 or the high winds or both, lawns have been strewn with the pathetic corpses of tiny fledglings. One lady tells me that her cat, which has already started to shed his winter coat, has now arrested that process—gone back into winter undies in fact. This sounds rather a fantastic phenomenon, but, if it is true, that cat has -merely done what all Londoners are doing. Already pessimists are beginning to predict that we shall have no sumpier this year. Idealist and Realist.

There is probably no other instance of a man achieving such personal fame as a dual personality. Lawrence of Arabia had a price of £20,000 on his head. Aircraftsman Shaw, despite his desperate efforts to escape it, attracted more limelight than the most boosted film .star. The man in the street, baffled by the truth, made him the mystery man of a non-existent secret service romance; but actually Lawrence was the shattering combination—a ' realistic idealist. His soul revolted at the thought that, though he lost money on the original book, his shorter account of his life amongst the Arabs brought him a sm: 11 fortune. Rich Americans have paid £4OOO for a single copy of the complete work. Lawrence, the mystic classical scholar, was torn by the passion of Aircraftsman Shaw for motor-engine experiments. He played no small par. in enabling us to win back the Schneider Trophy from the Italians. He is the only motor-cyclist who has had Bernard Shaw as pillionrider. Death, with whom he sported in the desert, arrested him on a quiet Dorset road at last.

Election Date. Now that the India Bill will reach the House of Lords before Whitsuntide, and probably be disposed of. by that Chamber before the summer adjournment of Parliament, the feeling is growing that the Government may appeal to the country in October. All the current business may not be finished by then, but none of it is important enough to justify delay of an election. The supporters of the Government are mostly in favour of taking the plunge aS soon as possible. They believe that the tide is running in their favour, and that nothing is to be gained by giving the Socialists more time to agree on their programme, and complete their arrangements. But I believe Ministers have come to no decision, and, when they do, they will not announce it prematurely.