LONDON LETTER

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18644, 22 December 1928, Page 11

LONDON LETTER

Zeppelin Activity—Motor Progress—Housing Art Treasures—Cook Relics— Kipling Sale—Mystery of the Atom •—Circus for London.

(Special to the “Star.”) LONDON, October 17. The Zeppelin Flight. Survivals of war-time feeling will not prevent British people from congratulating the owners of the airship Count Zeppelin upon the successful completion of her Atlantic voyage. The Germans were in pre-War days the chief pioneers in airship construction, and in post-War days they have excelled in the construction of aeroplanes. Thejr resumption of airship construction along the most approved lines has been crowned with success. Two British airships are in course of construction, and, in fact, nearing completion, the owners of which had been hoping to make a new record in the Atlantic crossing. In a few months those airships will be in commission, and, the Atlantic trip having now lost its first attraction, they will probably be immediately engaged in commercial flying eastward in order to establish a regular service to India and eventually to Australia as an Imperial transit service. 1 ‘^i-i Their speed will not equal that, of an aeroplane, but they will be capable of flying for longer periods without descending for fuel, and will be able to carry passengers and light cargo. The Zeppelin has created a world’s record for uninterrupted flight. One could have hoped for this pioneer trip a smooth and pleasant voyage: the fact that the airship has survived a severe storm and a partial disablement of her machinery affords better grounds for congratulation. The 1928 Olympia Motor Exhibition. The Motor Exhibition of 1928 is an assured success for there is no slackening in the interest in motoring by the general public, and the firms exhibiting continue to offer increased value and more attractive products. Possibly the most notable improvement is to be found in body-work, where we find a marked development in better finish, greater comfort, and a wider use of safety glass. The colour schemes also are gayer and in much better taste. The boom in light six-cylinder cars which began two years ago shows no signs of abatement, while many makers, including the old-established firm of Lanchester, are producing eight-cylin-der models. The price of these luxury vehicles is so modest that actually we are well below pre-War prices in motor values. At the other end of the scale we have miniature cars at not much more than £IOO. They have a wonderful performance, and do incredibly long distances on a gallon of petrol. Probably there is no other country in the world that trims out such numbers of these juniors as Great Britain, although there are signs that Continental firms are waking up to the fact that they are being left behind. While comparatively few stands exhibit chasses without bodies, there are a number of British firms showing engines by themselves, or engines in section. The policy is greatly appreciated by critical or knowing members of the public. One Continental firm show's a fine striped chassis consisting of a single tubular frame for which both strength and lightness are claimed. Whatever its merits it looks a fine piece of engineering. The Armstrong-Siddeley car which changes its gear itself rightly claimed a vast amount of attention: the extra cost of this device ranges from £3O to £SO according to the model. Front wheel drive is standardised, and there are new and modified forms of suspension all of which have something to recommend them. In this category mav be placed pneumatic upholstery which is very restful over a long run. The interest shown by women in motoring is very evident from the great number of girls and elderly ladies at Olympia. The younger generation gather round the sports saloons and racing cars, while the dowagers sample the latest Rolls Royce or other highpowered coach. It is greatly to be hoped that the talk of discontinuing this popular international exhibition has no solid foundation, and that the Olympia Motor Show may continue to delight the public for many a year to come. Britain’s Art Treasures. Munificent offers to assist the adequate display of the nation’s art treasures have been made by Sir Joseph Duveen. They include a new gallery for Italian art at the National Gallery and a gallery for foreign sculpture at the Tate, two projects already made public; an additional wing of the National Portrait Gallery and a capital sum to the trustees of the British Museum to provide a more fittingly artistic setting for the famous Elgin Marbles and the Nereid monument. The offers are a direct outcome of the interim report of the Royal Commission on National Museums and Galler ies, and are made through Lord D’Abernoii, the chairman of the Commission, w’lio is himself a trustee both of the Tate and National Galleries. They will be a remarkably generous addition to the great benefactions already made by Sir Joseph Duveen and his family to the national collections. The Turner Galleries at the Tate were the gift of his father, though they were opened in 1910; and, after his death in 1926, Sir Joseph added the fine foreign gallery for modern pictures at a cost of some £70,000.

