IN THE PUBLIC EYE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17526, 1 May 1925, Page 6

IN THE PUBLIC EYE.

NOTES AND ANECDOTES. UTS greatest wish is that lie live to celebrate his one hundredth birthday, according to a statement made by M. Clemenceau, tvho is now 84. “The Tiger of France” now serves as Mayor of Lyons, living in comparative retirement after his spectacular career as war Premier, statesman and author. For fifty years he battled in French politics and was ! one oi the signatories of the Versailles | Treaty, lie was educated as a doctor but was a born politician and orator, and made liis way to the forefrofit of French politics. An attempt on liis life in Paris after the conclusion of the i\ar ended unsuccessfully. He was also a keen journalist, and now, in his retirement he spends a considerable portion of each, day in writing. He rises at dawn, works in his garden, writes, strolls about in a baggy frock coat and faded poilu cap, and retires at sunset. AT. Clemenceau. who was born in Brfttany, was a defender of Dreyfus, and was at one time an accomplished swordsman. * # THAT dapper little man, with the **■ monocle screwed firmly into his right eye, Air Vice-Marshal Sir Sefton Brancker, refuses eivr to bo discouraged or dismayed. In the early days of dreamed a dream and foresaw that one day aerial transport would be of tremendous importance, not only as a means of quickentions, but also as having a great influence mentally on mankind, and more especially on the far-flung British Empire. His dream is only now coming true, but be is doing all in his power to prove it, having flown on an airaurvey from London to Rangoon and rev from London to Rangoon and back. General Brancker radiates conviction in his every word. And what he tells us is that iu aviation we have something which comes to our hand just when the need is vital for closer pei'sonal communication between the Motherland and the great Dominions. Aeroplanes and airships will reduce Empire journeys by days and even weeks. Men of affairs will devour distance with a swiftness impossible hitherto. More than this, he contends that aviation will knit the Empire’s peoples together mentally. This is the* inspiration of the eager little man with* the monocle. v » X 1 XTRAORDINARY tributes to the work of Mr. J. J. Virgo, formerly of Sydney, and now honorary world’s representative of the Y..VJ.C.A. . were pHmentarv lunch given by Mr Howard “Williams, chairman of the Y.M.C.A. British Empire Union, in London recently. Messages w e r e read from all parts of the world. including Australia- and New Zealand, emphasising Mr. Virgo’s genius for organisation, and his influence on youths throughout The Empire. Mr. Virgo, who was well-known to New Zealand soldiers during the war, is now sixty rears old. He 1.-is been a Christian evangelist in all parts of the world and has conducted seven great tours, which have prompted the King to call him the Empire’s greatest traveller. 'THROUGHOUT his testimony before the House investigation committee, recently. Admiral William Snowden Sims urged the necessity of appointing nuvai men to fill k. aviation posts, as R they “knew the |j doctrines of the S Navy and could, P tact’cs introduced is convinced that essential in warfare if they are to combat successfully the attacks bv enemy fleets. “Now. you hive men here,” he wrote recently, “that are air officers coming to you. some of the very best men ; some of the best pilots; some of the g.'illantest chaps that we have got. They may be all that without knowing anything about the tactics of a grand fleet and how it has got to be handled in its entirety.” The aviators in the present air force were not ready qualified to act in conjunction with the fleets in naval warfare. T *+ •C LIGHTLY balder, slightly less waspish in the waist than in his old cavalry days, but still as full of the /.esu ot life as ever, Mr Winston Churchill lias set down the gargantuan figures of what will certainly be a. memorable Budget. “It is Mr Churchill’s great chance.” wrote a London journalist recently. “His political career has twice * come wear Shipwreck. This time he is all out to make good as the Napoleon of Finance, who brought the country back to prewar Budgets, and laid the foundations of its sure recovery from the morass of trade stagnation. Tt is the opportunity even of a Cliurchillian lifetime, and Air Churchill is not going to throw it away with either hand. He is tackling the task enthusiastically at No 11, Downing Street at all hours, and in all attires, even in his old dressing gown.” Mr Churchill’s work | has not gone for nought and ho lias created a good impression with this his [first Budget.