OUR LONDON LETTER

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLII, Issue 20540, 5 October 1936, Page 14

OUR LONDON LETTER

STALIN REIGNS SUPREME ARE PEDESTRIANS RECKLESS (From Our Own Correspondent) LONDON, September 3. Three successive dangers potentially threaten every Dictator. First, he may be overthrown by counter-revolution soon after he has seized power; second, he may fall victim to the ambitions of his own fellow-revolutionaries; third (a long time afterwards) he may be brushed aside by the new generation which has grown up under his regime. By the execution of ZinoviolT, Kameneff and the other Moscow conspirat-

ors Stalin has successfully overcome the second danger. He is, in fact, the only survivor in Russia of the men who led the revolution 19 years ago. And the exiled Trotsky cannot now be regarded seriously as a menace. All the other leaders are dead. Only two of them (Chicherin, the first Soviet Foreign Minister; and Dzerzhinsky, organiser of the secret ploice) died in the’r beds. The rest have been accounted for by assassination, execution and s’liside. Lenin’s own death was hastened by a would-be assassin’s bullet. It is too early yet to speculate whether Stalin will ever have to face the third danger of a rising of Young Bolsheviks; but it is certain that from now on Russian affairs will depend more and more on the demands of youth. How Television Began The appearance at Radlolympia this week of the first television sets is a reminder that somewhere there is a young man probably quite unconscious that he has the distinction of being the first human being ever to be tele-

vised. No one knows his name or whereabouts, yet he has a place in history as the unwilling “victim” of Mr J. L. Baird’s invention of television nine years ago.

Mr Baird has just revealed how, after three years’ experimenting during which he once had to sell his apparatus to pay the rent—he at last perfected a television machine. He was so excited that he rushed out into the street and seized the first person he came across—a small boy. Mr Baird took the reluctant boy into his laboratory, sat him down before the apparatus and televised his features on to the screen. A new science had been born. But where is the boy who assisted at its birth? New Army Recruitment Plan The War Office pins great hopes to its novel scheme —which comes into force next week —for recruiting soldiers "on trial.” All inducements hitherto offered have failed to attract enough young men to bring the British Army up to strength. The War Office believes this is chiefly because men do

not know how attractive Army life is to-day. Give them a taste of it, say the authorities, and they will be convinced. Consequently under the new scheme men will be invited to join the Supplementary Reserve for a trial period of six months. If they decide they do not care for soldiering they will then be free to go back to civil life. Their only obligation will be to put in 14 days’ training annually for the next five years, for which the reward will be £6 bounty, as well as pay while training. This scheme will at least give the country a "second line” of partly-trained soldiers. But the authorities hope it will be more successful than that, and will result in large numbers of “trial recruits” adopting the Army as a career. Last of a Trio The disaster to the flying-boat Scipio off Crete last week-end leaves only one survivor of a famous trio of ’planes—the largest flying-boats in the Imperial Airways service. The survivor is the Sapyrus. The othe “triplet,” Sylvanus, was burned in Brindisi

harbour last November. 111-feeling between Italy and Britain over the Abyssinian adventure was then at its bitterest, and there were rumours (never proved) that the Italians had deliberately set the machine on fire. For several years past Scipio, Sylvanus and Sapyrus have worked the Mediterranean section of the Empire route, carrying passengers and mails for India, Australia and Egypt. Between them the three boats have flown about a million miles, and until this accident to the Scipio no life had been lost. Next year the service will be taken over by the giant new “Empire” flying-boats now under construction. Women Displace Men The British trade union movement is facing a serious problem created by the gradual replacement of men by women in many industries. In thousands of homes now the husband is more or less permanently unemployed, while his wife is the breadwinner, often assisted by their young sons and daughters. This state of affairs has grown up gradually during the years of

depression. Employers, unable to pay trade union wages to the men, found that they could keep their factories going by employing a larger proportion of women—at lower rates of pay. Now, even though better times are returning, the employment of women instead of men is still increasing. Employers see no reason why they should discontinue it, especially since new inventions and improvements in machinery make light work of jobs which used to require a man’s muscle. Most trade unionists, as good feminists, have no objection to ■women doing the same work as men. But they feel that the time has come w’hen wages should be equalised. Woman is a breadwinner now, and her wages can no longer be regarded as mere “pin-money” to add to her husband's earnings. Inspecting Motorists Another army of public inspectors is hovering above the English horizon. They will—if the Minister of Transport gets his way—be called upon to inspect every motor car in the country. As part of his campaign for road safety

Mr Hore-Belsha wants to compel every motorist to have his car’s brakes, steer-ing-gear, tyes, silencer and other equipment periodically examined. One would imagine that every driver would be trusted to attend to the first three items without having an inspector ' at his elbow; and this point is likely I to be forcibly made by the motoring organisations when they come to criticise the proposed regulations. Incidentally, the latest accident analysis bears out the motorists’ contention that they are not the only reckless people on the roads; for it is estimated that eight out of ten pedestrians who get killed have only their own carelessness to blame. Taking note of this figure, the Minister now plans to fence off all dangerous corners with guard-rails, so that pedestrians can cross only at the proper places. Rats!!! England is becoming seriously alarmed by the plague of rats, for which the meat and fruit ships coming from overseas are blamed. It has been found that black rats not only thrive in the

icy holds of the refrigerator vessels, but actually raise families on the voyage. Arrived in London, they disembark and infest the docks. Once ashore, the rats breed and travel quickly. They have been found far inland. Britain’s native brown rat is more numerous, but it is regarded as less of a menace. This year, however, it is flourishing on farms. One Lincolnshire farmer who cleaned up his bams and other buildings this week killed 800 rats in the process.