A Letter from London

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 71, Issue 237, 6 October 1928, Page 18 (Supplement)

A Letter from London

Special Correspondent.

All Rights Reserved.

LONDON, Aug. 20, 2028. Absentee Ministers. 1 When before has the country been without Prime Minister, For' ign Secretary, Ministers for War and Air, Secretary for India, or Colonial Secretary ali at the same moment? The holders of all these offices are at present abroad. To regard these absences with disapproval would be short-sighted. The experience of Sir Austen Chamberlain is a warning of the danger of too close devotion to duty. For nearly four years Sir Austen has seldom been absent from his de'Sk, and even when he has gone he has a superabundance of holiday tasks. The fact that Lis medical men have insisted on a complete rest for three months speaks lor itself. Their patient did not accept their orders willingly, but they were peremp toiy. Sturm und Drang. It was Mr T. P. O‘Connor who once confided to me that in his intimate experience all Cabinet Ministers are tired, if not sick men. There is no doubt that the perpetual strain, the late hours, and the bad ventilation at Westminster play havoc with elderly gentlemen of sedentary habit. At present we have the Foreign Secretary just recovering from a serious illness, and too unwell to deputise as usual for the Prime Minister. But Mr Baldwin himself so bad ly needs his annual cure at Aix-les-Bains that since Sir Austen is hors de combat Lord Hailsham has been pressed into service as his understudy, even though it necessitates the cancellation of an Ottawa visit for which all arrangements have been made. A more efficient understudy could not be named. Before he took the Woolsack Sir Douglas Hogg, the able Scots lawyer who is an ex-trooper of the Boer War, was influentially “tipped” as our future Prime Minister. All Correct. How suddenly ali plans have been disorganised by Ministerial ill-health is shown by the fact that Lord Hailsham had even nominated Commissioners for the Great Seal’s custody during his Canadian trip. It was Cardinal Wolsey of dramatic memory who established his constitutional precedent by breaking it. He was badly str ffed by choleric King Henry VIII. for going to the Low Countries and taking the Great Seal with him. Ever since the State talisman, whenever a Lord Chancellor leaves this country, has been solemnly put into commission. Lord Haldane did so when he visited America 15 years ago, and so did Lord Birkenhead when he went yachting. Apparently it is only the Great Seal that really matters. Though he is also custodian of the King’s Conscience, a Lord Chancellor takes that with him even to a Continental plage. Chamberlain Tradition.

We all hope Sir Austen Chamberlain’s health may be restored by the rest holiday he is now compelled to take. His devotion to the fascinating work of the F.O. has been exemplary ami he has always been inclined to take things very seriously. Like his father, he makes a point of taking no exercise, beyond perhaps a little quiet gardening. This Chamberlain tradition has often been quoted by critics again:t our physical fitness cult, and one gossip writer states that Sir Austen has never been ill before. This is quite wrong. He had a bad breakdown before the war when he was at the Treasury and comparatively a young man. Neither he ncr his father ever impressed me as really convincing examples against systematic exercise. They both always looked far too sallow and sedentary to be anything like fit men. Triumph of Mr Thomas.

The decision of the railway craft unions to accept the wage reduction which had been negotiated between the railway directors and the three railway unions has caused no surprise, but also some relief. The credit rests mainly with two men. Mr Thomas, who is the adroitest diplomat in the trade union world, and Mr J. T. Brownlie, of the Engineers’ Union, a shrewd Scotsman, who leads the engineers. Though he comes from the Glasgow district, he is a doughty opponent o fthe Reds. He and Mr Thomas will get no thanks for their success, but they have done a good day’s work both for the members and the public. Lord Stamfordham

When the King is at Balmoral he likes to have his secretaries hi the vicinity, not only in their official capacity, but as personal friends. Invariably Craig Gowan, a beautiful little house standing at the end of the drive to Balmoral Castle, is placed at the disposal of the principal private secretary. Lord Knollys always occupied it, and Lord Stamfordham will be staying there while the Court is in the North. Lora Stamfordham is one of the few people who are really fond of Balmoral. It suits him from the health point of view, and he is able also to indulge in jaunts in the saddle and plenty of golf, which even his eighty years do not preclude. He is a keen golfer, and on several occasions has won the King’s Cup open to members of the household and staff. His lordship will precede the King northwards by a few days. Millionaire’s Sport.

An expert tolls me that grouse shoot ing is nowadays probably by far the most expensive of all forms of outdoor sport in this country. One has to take into account not only the comparatively short timn the shooting lasts, but the prohibitive rental charged for lodges, tho expensive guns and ammunition, of which largo quantities ar© used, the heavy charges for keepers, servants, and gillies, and the high railway fares from London. It is not improbable that each grouse shot by the average sportsman costs somewhere in the neighbourhood of a “fiver” or even more. Pheasant shooting is not nearly so costly, running to an average of not more than about £2 a bird, of which half* goes in rent. The usual thing is, in letting a nhensant covert, to charge £1 a bird; but grouse rentals, owing to oven keener competition, are considerably higher.

