A London Letter.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19108, 28 June 1930, Page 24 (Supplement)

A London Letter.

Special to the "STAR”

(Special to the "Star.”) LONDON. May IS. F IS EXPECTED that, given favourable weather, the King will visit Cowes to watch some of the special races between his veteran cutter Britannia and Shamrock V., the new challenger for the America Cup. These races are to be sailed in the Solent between May 28 and June 9, and the King will take up quarters on the Victoria and Albert, going afloat for the first time for nearly eighteen months. It is unlikely that he will sail in the Britannia until she takes part in the Cowes week. The Royal yacht Victoria and Albert, which flies the flag of Vice-Admiral Sir Henry Buller, has been under refit at Portsmouth. The Queen may also spend a few days at Cowes to watch the new challenger race against the King’s cutter. Opinions expressed on the matches which are being arranged for Shamrock V. fail to agree that they-are the best possible test for her. There is talk of one race, round the Isle of Wight, which would certainly be a good if j-athep prolonged trial, but the majority of Solent regatta courses, being round fixed marks, are not to be relied on to give an all-round test of the yacht’s capabilities. Moreover, competing against half-a-dozen yachts is not the same thing as competing against one, for some of the skippers may be tempted to • keep Shamrock V from winning, even when their own chances of success are remote. One or two special cohtests against, say, Candida, over a windward and leeward, or a triangular course, in open water would, it is argued, tell us mere about the yacht than any other kind. Still, other yachtsmen say: “ Let her race against six. If she cannot beat the lot it will be no use sending her across! ” Sir Thomas Lipton, owner of Shamrock V., has become an octogen-, arian, and his energy is being concentrated on another attempt to lift the America Cup. He is a personality, and King Edward, who had a great regard for him, honoured him with his friendship for many years. Sir Thomas's career reads like a chapter out of Samuel Smiles’s “Self Help.” for time was when he slept under the counter of his single grocer’s shop. He says that he owes everything to his mother. He has never married, and, addressing H meeting of young men the other day, he gave the advice: “ Make your mother the goal of your ambitions.” T h ® Gloster Napier seaplane offered for sale by the Air Ministry has been purchased by Mr Amhurst Villiers, a young man with a gift for mechanics. He intends to remove the floats of the seaplane, fit ’a light under-carriage, supercharge the engine, and then make an attack on the world’s speed record for aeroplanes—as distinct from seaplanes. The aeroplane speed record stands at 280 miles an hour, which France has held for several years. The seaplane

record, held by Britain, is, of course, higher. The Gloster Napier is one of the machines built for the Schneider Trophy race on the Lido in 1927, but it was superseded by a slightly improved type just before the race. The improved type was known as the Gloster Napier 48, and won the race in a sensational manner. The Gloster Napier 4A’s were never used, and it is one of these that Mr Villiers has bought. It is not supercharged as are the later Schneider Trophy machines, but Mr Villiers is an expert on supercharging, and, as the maker of the supercharger fitted to the Bentley car on which Mr “Tim” Birkin broke the lap record at Brooklands at Easter, will know how to carry out this improvement. With supercharging and the absence of floats, it is believed that 50 miles an hour mav be added to the speed of the machine, which was built originally for a speed, as a seaplane, of about 300 miles an hour. Whether a machine can be taxied over the ground safely at the 100 miles per hour necessary before such a machine can take off, or whether it will stand the shock of landing at such a high speed, remains to be seen. Therein, too, lies a great test of skill and courage. In 1927 Britain did not hold a single air record. Now she holds all the important ones save the non-stop flight record and the aeroplane speed record. THE QUEEN is busy superintending the preparation of the State apartments at Buckingham Palace for the first two courts of the season. Extra gilt chairs and tables' have to be placed in the waiting galleries as. well as in the Throne Room itself. Then there

are supper arrangeH ments to be made. ■ and accommodation ■ found for the aug|j mented staff, and Jj the military band ■ that plays to the H guests, to mention I only a few things that call for atten|l 4 tion. The floral dell corations are to be |§ chiefly white and

red, including roses and carnations, as well as beautiful flowering shrubs in gilt tubs. The Queen has five court gowns all ready, one blue, one grey, one rose, one silver, and one cloth of gold. Her Majesty, who has always preferred long skirts for formal occasions, is well pleased with the gowns that are now being chosen by the debutantes. Creamy-white, oyster and pearl, parchment, and ice-white satin silver tissues, and chiffon fall in long classical lines to the feet, with delicate embroidery in Greek patterns of pearl and silver at the natural waist line and across the square-necked bodies, to suggest the folds of classical statuary drapery. All the details are planned in keeping with the classical setting. Debutantes are choosing sheaves of flowers, cr bouquets shaped like lyres; instead of show bouquets or clusters oi blooms. Hair, which many of the 1930 debutantes wear long, is to be dressed in Greek curls on the nape of the neck, and Greek fillets of pearl and silver have been designed as an additional safeguard for the veil and feathers.

