NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18202, 1 March 1929, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The Channel Tunnel: "Whilst the statement credited to the newspaper “Airways” may be true, it may be said by way of reply that if a flight of bombers could wipe out the Channel tunnel within a few hours of the declaration of hostilities, precisely the same objection could be presented in opposition to the construction of other public works. The obvious reply to the message published this morning is that if Britain and France conjointly incurred the cost of constructing a tunnel under the Channel between Dover and Calais, both Powers would make ample provision for the defence of such an important link in the lines of communication between England and the Continent. As against the illconsidered objection raised by “Airways,” we have the statement of Brigadier-General P. R. C. Groves, Secretary-General of the Air League j of the British Empire and formerly Director of Flying Operations who says that adequate air defence would make the tunnel safe. The danger to Britain is primarily from the air. The old objections to a Channel tunnel have sunk into significance. “Supposing an indeed, it could only be by treachery —to prevent our blowing the tunnel up and to get hold of this end of it, an adequate Air Force, says this authority, could prevent anything coming out of the mouth. In face of

bombardment from the air the debouchment ol troops would be impossible.” Next Move by Britain: It may be mentioned that nothing stands in the way of the construction of the tunnel but the veto placed upon it in 1924 by the Committee of Imperial Defence after 40 minutes’ discussion. The French Company formed to undertake half the expense., and the constructional work of the Channel tunnel already has French parliamentary sanction, and only needs word from London to resume operations at the French end It holds a concession for 99 years for the French : section of the tunnel, dating from its j inauguration. It is estimated that 3,000,000 passengerss at least would use the tunnel evei-y year and that trains would take about 45 minutes to pass through the tunnel At present at least two hours is taken between the arrival of a train on one side ( and the departure on tlie other. ! The Northern Railway of France j considers that, if the railway is built, ! London and Paris will be the twin railheads of the entire European railways. It is prepared to handle an enormous volume of traffic, much of it being British goods to Continental countries. On the surface it appears that the proposal is sound from the economic point of view. The census of members of both Houses of Parliament resulted in the first week in ninety-two M.P's and forty-two peers declaring themselves in favour. Four M.P’s and thirty-one peers are against, and 63 M.P’s and 14 peers neutral. Independent naval, military, and air experts of the highest standing assert unhesitating'y that no added danger to Britain threatens from the construe- I tion of a tunnel and that ample means exist to prevent invasion by it. Is Beauty Everything?: Having seen the Dutch pictures in the Winter Exhibition at Burlington House, a leader-writer in a London newspaper is profoundly convinced that women are much more beautiful than they were three or lour hundred years ago. Doubtless, the midVictorians who persistently claim that there are no beauties now, will go to the Exhibition and they may come away imbued with the same belief. Assuredly the critics say the ladies on canvas compare unfavourably with the women of to-day who are gathering at the Royal Academy to gaze at them. It may be said that Dutch women never have been celebrated for beauty of face and grace of form. But a group of Dutch women in 1929 would not compare too hopelessly with a group of English women. At any rate, the Dutch women and girls of the present compare brilliantly with those ladies on the walls of Burlington House. It is most evident that in the Holland of the sixteenth and seventeenth century little pains were taken to diet, and no one worried about “keeping her figure.” Had anyone a figure to keep? In the matter of expression (as the “Morning Post” writer observed) there was nothing of that vividness and charm of vivacity and intelligence that help to make even a plain woman pretty in our time. It cannot have been that the sitters of Rembrandt and Jan Steen, Vermeer and Hals, Peter de Hooch, and the others, failed to do their sitters justice. They went in for realism, but they set nothing down in malice where portraits of women were concerned. It may be that they were painters who did not flatter, and after all, someone has said that beauty is only skin deep.

The Dutchmen's Reply: The Exhibition of Dutch art at Burlington is something phenomenal, both by its range and by its limits, since it covers the years from 1450 to 1900, and is the work of one nation. Here are the impressions of a wellknown art critic:

But you pay your Is 6d at Burlington House, and what do you see? You see the reflection through more than four centuries of a single race with a most definite character, you see how Time affects the men of that race and where Time fails to alter them, you see their continued and unbeaten calmness, you see how they changed less than other peoples, getting fixed to such a degree >n their habits that at the end of the seventeenth century they went into a sort of dowager condition, were socludad and unproductive; yet were tenacious in their quiet ways and in the nineteenth produced Israels and Mans as if there had been no gap. You see their signal merits. that splendid contempt of theirs for flattery in which they have so greatly excelled ourselves, painting pictures of vcmen where our art sits have painted ti antifill pictures of beautiful women, painting men as they were and not as they would wish to be.

You see their devotion to the home and to the family, to the very eld and to the very young, round whom alike the home centres, w hom they can paint with a. like affection, as in the great Rembrandt’s dear old woman and Ter Boreh’s dear young child. How jlayiuily lovable has that child been made, like a little white pawn you would lake in your fingers and play on the board of life for ever.

And on the other hand, you may very easily, in your survey of this achievement of a whole race and on*id the bedazzlement of the greatest art. find an individual picture which will appeal to you for some tie between it and between you, for something in it to which you respond. Such is that picture by Verspronck, the head of a girl in a large ruff. Go up to her and if you do not find yourself bartering smiles with her, smile for smile on the terms of comrades, then you may sell yourself for rusted iron. Tradition credits tlie mid-Victorians with a habit of exclaiming, 'Well, I’m a Dutchman!” when they were overcome with some surprise or pleasure. If merit received anything like its reward, the leading art critics say the people of London .should revive this custom to-day in honour of the great Exhibition at Burlington House and march up Piccadilly in crowds to it, shouting in surprise and