LONDON LETTER

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18640, 18 December 1928, Page 11

LONDON LETTER

Tense Atmosphere Labour Preparing—Olympia Opens —A Tour ot' N.Z.— Science and Ships —Olympic Funds —Homes of the Future. •SSSESJSSi

(Special to the “Star/') LONDON, October 11. The Church Congress at Cheltenham marked a distinct step forward in the movement towards the reunion of the Church of England and the Nonconformists. As the president (the Bishop of Gloucester) so strikingly declared:— “We are not fundamentally divided and there is a common conception of Christianity, and a common belief in our Lord which some people express differently.” In the tense atmosphere of sharp controversy which marked the Congress, the Bishop of Gloucester maintained a firm but tolerant attitude. llow much this was appreciated by the Congress as a whole was abundantly evidenced by the applause which greeted Canon H. A. Wilson (Rector and Rural Dean of Cheltenham) when, having been called upon to give out c ertain notices, he referred to the service performed by the president, and. turning to Dr Ileadlam, said: “You have given an elementary lesson to, the whole Church of England which I hope we shall not only learn here, but pass on to other people.” The phase of reunion to which several speakers directed the attention of Congress was that which concerns the mission field.

Canon Garfield H. Williams (secretary of the Missionary Council of the Church Assembly) admitted that while reunion “ seemed ” more urgent in the mission field than it did at home, he was beginning to doubt whether it was much more urgent in the one place than in the other. Of many practical reasons for reunion there was none to compare with the simple fact of the weakening of their witness as a divided ('hurch. Congress was reminded that in every non-Christian country in the world they met with the gibe “ see hpw these Christians hate one another.” Disunion on the vast issues of religion appeared to him to have been inevitable. but he claimed that the kernel of Christianity was victory over sin and victory over disunion in the formation of a real fellowship. Trade Union Candidates. Following the Birmingham Conference, at which Communists and extremists like Mr Maxton met with a severe rebutf. Labour leaders now look forward to a period of rehabilitation of the movement up to the general election. The decisions are regarded as in complete harmony with the verdict of the Trade Union Congress at Swansea. Efforts to recruit members for the Trade Unions have met with •only limited success. The position in the distressed areas is worse as regards organisation than the oldest of the union officials can recall, and even in favoured industries, such as some of the luxury trades, there has been a marked indifference to the Trade Union appeal. These facts have compelled both the political and industrial sides of the movement to look to the application of the programme in the MelchettTurner conversations, especially as recommending complete organisation of the employers and workpeople. That is. however, a purely voluntary pronouncement, and not for many months in any event could there be effort to reduce :t to practical politics. Meanwhile Mr Ramsay MacDonald and his colleagues recognise that in the general election they must rely largely on voluntary effort, but it is pointed out that, in view of the large proportion of Independent Labour Party candidates and those nominated bv nonTrade Union organisations, which has been true of most elections, there will be nothing new in this situation.

Indeed. there are many candid friends of the Parliamentary Socialist force who consider that it would be entirelv to its advantage in efficiency to have the number of strictly Trade Union candidates reduced. Experience of recent years has shown that few can effectively combine Parliamentary and Trade Union duty, and very few have shown a marked aptitude for the tasks of Westminster. A Prosperous Industry. With the opening of the great annual Olvmpia Show. London becomes the centre of interest of the whole motoring world. For months past manufacturers in all the motor-producing countries of the world have been at work on their show models. These machines are now set out in splendid array at Olympia, and comprise the finest, largest, and most varied display of motor carriages ever got together under one roof. The present exhibition differs from its rivals in Paris. New York, Brussels and Berlin in that it is truly international. Here the British buyer is fortunate in having all the motoring world at his feet. There is scarcely any car made in any part of the world that is not to be found at Olympia, the foreign exhibits constituting over one-third of those on view. Olympia this year shows, as never before, that as regards design, efficiency. appearance and price. the British car is more than equal to any foreign product. But the combination of the import duty plus rising production costs abroad has given the British manufacturer his chance. Output has been increased, with corresponding diminution in overhead charges, so that prices have fallen to highly competitive levels. In many cases, though prices are the same as before, the cars are really cheaper, because so much additional equipment has been added. Thus, some makers are equipping their cars with such “ extras ” as unsplinterable glass, pneumatic upholstery, vacuum servo brakes, and hydraulic shock absorbers, yet are charging only the same price as they did last year for cars that did not embody these improvements. The constant price reduction that has been made in recent years in the motor trade means that motor-car buyers are in the fortunate position of lieing able to purchase cheaper and far better—cars than in pre-war days. Of few articles of commerce can this lie said. A Schoolboy Tour to New Zealand. The Public Schools’ Empire Tour Committee, formed by Mr Amery two vears ago. is arranging a venture more ambitious than either of the two previous tours to Australia and South Africa. At the beginning of January a party of schoolboys will start on a tour to New Zealand by way of Panama, and return about the middle of May after a homeward voyage via the Suez Canal Seven weeks will be spent in New Zealand in the height of