The Old Spots Disillusion has awaited must of our August ex-service pilgrims to the Western front. Few of them have crossed over since they came home wounded or for demobilisation, and their expectation of renewing old memories has been disappointed by an amazing transformation. The French and Belgians Lave almost completely restored the devastated areas. Except for a fe\ tiny sectors kept intact as memorials by our Dominion Governments, and perhaps Givenchy and Thiepval, the battlefields have been erased completely. Smiling meadows and young woods gay witii flowers cover the gaunt skeleton of No Man’s Land so effectually that identification is impossible. It must be remembered, moreover, that so far as the lighting front was concerned you kept your head down by day and caught only very light glimpses by night. Wipers is perhaps the unkindest cut of all. It is a new city, rather garish and cheap, and the reconstructed antiques lack in their entirety all the dramatic beauty of their war ruins. Royal Housekeeper.

When the first of the shooting parties arc over Princess Mary, who will be staying with Lord and Lady Lonsdale at Lowther Castle next week, is going to Goldsborough Hall for the autumn. 1 hear that she is looking forward to it very much, for she is thoroughly domesticated, and loves nothing so much as running her own establishment. 1 think she is the only one of the Royal ladies who docs not hand over the domestic reins to a* housekeeper. Instead she supervises everything herself, and is responsible for the ordering of meals and the arrangement of her house. The Princess spends quite a lot of time in her kitchen, and sometimes surprises her domestic staff by her practical knowledge of housekeeping. Americans and Cowes.

Everybody at Cowes was commenting on the small number of Americans —except, of course, American women married to English yachtsmen—who stayed on this year to go to the Isle of Wight. Only three yachts in the bay were flying the {Stars and Stripes, and very few of the steam vessels with parties aboard had American girls among then guests. The Royal Yacht Squadron—the most exclusive club in the world—does not admit Americans to membership, and, bo they never so immaculately turned out, American women have a very thin time at Cowes unless they belong to a party which is really in the social swim. The fact that full privileges are not accorded them is

probably responsible for the fact that each year now the American visitors to Cowes grow fewer.

Industrious Mr Churchill Mr Winston Churchill is one of those who find change of occupation the best rest. 1 hear taut his pen is again busy and that in the intervals of landscape painting in his garden al his pleasant Kent Lom e he is engaged in writing another book on war and post-war questions. In a Ministry less conspicuous than some of its predecessors for literary output ho is easily pre-eminent, for he has been responsible for about i dozen volumes, one of them a novel, of which little .s heard. Cousin a Tramp.

It is not often a Cabinet Minister is able to boast of a tramp as his relation. Bui Mr Neville Chamberlain, our efficient Minister for Heath, is in that romantic position. The fact was recalled to aim the other day, when a deputation waited on the Minister of Health to plead the cause of the vagrant. Mr Shepherd, Darlington’s Socialist M.P., who has done a lot of amateur tramping in order to investigate casual ward conditions, was one of the deputation, and mentioned that he onco did a tramp before the war from Birmingham to Liverpool with the late Mr Norman Chamberlain, who was the present Health Minister’s cousin. Mr Shepherd, who has sometimes borrowed his make-up from the Office of Works staff, including a yardsweeper’s coat, knew Mr Norman Cham berlain when both were at Birmingham University, und shared a practical interest in social work. Mr Norman Chamberlain was killed in the war. Earl Marshal Deputy.

Viscount Fitzalan, who has gone to the Continent for a month’s holiday, must be looking forward to May of next year, when with the coming of age of the Duke of Norfolk, his nephew, he will be relieved of his dutiees as Earl Marshal. These he has discharged for 11 years as deputy for his halfbrother, the late Duke. The work of the office, which is hereditary, is exceedingly heavy at the time of a Royal Coronation, and otherwise it involves a good deal of ceremonial routine on such occasions as the admission of new peers to take their seats in the House of Lords. The present Duke, lam told, is as shy and unassuming as was his father, who was notorious as one of the most shabbily-dressed men in the Hous© of Lords, and also one of the ablest, and kindest hearted. ♦ On Chiswick Mall. The Middlesex Gounty Council is making determined efforts to save picturesque Chiswick House for the nation. Here Pope, Gay, Dr. Johnson, Charles Fox, Sir Walter Scott and tho Russian Emperors Alexander I. and Nicolas wore among the famous guests of successive owners. The Duke ot Devonshire who owns the property, id willing to dispose of it to the public authorities at a sum considerably below market value. Chiswick contains many old houses in which farnoui people live or have lived. There H Kelmscott House, facing tho river near Hammersmith Bridge, where William Morris used to write his books and make his pottery. A few yards beyond are the houses of A. P. Herbert, ths famous Punch contributor. Sir Nigel Playfair and Norman Wilkinson, th® marine painter. And a short walk along the Mall brings . you to “Miss Pinkerton’s Academy,” where Thackeray. in “Vanity Fair” introduce* Becky Sharp to the reader. I notice that a plaque has been affixed to the wall, stating that “Here Thackeray made Becky Sharp throw her diction* ary out of the window’.”