Sir Joseph announced some time ago his desire to provide a gallery for foreign sculpttire, and it will comprise not only additional wall space for pictures, but safe storage for art treasure above the level of possible floods over the Thames Embankment. The final plans for the new gallery are now practically settled, lie is prepared also to provide for other urgent reeonstructional needs iof the Tate, particularly for a system of improved lighting. His other offers, especially that of a new gallery for Italian art at the National Gallery, are no less welcome. The needs of the National Portrait Gallery, which contains an unexampled collection of historical and educational interest, are urgent, for it is now 7 hopelessly congested. It is a very oddly designed building; and, with some 2000 portraits on view, it has little room for adequate exhibition, let alone extension.

Relics of Captain Cook. To mark the bi-centenary of the birth of Captain Cook on October 28, an exhibtion of Admiralty documents relating to various phases of Cook’s career as navigator and explorer has been arranged in the Museum of the Public Record Office. Many people believe that there are few such records in exinstence, but in fact there are 134 of

Cook’s logs at the Public Record Office alone, and others of his journals which have been rescued from the wilderness of Admiralty archives are to be found at the British Museum and elsewhere. One or two of the logs now on view had fallen into disrepair, and they have been carefully rebound. They are documents which are well worthy of scrutiny, and Cook’s firm, round handwriting makes his own records of his voyages quite easy to read. There is the muster roll of H.M.S. Eagle, showing that Cook entered the Royal Navy as an able seaman on June 17. 1775, and became master’s mate very soon afterwards. A document which has been overlooked by Cook’s biographers, and which is to be seen here, is an manuscript volume of secret instructions given to him before he sailed on his first voyage in the Endeavour. That this famous Yorkshireman was a strict disciplinarian is shown by an entry in his log of the Endeavour, in which he recorded that he had “punished Samuel Jones with a dozen lashes for disobedience.” His logs were admirably illustrated, and there is a special chart of part of the north-west coast of America, which was enclosed in Cook’s last letter to the Admiralty, delivered by a Russian who had shown great hospitality to the expedition when they landed in Siberia. A personal relic is a letter which Cook wrote to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty in 1771 asking for three weeks' leave of absence in which to go down *° to transact some business and “to see an aged father.” Kipling Rarities for Sale. A series of twenty-six Kipling items, several of which are of those eagerly sought at high prices by collectors, will be offered at Sotheby’s in a few weeks’ time. A few days ago Mr Bernard Shaw gave the following counsel:—“l strongly advise my friends to sell any scrap of any letters of mine they may. have. There is a boom in such things, and they might as well get the best prices they can. The market is better than it has been for years.” The extent of Kipling spoil that has recently come under the hammer in London and New York suggests that admirers of Mr Rudyard Kipling desire to take advantage of a “good market,” though it is by no means certain whether valuations have reached anything like their highest, albeit, to cite a notable instance, the Plumtre Johnson copy of “The Smith Administration,” 1891, fetched the equivalent of £2867 in America last November. first “lot,” belonging to “A Lady, possesses a unique attraction. This example of the first edition, 1881, of “Schoolboy Lyrics,” printed in India by the young author’s parents while he was at school in England, is in the original white paper wrappers, the outer top one of which bears a spirited pen-and-ink design by the w 7 riter introducing tailed devils, grotesque figures, flowers, etc., with a monogram signature at the base. This is the only known example so embellished. Measuring 6. 13-16 in by 4 5-16 in, it is only a shade smaller than the largest copy known, 6gin by 4£in, which at the Plumtre Johnson dispersal realised 4/50 dollars (about £973) eleven months ago. Bibliographers state that two copies oifly have been traced of “Letters of Marque,” Vol. I, published by Sampson Low in 1891, practically the w 7 hole edition of 1500 having been destroyed. The G. M. Williamson example came under the hammer in 1915 Captain Martmdell’s iii 1921, when it fetched i-100, and again last Januarv when the price soared to 10,900 dollars. A third, m original wrappers, and in exceptionally fine condition, will be competed for at Sotheby’s. There also occurs the holograph manuscript, comprising 21 quatrains, of "With Scindia to Delhi ” with vanant lines in red, differing slightly from the poem as it appears in l:'w a m 1892.™ Bal ' adS ' ? ' firSt British Expedition to Malaya. A new attempt to solve the secret of the atom is to be made bv British scientists in the jungle of the Malay Pemnsuln. It is hoped that important spectroscopic examinations will be made at a total eclipse of the sun on May 9 of next year. An attempt will also be made to measure the temperaturcs and pressures of gases round the sun , which cannot be reproduced -u any laboratory. The four scientists who have been appointed by the joint permanent committee of the Roval Society and the Royal Astronomical Society, are Dr J. Jackson and Mr P J. Melette of Greenwich, and Colonei b. J. M. Stratton and Dr Carroll of Cambridge. They sail in FebruaryThe belt of totality—the band of earth along which the full eclipse is visible will stretch across the north of Sumatra the Malay Peninsula, the southern pon tion of Indo-China and the Philippine Islands, to end in the Pacific. Dr Jackson and Dr Carroll (uf the Solar Physics Laboratory, Cambridge) will make their headquarters at Alor Star, in the Malay State of Kedah on the western side of the peninsula Colonel Stratton and Mr Melotte will camp near Pateni, in Siam. At last year’s eclipse in England the astronomers worked in macintoshes. This time sunhelmets and shorts will be the order of the day. While at Giggleswick thev only had twenty-four seconds in which to make their observations. This time they will have close on five minutes Dr Carroll and Colonel Stratton wili carry out the spectroscopic observations, which, it is hoped, mav assist scientists to understand something of the constitution of the atom. Dr Jackson and Mr Melotte will attempt to reaffirm Einstein’s theory of relativity by what is known as the astronomical test. A Circus for Earl’s Court. It is welcome news that the Earl’s Court Exhibition site is to be used for the purpose of establishing a permanent circus in London. Many Londoners and visitors from the provinces have happy pre-war memories of the old Earl's Court Exhibitions, which were on a somewhat more intimate scale ihan the displays at the White City, and were quite domestic affairs in comparison with Wembley. During the ‘-war. and for some little time afterwards, Earl's Court was occupied by various departments of the Ministry of Munitions, but in recent years it has been more or less derelict. A few months ago an elaborate scheme was mooted for building a big hall on the I site to house the British Industries Fair, and this scheme is not likely to be affected by the circus project, as the site is sufficiently large to accom-

