A Letter from London

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19991, 7 November 1927, Page 10

A Letter from London

I Special Correspondent. AU Rights Reserved.

LONDON, Sept. 22, 1927. Mr. Baldwin’s Tobacco. The fact that Mr. Baldwin has decided to extend his holiday at Aix by another week beyond that which ho thought possible need disturb nobody who has been thinking of his tobacco supply. Like many other people, the Prime Minister dislikes the tobacco sold on the Continent, and before ho left l town he provided himself with an ample I store of his favourite mixture. There was a margin for the last week. These are little matters he thinks about him,self and, though Mrs. Baldwin occasionally has to remind him, the private secretaries have no concern with the smoking materials I know of men not so fully occupied who leave all these things to their men servants. Lord Haldane’s butler has to do everything for him. in the way of smoking materials and wines. The butler even buys his Lordship’s ties. A Foreign Office Joke. It may be that when he returns to town, Sir Austen Chamberlain expects an increasing number of visitors to the Foreign Office whom he would like to impress, but it is not because of that or because it needs it that the Foreign Office has been put into the hands of the painters and decorators. It is simply that it has come the turn of the Foreign Office in the books of the First Commissioner of Works, and Sir Austen is not the man to allow himself to be overlooked. He has made a number of changes which the late Lord Curzon would not sanction. There was that lift, for instance, of which an. American Ambassador remarked: “Why, the trees grpw faster in my country. ’ ’ The Foreign Office is not so formidable as it looks. Only certain Government officials are supposed to use the quadrangle for parking their cars, but I know city men who, when they have any business in Whitehall, and even when they are visiting one of the clubs nearby, make unchallenged use of it. But the motorist must have an air to deceive the policemen. The Unknown Russian Soldier. If anything could bring shame to the heart of a Bolshevik it should surely be the fact that it has been left to Czechoslovakia to consider the erection a tomb to the Russian Unknown Sollier. That light-hearted, long-suffering 'dlow—surely a typical representative f the proletariat if ever there was one —has been so far left unhonoured by he survivors of the Great War in which ic paid such heavy tolL The appeal for

subscriptions, which the Association of Czech Legionnaires has just issued, should meet with ready response from all who came in contact with the Russian soldiers during the great struggle. 111-fed and often barely armed, they gave their lives unmurmuringly by the thousand in the vain attempt to hold back the efficient machine confronting them. Their sacrifice did much to render possible the holding of the Western front, and there must be many people both in this country and France who will gladly support the Czechs in any scheme to show that they are “not forgotten.” The New German Cruisers. For their size, the six new German cruisers, built or building, are probably the most all-round efficient war vessels produced since the War. Restricted by the Treaty of Versailles to 6,000 tons, and to guns of not more than 6 inch calibre, this class represents all that German skill and ingenuity have been able to bring to bear in their construction to employ war lessons and to get the utmost possible gun and steaming power up to the limitations placed upon them by the Treaty. Three of these vessels are already afloat, the latest being the Karlsruhe, the third German warship of that name. The first Karlsruhe was a fine cruiser of 5,000 tons, launched in 1912, and, before accidentally blowing up off the coast of South America in the early part of the war. she was responsible for destroying eighteen British merchantmen of 65,000 gross tonnage. The second, launched, in 1917, was sunk at Scapa Flow. A War Story. I am indebted to an officer of the 2nd. Division for a case of German kindness and courtesy towards a chaplain of our forces who went out. to France with the first troops of the Expeditionary Force At the end of the bitter fighting at Landrecies in August, 1914, where the 4th (Guards) Brigade suffered so sev crcly, especially the two battalions of the Coldstream Guards, this chapla'n stayed behind to look after dying officers and to bury our dead. He wru? taken prisoner by the Germans and treated most considerately by the officer commanding the Prussian Guard/ Division, who after seeing his needs attended to as regards food and billet, told him that “he bitterly regretted the war,” and added “that had it not been for the war he would have bee» in England the following month to shoot partridges with Lord Haig.” Wing Commander