Feathery white orchids, lilies of the valley, palest yellow roses, and blush pink carnations are the flowers that the 1930 debutante will choose for her bouquet. Bunches of white violets tucked in the waistline or posed on the shoulder will be additional floral touches. *r* M ti PRIVATE owners of aircraft are well pleased with the new regulations for this year’s air race for the King’s Cup on the first Saturday in July. The , . i ■ race will be flown * n one day instead \ ) of on two succesc J sive days as previously, as the course has been shortened by omitting the JUgST Scottish turning points. Newcastle, iir the furthest point from London, will Hull, and the re turn journey will be by Manchester Castle Bromwich, Bristol and Southampton. ' Thus, competitors will not. have to fly over the Cheviots, always a difficult and often a dangerous stretch of country for amateur pilots. More important than changes in the course, however, are alterations in the rules about competing aircraft. In the past, the race has been open to every type of machine, from the latest singleseater fighters to the smallest and low-est-powered machines. This year all war machines are baxted from entry, and civil aircraft must have a minimum speed of eighty miles an hour. The result will be a close race on handicap, without those hours of waiting that made previous contests rather uninteresting at the provincial con trol points. Instead of a contest between tortoises with a long start and hares at scratch, the race will be more of a test of reliability, and of skill in piloting and navigation. A good entrv is assured, for there are well over a hundred owner pilots to-day, and there is the certainty of many club competitors. « ss WHEN the text of the Naval Treaty was issued, it was assumed that the Government were committed to the maintenance of not less thafc 50 cruisers, none of them being more than 16 years old, and in view of the fact that so many of our existing cruisers are obsolescent, shipbuilders, marine engineers, and others concerned in the construction and equipment of men-of-war were encouraged to belive that, since so much new work had been delayed until the result of the Conference, orders of considerable volume would shortly be placed by the Admiralty. From LArd Parmoor’s statement in the House of Lords, it is clear that these assumptions, though they were justifiably based on the terms of the Treaty", were without foundation. Though sixteen years is to be the effective life of, a cruiser under the American or • Japanese flags, and these countries will be at liberty to replace all such vessels when this age is reached. twenty years is the standard by which the British Government is adjusting its shipbuilding policy.

Lord Parmoor has now confessed the existence of this discrepancy between the Government’s policy and the terms of the Treaty, and it seems as though even on this basis we shall not maintain as many as 60 really efficient cruisers. This has occasioned some surprise, since at the Geneva Conference the British delegates estimated that some seventy cruisers with a reserve of older vessels, would be necesssary to meet the reconnaissance requirements of the battle fleets and the strategic needs on the trade routes of miles. JPOR those who have known him a long time there are two John Masefields. The first, the pale, dark-haired young visionary of the earlier literary phase in Greenwich and London—the young ballad writer and book reviewei who still carried about with him the air of one whose thoughts sailed strange seas and wandered among the sinister Vegetation of the tropics. The other, the famous John Mase

field living among the group of poets that look down from Parnassus upon Oxford; whose home is a shrine foi American pilgrims; and whose first editions are tracked down by the collectors of valuable books. One can fix the

moment of the transition from the first Masefield to the Masefield of to-day. It came with the publication of “The Everlasting Mercy’’ in the English Review not very long before the war. The long narrative poem created an immediate impression—one might call it, without exaggeration, a literary sensation—and immediately sent up by thousands the circulation of the review.

The editor of that day, Mr Austin Harrison, found that Mr Masefield had become essential to the success of his magazine, and eagerly secured a sue cession of similar realistic poems. The shy young author of “A Mainsail Haul,” who loved to haunt estuaries, docks, rivers, canal banks and any place where a man might see ships going out or coming home, became the famous man of letters and predestined Poet Laureate.

His play “Philip the King” ha 6 been broadcast, and he speaks of wireless as an introduction to literature. He foresees that the English public will gradually find- itself trained to listen to poetry, and particularly to poetic drama, just as it is being trained to listen to music.

'T'HE winter’s work of the joint exA pedition of the British Museum and of the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania in Mespotamia has ended with a surprising find. It was decided to excavate an “insignificant mount” at Ur, and it proved to conceal the best preserved temple yet found at Ur, or, indeed, anywhere in Mesopotamia.

The Temple was founded by Nebuchadnezzar about 600 8.C., and was added to and restored about fifty years later by Nabonidus. In the antechamber leading to the sanctuary there

is a pillar of burnt brick, which held up the roof, and in the outer court a screen wall, also of burnt brick, added by Nabonidus, which masks the approach to the sanctuary and is certainly an unusual feature. Nabonidus further put in a staircase wltich led up from an outer passage to a spot above, the sanctuary door, and implies something corresponding to a roof loft. But what makes the building most remarkable is its condition. The walls stand without exception to a height of almost twenty feet, and even the whitewash on them is preserved.

The expedition has put a temporary roof over the temple to protect it against the summer sand storms, and their report adds: *Tt is now possible to walk down into the dark interior of Nebuchadnezzar’s shrine, and almost , to forget that its massive walls were built 2500 years ago/' The antiquities found during the season have been divided between the Iraq Government and the expedition. Fifty-three cases of articles, many of the oldest objects found in the Mesopotamian Valley, are coming to London.