summer' and the greater part of the voyage round the world will be across summer seas. On the voyage home calls will be made the chief Australian ports and at Colombo. Owing to the length of time occupied on the journey -the tour will be confined to boys who are leaving school at Christmas. The purpose of these tours is to make boys at an impressionable age familiar with the conditions of a settler's life in the countries visited. A certain number of those who took part in the previous tours have returned to Australia and South Africa as settlers, but success is not to be measured only by this criterion. Equally important is the awakening by personal contact of interest in the political, social and agricultural problems of the Dominions. In after-life lads who took part in one of these tours, and were not attracted to the life overseas, still may be able to give useful service to overseas interests, because they once were gatherers of knowledge at first hand. Scientific Aid to Navigation. The Leviathan, of the United States Line, which, sailed from New York on October 6, and is now well out in the Atlantic Ocean, is being guided to Southampton by an instrument which measures the depth of water continuously by timing electric echoes, and thus making it possible for the navigating officers to plot their course as accurately in darkness and fog as in clear daylight. The announcement that this instrument, the fathometer, had been installed on the Leviathan as the latest scientific aid to navigation, was made at the London office of the United States Lines. Tests have proved that the fathometer is especially valuable in approaching land where knowledge cf depth is important. With its aid the Leviathan is able to pick up the 100 fathom curve off the Grand Banks at full speed, where formerly it was necessary to come also to a stop to permit heaving the lead. The fathometer is a small instrument about one foot square, which transmits electrical sounds downward from the keel. The time required for the return of the echoes is timed to a split second, and is translated in fathoms of depth on a clock-like dial. \ arious United States Government departments have co-operated with the submarine signal corporation of Boston in developing the fathometer as an important contribution to navigation. It is now being used on all ships on the coast, and goedetic survey, in making the charts which are supplied to shipping. It has also been adopted as standard equipment by the United States Navy, and by the navies of other important maritime nations. An Olympic Fund.

Thesuggestion is made by Lord Rochdale, chairman of the Olympic Games Committee, that a scheme should be organised for securing a million subscribers at 3d each to a British Olympic Games fund. The chief merit of the proposal is that it would put the financing of the British teams in the future on a satisfactory basis. It is a costly business to send a large number of national representatives to another country, and often to a far distant country, and to maintain them throughout a fairly prolonged athletic festival. There have been difficulties in this country in raising the money necessary for this purpose, and on more than one occasion these difficulties could not have been surmounted if it had not been for the generosity of a few publierspirited people.

Yet the whole nation comes in for not a little reflected credit when, as at the last Olympiad, its representatives are conspicuously successful; and the whole nation, too, takes a deep interest in the Games once they are in progress. If appealed to. therefore, for a trifling sum, it is hardly to be supposed that the public would fail to respond whole-heartedly to Lord Rochdale’s proposal. The Olympic Games deserve all the support that can be given them. They stimulate an enthusiasm for athletics, and this enthusiasm is an excellent check on any tendency on the part of a nation to drift into a C 3 physical condition. There are, admittedly, occasional jealousies, disputes and unpleasantnesses due largely to differences in language and the tension of competition. But, taken as a whole, the Games help to promote international understanding and friendships and the- highest conception of sportsmanship: and they also induce in each contesting nation the best sort of patriotism and a community of endeavour which recognises no class barriers. The British Shoe Industry. One of this country’s leading industries is the manufacture of boots and shoes, and at the opening of the Shoe and Leather Trade Fair Lord Inverforth paid a tribute to the trade for the way in which they had re-organ-ised the industry after the war. When he was Surveyor-General of Supplies at the War Office, he said, he learned to appreciate the extraordinary importance of the industry in supplying equipment, not only for our own army, but to a large extent for our Allies. The high quality of the material used and the workmanship put into the Arm}* boots impressed everybody, and it is those qualities which are the secret of this British industry’s success—a success shown by the fact that in two years our leather exports have increased by 40 per cent and the boot and shoe exports by 20 per cent. Lord Inverforth amused his audience by saying that, “as we spend twothirds of each day (or 243 da}*s in every year) in our boots, wo demand of them an ability to withstand greater strain and resistances than any other object of human apparel is subject to.” In spite of the difficult times through which the trade has passed owing to the world shortage of hides and the high cost of leather, there is every outward evidence of prosperity at the exhibition. The current year has i>ven a great, improvement. Our exports of footwear are nearly two and a half times as great as our imports, and it is estimated that the trad* in this country manufactures 117.000,000 pairs of boots and shoes per annum, of a value of £30.000,000. Among the novelties this year for women are coloured rubber Wellingtons with nigh, Louisshaped heels, leggings and gaiters of varied designs and a new footwear called the “bootee.” The “bootee” is a shoe made in all sorts of fancy shades, but has at the ankle a collar, which can be turned up in wet weather co keep the ankle dry. The rubber Wei-

lingtons are to be this year's substi tute for Russian boots.

The Home of the Future. inventive genius is gradually simplifying the duties of the housewife, and it is possible to visualise the home of the future in which the domestic servant problem will be solved by mechanical, labour-saving devices, which remove all drudgery. A remarkable collection of new inventions will be on view at the forthcoming Exhibition of the Institute of Patentees. A chef is the inventor of an electrical contrivance which cooks meat on both sides at once, thus grilling it to perfection and improving its quality by detaining its juice. A combination of knife and fork for use by one-armed persons,, and an anti-splash device for soda water syphons are the inventions of a waiter. Furniture which “ contrives a double debt to pay ” is represented by a combined wardrobe and settee, and a sideboard which can be converted into a bed. A portable gas heater which will quickly bring bath water to the required temperature has a companion in an improved type of hot water vessel constructed of alminium and containing a vacuum, round which the water circulates, thoroughly airing clothes placed in the container.

Few women—or men—relish the inevitable “ washing up ” which follows every meal, and they will learn with interest of the arrival of a machine which supersedes the dish cloths and bowl. It is claimed that crockery passed through the machine is cleansed thoroughly, there being a fresh supply of hot, soapy water for each article. A method of increasing the heat radiated by fire grates and a device, to be attached to a door, which rings a bell and switches on the light when the knocker is touched, are also on view. Burglars will learn with disgust of an invention which makes it impossible to unfasten a window from the outside. For the smoker, there is a combined cigarette and match box, and a pipe which is kept free from nicotine and moisture. Motorists have not been overlooked, the inventions including a shock absorber, which minimises the damage in the event of a collision, and tyre grip which saves time and temper.