Wing Commander Arthur E. Gaskell, who has been killed in an air accident in Iraq, is the second officer who has recently passed away out of the dozen or so who formed the instructional class •jl the naval wing of the Royal Flying Corps in 1913. The other was Wing Commander W. G. Sitwell, who died in Halton R. F. Hospital on July 21st. Out of the twelve in the class referred to, the total remaining on the active list of the R.A.F. at present is four. There is Wing Commander G. E. Maude, now commanding the flights in China *<n board the aircraft-carrier Argus; Wing Commander C. H. K. Edmonds, serving with the British Naval Mission o Greece; Wing Commander Ivor G. /. Fowler, who is at the Home Aircraft Depot; and Squadron Leader R. A. Kerffiaw, on the staff of the Inland Area. At least one of this pioneer band went back to naval duty and became famous. This is Commander A. W. S. Agar, now commanding the destroyer Witch, who won the V.C. when commanding coastal motor boats in an attack on the Russian cruiser Cleg in June, 1919. Sixpenny Oysters.

The Colchester oyster, heralded by the Mayor and borough mace, and acclaimed in gin and gingerbread, has again madu his bow to the epicurean public. Unfortunately, the slippery morsel has a higher opinion of himself than ever this year, and the gourmet who desires to make his acquaintance is likely to have to pay sixpence for the privilege. Six shillings for a dozen “natives” is fairly steep, but the real epicure will not hesitate at the price, for he has tho assurance that the oysters are in a splendid state of development this year. Experts are unanimous in regard to their excellence, and the only drawback is that the stocks to come on the market this season are rather short. Tho outlook for future seasons is said to be somewhat gloomy, as the fall of oyster spat has not been up to mark, and this will, of course, still further limit the supplies forthcoming in. future years. The Prince and Canada. The Prince of Wales, by his obvious desire of avoiding all fuss and ceremony either during his voyage from Canada or on his arrival in England, has pointed a moral which everyone in the Kingdom would do well to take to heart. Clearly he looks upon Canada much as we look upon any of the counties in England, and when travelling in the Dominion he feels as much at home as when taking a run out of town for a day’s hunting. This, of course, is the spirit which should dominate both Canadians and the people at Home. The more it becomes prevalent the nearer will come the time when Mr. Baldwin’s desire of bringing “the willing hands and empty spaces” together will be fulfilled. The more this sense of unity becomes developed, the sooner are we likely to realise the truth of the Prince’s estimate, when he said that “Canada is a reef of precious metal so vast in extent that no man living can value it.” Colour Hurt at Westminster. The process of renovating Westminster Abbey is never ceasing and workmen are always to be observed engaged upon some portion or other of the historic structure. This year particular attention has been directed to what one might call a colour hunt, and much hitherto unsuspected richness of decoration has been brought to light. The dull grisaille so familiar to us as the dominant feature of the interior was evidently not characteristic of the

bey in olden times, when it would seem that it must have been literally ablaze with colour. Among recent finds is a curious carved representation of the arms of John Islip, the last of the great builder abbots of the Abbey. This quaint device, which has been brought to light in the Chantry Chapel, forms a. kind of pun on the name of the abbot. It depicts a portion of a bough upon which a little man in bright red breeches is doing what might now be

termed “taking a nasty skid.” Safety First for M.P.’s. ’ Next door to Westminster Abbey, nt the Houses of Parliament, the stonemasons are also busy these days. While M.P.’s are away on their holidays, workmen are restoring the soft stone which has decayed under the strain of the humid and fume-laden London atmosphere. The decorative pinnacles which adorn the parapets on many of the facades have for some years been crumbling to an xtent that has become dangerous. On several occasions members frequenting the terrace have had “narrow calls” from falling fragments of these adornments. At present the renovaters are engaged picking out the more dangerous portions of the stonework, but the main scheme of restoration will not begin until some time in October. The extent of the work to be undertaken may be guaged from the fact that something like 20 years are expected to elapse before its completion and that the cost is estimated to come to over £1,000,000.

