“Menace From Masked Villains Of All The Thrillers.”

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18780, 8 June 1929, Page 4

“Menace From Masked Villains Of All The Thrillers.”

SIR JAMES BARRIE TELLS STORY OF “ A STRANGE AFFAIR AT CHEQUERS." (Special to the “ Star.”) LONDON, April 23. SIR JAMES BARRIE was in a characteristically whimsical mood in his speech at the Newspaper Press Fund dinner in London last night. Using his wineglass as telephone receiver. Sir James carried on an imaginary conversation with Lord Bvng at Scotland Yard. “ They want to know if the Premier (who was one of the guests at the dinner) has got a gun.” said the author of “ Peter Pan” to a convulsed audience. “The streets are seething with men in masks—they have broken out of every detective story the Premier has ever read, and are after him !’*

Sir James, who respooded to the toast of “Journalism,” said: — “If Shakespeare had come to London nowadays I suppose he would have become a journalist. “ You know I don’t think ho would have written plays; ho would have turned them into novels, thrillers for which Mr Baldwin admits a dark partiality. “ ‘Hamlet,’ if written in these days, would probably be called ‘ The Strange Affair at Elsinore.’ How hard on me to have to make a speech when I know that the Prime Minister would far rather I told him a detective story. “At that moment the telephone bell rang.” said Sir James picking up his wineglass and listening. “Most Astounding Case.” “ Hallo, hallo. Yes, I'm here. I'm speaking, who are you?—lt’s Scotland Yard—the Yard asks you as a favour, ladies and gentlemen, not to wipe your glasses, as the waiters are plain clothes men taking finger prints. , “Who No 1? Oh!” (Looking at Mr Baldwin.) “ Yes. he is here. He is in great danger. They want to know if he has a gun. They say it is the most astounding case the Yard has ever had. “ A complete change has come, over London since we sat down to dinner. The streets are seething with men in masks and princesses with daggers in their stockings. They have broken out of every detective story No. 1 has ever read, and all of them are after him.. “ He will never return to Downing Street alive unless I can bring him. He and I must leave the hotel first and ; alone, and, as soon as two leave, it i is to be blown up.—End of Chapter I. of “The Strange Affair at Chequers.” I “ London in My Eye.” “ When I was interrupted—by Lord Byng—continued Sir James, “I was about to say that some Pressmen have discovered that I am an old-timer, and asked me to speak about my own journalistic days. “Of course, London was in my eye. I had sent a few- articles to the most glorious editor I have ever known, Frederick Greenwood—if it had not been fpr him and, later, Robertson Nicoll, I suppose I would have had to go back and become a clerk. “ I indited to Greenwood a prose sonnet, saying that if he thought I could make £1 a week in London I knew I could live on it, but that, whatever his advice was, I should follow it. “He replied, promptly, ‘For Heaven’s sake, stay where you are,’ so I came up next week. “Gradually 3 made my only noteworthy discovery—that I myself had no mind, but that T could enter for the space of a column into the minds of other people. “My experiences as a medical man— I can’ still smell the dispensary I was never in; T have been a member of the House of Commons and a policeman at its doors—sec my article about how I was locked up in the Clock Tower—l have been the last blacksmith of Gretna

Green, and deans and bishops, so that it is a wonder gaiters did not grow on my legs.

" I noticed to-night, gentlemen, that quite a number of you, when offered succulent dishes, waved them aside. How now, sirs, what has come over “ Have you forgotten certain cookings by a lodging fire—and an adjacent shop ?” “ That shop used, as if the scenes were Verona, to open its casements to the dewy night, so that its Juliets, the chops, might more alluringly address us. “ Those tremulous days, were they as happy as they seem seen through the smoke of this banqueting hall? If the smoke were to clear away too much, which of us would not be the first to shiver? The street lodgings that we used to pace waiting hungrily for the postman with the proofs, which are editors’ loveletters—would we, even for the prize of living our lives differently, writing our works differently, would we, if we could, resume those pacings on flagstones that are perhaps still indented with our shoes? Yes, for that prize I know one of us who would. “ Undimmed hours! Yes, let us hope so. And yet, could memory so beguile, if in the present that shivering fit were on us? “ Jt is on a good many in Fleet Street to-night. That is why we are here. “ But so comfortably here. Perhaps the gifts we give are just dope to ourselves so that we may not shiver.” Mr Baldwin’s Tilt. Mr Baldwin, who proposed the toast of ‘‘Journalism,” said: “Until I was nearly fifty I never knew a journalist except my cousin, Kipling, who left that great profession early, being assured by his proprietor that in no circumstances and in no profession could he ever hope to earn more than £4OO a year. “ Conceive with what pleasure I come here feeling that if I am able to draw on my overdraft to help your fund I may be helping Mr Lloyd George in his old age. . “If I can feel I have made it possible for him in years to come to have a little broccoli for his supper, I Khali feel I have not lived in vain.” (Laughter.) £IO,OOO Gilt. Major Astor, who presided at the dinner, announced a gift of £IO.OOO to the Newspaper Press Fund from Lord Rothcrmere. The original manuscript of Sir James Barrie’s “The Twelve Pound Look” was sold during the evening for 2300 guineas to Mr Gabriel W ells. A blank canvas, presented by Mr Philip de Laszlo, on which he offered to paint a portrait of the purchaser, was sold to the Hon Peter Larkin. High Commissioner for Canada, for 1100 guineas. . . , . . A letter addressed to the Admiralty bv Oliver Cromwell in 1655 was purchased by Sir James Barrie for 150 guineas. A drawing by Sir William Orpen fell to Lord Derby for 200 guineas. During the evening Mr S. Smeed, the secretary, said the total received for the fund was £27.000. . It was also announced that the Stock Exchange Mutual Subscription Fund (the Derbv “Sweepstake”) had increased its donation to 1000 guineas.