BEER GARDEN IN HYDE PARK IS MR LANSBURY'S VISION.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 192, 14 August 1931, Page 8

BEER GARDEN IN HYDE PARK IS MR LANSBURY'S VISION.

A London Letter.

Invites Temperance Reformers to Tilt Yard at Hampton Court.

(Special to the “ Star.”) LONDON. July 8

Rady Astor and her fellow teetotallers are up in arms against Mr George Lansbury. They regard him as a traitor to the cause of total abstinence from alcoholic liquors because he has said that he sees no harrr\ in permitting people to partake of intoxicants in wholesome surroundings, in spite of the fact that he is an abstainer himself.

JJE HAS EVEN ISSUED an open invitation to all temperance reformers to visit the Tilt Yard at Hampton Court Palace, where a liquor license was recently granted. Mr Lansbury is reported as saying that in his opinion the modern “ pub ” where people stand at the bar

and drink for hours on end, even if they only drink a little, is very demoralising. , “ I want to let pure davlight into the liar parlour,” declares Mr Lansbury. “ I think it is better to live without stimulants of any kind, but I have never felt, and never can feel, that people who take the other point of view are any worse than myself.” And he boldly fore-

tells a day when people will sit at their ease in Hyde Park and consume their drinks as in a German beer garden! For many years the rigid self-righteous attitude of teetotallers has been gradually breaking down, though people still exist who are unable to argue in a temperate manner about the virtue of temperance, in the narrow meaning of that' word as employed in discussions about the use and abuse of alcoholic beverages. The novelty of Mr Lansbury’s case is that he is actually countenancing, as a member of the Government of the day, a movement which has hitherto been officially frowned upon by those in high places through fear of displeasing the teetotallers. Of late years very considerable improvements have been made in converting the public-houses into reasonable places of refreshment, but these changes-have often only been made in the teeth of great opposition. American Goodwill. The ten American boys and girls who are visiting England and France on an interesting mission of peace and friendship reached London one e\*ening this week from Plymouth. They are some sightseeing, and are to be received by the Lord Mayor at the Guildhall before a “ goodwill meeting,” when they will foregather with representatives of the leading youth organisations in this country. After that, the young visitors will have a varied programme in England before leaving for Paris. —* The party was chosen in America with characteristic care and thoroughness, so that they should be worthy representatives of the nineteen and a half million members oi the youth societies, groups and schools In the U.S.A. The young people are between fourteen and eighteen years of age, and their mission of friendship is cordially supported by President Hoover, and indeed, by most of the leading people in the United States, where the trip has aroused general interest. The envoys represent the whole of America in the geographical sense. There is one from Michigan, one from Texas, one from California, two from New York, one from Maryland, and four from Washington. Among the qualifications insisted upon were perfect health, manifest intelligence, good personality, and high character. Some of the members were chosen as winners in an essay contest, others were selected by such organisations as the Junior Red Cross, the Scouts and the Y.M.C.A.. The United States Flag Association, which has organised the visit, chose one of the members, a girl of sixteen. She speaks French well, and at the children’s goodwill meeting which is to be held in Paris, and attended by several thousand boys and girls, she will m s u @ si ® in (u m ® sj @ in ® in ® ® ® ® ® ® i

deliver in French a message of friendship, to the youth of France from the youth of America. A Big Game Picture. One of the most romantic enterprises in the history of the British film industry, the Frankrin-Granville big game expedition, which has been organising during the past few weeks, will shortly leave for India and the P'ar East. Its itinerary will include visits to China, Japan, the Malay Archipelago, Siam, Burma. Nepal, Tibet and Afghanistan. The main film, which it is intended to make a panorama of India, is provisional*y called “ Fil Nishin,” translated as “ lie Who Rides the Elephant.” It is to be produced with American co-operation in the multicolour process, a which enables the exhibitor to show the colour film through his ordinary projector without complications of any kind. The “high spot” of the expedition will be a great elephant drive in Burma, arrangements for which have been already made by Captain Franklin, an experienced Indian big game hunter, in association with Captain C. R. Billiter, the big game organiser of Paul J. Rainey’s “ African Hunt ” film a few years ago. The native players will be chosen in Bombay, but the white players, not yet finally selected, will leave London for India towards the end of August. Mr F. Leroy Granville, the British producer, who is organising the expedition, stated on the eve of his departure for Hollywood, that it had been arranged as the best means of demonstrating the general possibilities of colour, in association, of course, with sound. “ America is convinced,” he said, “ that there are more colour values in India than in anv other country, and as India is under the British flag all that we shall film there will rank for ‘ quota ’ purposes in Britain, in which the film will be completed and presented to the public.” “ Mother of the British Army.”

Fifty thousand people assembled in beautiful Ivnowsley Park, the seat of the Earl of Derby, on July 4 and stood in silence to pay a tribute to those who lost their lives in the Great War. The occasion was a rally of the North-Western Area of the British Legion to celebrate the ten|h birthday of the Legion, and. one of tne guests of honour was Madame la Baronne de la Grange, who, during the war, so gained the affection of the “Tommies” that she was given the title of “ Mother of the Britisn Army.” . .

Madame la Baronne, who brought with her a- message of goodwill from France, stood by the side of Lord Derby, president of the North-Western Area, to receive the salute in a march past of over 5000 Legion men and women from many branches. A heavy downpour of rain before the formal proceedings had been in progress long sent hundreds of people hurrying for shelter, but Madame la Baronne was unperturbed. Accepting the shelter of an umbrella from a friend, she spoke of the heroism of members of the Legion in Flanders and on the Somme, and expressed the fervent hope that the young men of to-day would never have to handle the newer and more terrible instruments of warfare. At the same time it was* essential that each country should be able to feel secure. “ The security of France,” she said, “is quite inseparable from the security of Great Britain. Sometimes your judgment of France is not quite correct. You say we •magine dangers which do not exist, but I can assure you that in every class in France we have only one desire —peace.”