FROM ENGLAND TO NORWAY IN LESS THAN ONE DAY.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 146, 22 June 1931, Page 6

FROM ENGLAND TO NORWAY IN LESS THAN ONE DAY.

A London Letter

Salvage Ship to Reclaim £1,054,000 of Bullion lost in the Bay of Biscay. (Special to the “Star.”) LONDON, May 14. From England to Norway in less than a day has been established as a record in fast and luxurious sea travel by the Venus, the fastest motor ship in the world, which has made a spectacular entry into the Newcastle-Bergen service. Glorious weather favoured the maiden voyage of this ship, the performance of which constitutes an important development in modern shipping.

PASSENGERS included a party of British newspaper men and representatives of the big tourist services, and all were greatly impressed by the wonders of the vessel and the comfortable passage across the North Sea. The Venus is the "ocean greyhound" of the North Sea. Of 7000 tons displacement, she is a luxury ship possessing many of the most alluring amenities of the crack Atlantic liners. Besides being the fastest motor ship afloat, she is also so comfortable that the North Sea at its worst can now hold no terrors for the timid traveller. The dimensions of the hull, together with the large quantity of water ballast carried, ensure easy movements in a rough sea. Each cabin is fitted with bedsteads and marble wash-basins, with running hot and cold water. A glassed-in promenade deck houses the public rooms, which include a spacious dining-room, lounge, a smoking room with domed ceiling, and a verandah cafe. There is also a sun deck. The decorative scheme of the restaurant is ivory, with mellow blue pillars and pink curtains. The vessel has total accommodation for 184 first class passengers and 78 second class. She reduces the sailing time from quay to quay between Newcastle and Bergen from 26£ hours to 20i hours. Shaw on Journalism. “ I am a journalist and nothing else all the time," declared Mr George Bernard Shaw, proposing the toast of “ The Profession of Journalism,” at a luncheon of the Institute of Journalists, which Mr Shaw joined at the age of 73. “ What is the greatest service that journalism has to render to the public?" he asked. “ Journalism largely provides the public with its mind. Most people have either made-up minds or no minds at all, and w 7 hat is in their heads is exactly what the papers put into them. The difficulty is the question of the time lag. Take my own case. What I have got to do is to tell people things about life and about themselves. There I stop. I am a journalist." He had had rather a rough time because nature constituted him so that when a thing happened he perceived it had happened. Most people took about twenty years to realise it. They were suffering because the public had a terrible time lag. The great duty of journalists was to abolish it and to make people understand that the world was continually changing, and that it was no use trading on ideas obsolete before they were born. At the present time, said Mr Shaw, the Press was lagging very badly in many ways. It had not yet recognised that the Russian revolution had taken place, and that the Russian Soviet had come to stay. In consequence we had thrown away one of the most magnificent commercial chances we ever could hope to see in our lifetime. He urged them not to write about these subjects like old-fashioned governesses in a very old-fashioned town. If they did the time lag would beat them and they would lose their power over the public mind. A great deal of that power was already passing to the wireless. The moral of it was that they had got to abolish their time lag, they had got to face the future and stop dreaming about the past. Secret Salvage Voyage. The salvage steamer, Reclaimer, now lying off Sunderland, is preparing for the mission of reclaiming the £1,054,000 of bullion which went down with the P. and O. liner Egypt in 1922 when she sank in the Bay of Biscay off Ushant. The Reclaimer is being equipped with more than her customary salvage outfit. Special diving suits for big depths have been put aboard, as well as new air compressors and for marVincr wruotrc

Recently she took in bunkers at the South Docks, but so far no provision stores have been delivered to her, nor has a full complement of crew been engaged. The crew and officials of the company are sworn to secrecy. In the Egypt’s strong room were: Gold bars £674,000, gold coin £165,000, and silver bars £215,000. The underwriters and insurance companies paid £1,100,000. The liner Egypt sank off Ushant in May, 1922, with the loss of 87 lives after collision with a French steamer. There have been numerous attempts at salvage. Italian salvors located the wreck last August at a depth of 400 ft, and operations have been proceeding since. One of the salvage ships, Artiglio, was blown up near Brest last December with the loss of twelve lives. Her place has been taken by a French vessel, which has been renamed Artiglio. Loss to Savoy Opera. The death of Miss Bertha Lewis, following a motor accident in which she was involved with Sir Henry Lytton, another noted Savoyard, is a grievous loss to the D’Oyley Carte Company, of which she was one of the most popular members. Her voice had lost some of its richness, but she remained as ever an artist of commanding personality. She was always able to retain a remarkable degree of freshness in her interpretation of the various contralto roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan repertoire, and it would be difficult to say in which of the characters she shone most. She herself has said that she had no favourite part—she loved them all, and always went on each night feeling that she was playing the role for the first time. That, no doubt, was one of the secrets of her continued success, but when such an unflagging spirit was allied to talents so comprehensive, talents which enabled her to interpret Gilbert’s whimsical humour and Sullivan’s imperishable melodies with equal success, there is no need to look further for the solid attributes which placed her so high in the estimation of the public and her fellow artists. There was, indeed, a strong bond of affection between Miss Lewis and the public, and there will be many thousands of opera lovers all over the country who will feel a personal pang of regret at the tragic end to her career. Miss Lewis, who was born on May 12, 1887, was educated at Ursuline Convent, Upton, and after studying at the Royal Academy of Music, of which she was an associate, made her first stage appearance at the Grand Theatre, Southampton, in June, 1906, as Kate in “The Pirates of Penzance.” Her first London appearance was in July, 1908, at the Savoy Theatre, when her performance as Gwenny Davis in “A Welsh Sunset” did much to establish her reputation. In private life she was Mrs Heyner, the wife of Captain Herbert Heyner.