modate both buildings. There is a school of thought which regards circuses with disfavour on the ground that certain animal performances are undesirable, but everyone enjoys the skill of the trained horses, which take a conceited pride in their own performance, and in the artistry of that master of stage effect, the clown. For several years past London has had three circuses at each Christmas season —at the Crystal Palace, Olympia, and the Agricultural Hall—and their success has doubtless inspired Mr Gordon Bostock to formulate the Earl’s Court project. He talks of having three separate rings—a scheme that did not prove notably successful when tried at Wembley during the British Empire Exhibition—a human company of 150 to 200, an animal company of elephants, lions, bears, sea lions, and tigers, and a menagerie and “congress of freaks.” During the summer he proposes to take the circus on tour under canvas, and to convert Earl’s Court into an English “Coney Island.” Eros for Piccadilly. When the great scheme of tube reconstruction through Piccadilly Circus was inaugurated the famous Gilbert Fountain with the silver Eros, one of the most familiar objects in London, had to be removed to other quarters. An excellent site in the Embankment Gardens was chosen, and there the monument had remained ever since. With the prospect of Piccadilly Circus being liberated from the contractors’ hands and the demolition of the unsightly building in its centre, the inevitable controversy has begun as to whether the famous landmark should return to its original site, remain on the Embankment, or be transferred to a fresh site. At one time it was suggested that a space near Hyde Park Corner would be the best for Eros-—in front of St George’s Hospital. The Artillery Monument, however, has been erected on that spot, and the prevailing impression is that Eros should go back to Piccadilly. The idea that the fountain was an obstruction no longer holds good liecause of the introduction of the roundabout traffic system, the adoption of which is, indeed, an argument in favour of a pretty central fountain being placed there. •