The Birth-Rate Again. There is always a hullabaloo every time the birth-rate is announced. The modem girl is, of course, up before the tribunal of busybodies, who seem to think that the salvation of our country is attainable only by ba\les, and more babies. She is condemned for not wanting to undertake domestic responsibilities and preferring a good job in the city to a precarious one at home. Young folk are no better when they do get married, according to these critics. When they are understood to be feathering their nest it does not refer to the preparation of a nursery but to the transformation of their unused washhouse into a domicile for a baby—Austin! None of these people seem to realise that the problem is not so much one of the need for more mouths to feed as of more food for the mouths we already have. The birth-rate will rise just as soon as there is employment awaiting a larger population, and, so long as that is not the ease, the young folk, I think, axe being wiser than their elders. Jewellers and Trade Revival. In many ways the jewellery trade is the best barometer of industrial conditions in the country. It has had a bad time lately, but a Hatton Garden man now tells me that he has not had so much business since the general strike. The inquiries are distinctly promising for a further improvement. This is not due only to the preparations for the Christmas trade, bat is symptomatic of a generally increased purchasing power of the community. His is a wholesale trade like that of most of the people in Hatton Garden, and he deals largely in the cheaper articles which find favour in the large industrial towns. Some of his business is in the nature of a gamble. If a “novelty” which he introduces catches the popular fancy, his income may treble or quadruple, but in the following year he may lose half his gains by pinning faith to something that fails to “catch” on.

H. G. Wells’ Birthday. H. G. Wells was sixty-one this week. The son of a professional cricketer, he has achieved fame in almost every branch of literature, and in almost every language. By a master touch he makes everything he undertakes look simple. In this earlier days he was one of the group of brilliant young men who formed the circle of the Sidney Webb—quite one of their lions in faet. Unfortunately, before he wrote “The New Machiavelli” the friendship waned, and there was scarcely any effort at concealment in the caricature he drew of Mrs. Webb in one of his books. “H.G.W.” does not regard the fact that he has entered his seventh decade as in any way interfering with the unaccomplished half of his life’s work. He has already invented “The Time Machine” and “The Food of the Gods,” so it should not be beyond nis ingenuity to invent an improvement on the monkey gland, thus rendering it possible for him to go on entertaining the public well into the next century. Filming the Microbe.

It would be one of time’s most extraordinary revenges if we ultimately become indebted to the kinematograph—which has so often been blamed for the debauching of the youthful intellect—for the final victory in the war against £ueh scourges as cancer and consumption. Certain it is that the kinematograph camera has become one of our most valuable assets to scientific research and the most reliable form of permanent record the modern scientist can obtain. By its aid it is now sible to study the activities of bacteria that are one twenty-five-thousand th part of an inch in size. These experiments have been carried out successfully and the films are of advantage to students as well as to those who carry i on research. If bacilli, both those which are beneficial, to mankind and those which are malignant are, by this means, brought within the scope of human visibility, the possibilities for medical science would bc» enormously ?n-| hanced.

A Theatre Problem. The old Euston music-hall has had a somewhat chequered career since it became the Regent Theatre, but now, at last, it appears to have settled down to a definite type of entertainment. The first attempt, after the theatre’s conversion, was, by a syndicate in which Arnold Bennett and Nigel Playfair were interested, to develop it as a sort of Islington edition of the Lyric, Hammersmith. That was a failure. Then Barry Jackson, the head of Birmingham’s repertory theatre, took it over and produced 4 4 The Immortal there. For a time this beautiful opera drew all London. Since then “Saint Joan” was played at the Regent for a season by Sybil Thorndike, the .Macjiona Players tried Shaw with only moderate success, and the theatre has been run on provincial lines, with a different touring company appearing each week. Cheaper Drama. The solution of the Regent problem seems to have been found in a reversion to its old music-hall practice of two houses a night, with a per- ‘ manent company producing a new play every week. At any rate, the London Repertory Company, with Martin bine at its head, has jnst celebrated its first anniversary on the Euston Road. During the year, plays so diverse scope and story as “Abraham Lincoln.’* “The Ghost Train,” “The Green Hat “Daddy Long Legs,” “Nell Gwynne,’* * 4 Tilly of Bloomsbury,” and “Tons jf Money,” have been presented with equal success, and the anniversary night, when “The Three Musketeers* was done, was such a happy family party as to leave no shadow of doubt that the theatre now has a regular and loyal clientele. West End managers who lament that there is no public for the drama should look in at the Regent on a Saturday night. Here is the real drama public, but they cannot afford to pay West End prices. The dearest seat at the Regent costs 3s.