In the Public Eye

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 71, 24 March 1934, Page 22

In the Public Eye

, The King, it was announced in a recent issue of the "London Gazette," has appointed Major-General the St. Hon. Sir Frederick Hugh Sykes to bo a Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India; and has awarded the Kaisar-i-Hind medal of the First Class for public services in India to Isabel Lady Sykes.

Sir Frederick, who is 56, -was Governor of Bombay from 1928 to 1933. In that time ho had the task of dealing with various industrial and communal upheavals as well as with Mr. Gandhi's Oh 1 1 Disobedience Campaign. He had an able supporter in his wife, daughter of Mr. Bonar ' Law. During the war he was one of the pioneers of military aviation, and in the early stages commanded the B.F.C. Later he was Chief of the Air Staff and Chief of the Air Section of the British Delegation to the Peace Congress. He has also been a director of the Underground Railways, chairman of the Broadcasting Committee, and of tlje •Broadcasting Board (1924). From 1922 to 1928 he represented the Hallam Division of Sheffield as a Conservative.

On the occasion of his marriage, ia 1920, Parliament paid him and his •wifea unique compliment. The House formally adjourned to present them with a silver tea and coffee service, subscribed for by over 600 members.

Earlier in his career Sir Frederick was with the Fifteenth Hussars, which he joined as a second lieutenant in 1901. The war year marked his promotion to Brevet Colonel, and within three years he was a Major-General. He has a wide range of interests, and while he was a member of the Imperial War Cabinet during the years of strife, he was able to do important work in times of peace. Thus he acted for the Government in a number of important roles. He holds decorations from seven j countries. Colonel T. E. Lawrence. It has been given to few men to earn by ceaseless publicity a world-wide reputation for retiring modesty. But Colonel T. E. Lawrence, who. won fame for his share in organising the revolt of the Arabs against the Turks during the Great War, and who is now reported about to retire from the Royal Air Fnree, has done this thing. He was "The Uncrowned King of Arabia," according to that enterprising American author Mr. Lowell Thomas, whose book, '' With Lawrence in Arabia,'' has been condemned by Lawrence's friend Robert Graves as "'inaccur'ato. and sentimental." He- was the hero of the war film, "With Allcnby in Palestine and Lawrence in' Arabia,'' with-which' Mr. ThonTas toured Great Britain and America. He was again the centre of publicity when h,is account of the Arab revolt, a manuscript of 400,000 words (about five times, the length- of an ordinary novel) was stolen, together with his notes' an 3 numerous photographs, which he had left unguarded for a few minutes in a handbag at the railway station at Reading (England). "There was a flurry of rumour to the effect that-it'had been stolen by high authorities," states the introduction to Lawrence's subsequent book, "Revolt in the Desert, "which is a much abridged edition of the stolen manuscript. "Subsequently, it has seemed more likely that tne bag was ■ taken by a casual sneak-thief, but Lawrence at any rate sat down with an heroic effort of memory to rewrite the account. He never intended it, however, for publication. He had it printed on a newspaper press in Oxford, in an edition limited characteristically to eight copies, of which three;. in what seems almost an excess of reticence, were afterwards destroyed." After attending the Peace :Conference' at Versailles in 1919 as'; a.. member- of tlie British delegation,! where he was greatly disappointed .on finding that the- promises made to the- Arabs were not to be fulfilled in their entirety, he sought retirement.from the public eye by enlisting in the British Army as a private under an assumed name. Mr. Robert Graves, who has been an intimate friend, of; Lawrtnce, wrote as follows in his book: "Lawrence and the Arabs":—"ln August, 1922, Lawrence, having finally renounced the use of that name,: enlisted in. the Royal; Air, Force. He did all the usual duties of. a man in the lowest grade of the force, and steadfastly refused promotion. For six months he raised no suspicion at all about his identity. He got .on well with the men, though he was very raw and clumsy at the new life. Unfortunately, an officer recognised him, and sold the information for £30 to a daily paper, with the result that there was an unwelcome publicity stunt made of it, and the suspicion then arose among the men that Lawrence was an Air Force spy! The Secretary of State for Air feared that questions might, be asked in the House of Commons as to what he was doing there under an assumed name, so he judged it necessary to dismiss him in February, 1923. This was most disappointing; to Lawrence, who had got throush the first hardship and bitterness of his recruit's training with a stainless character, only to be thrown out. ... A month after being dismissed from the Air Force he reenlisted, with AVar Office permission, in the Royal Tank Corps. He had got n qualified assurance that if he served without incident for a while in the Army his return to the Air Force might be considered. He remained in it for more than two years, stationed at Dorchester. • He found life rough, but made, many friends among the soldiers, and was fortunate to be near Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Hardy, to whom I had the satisfaction of introducing him."" Then he returned to the Air Force again.

The Ex-Kaiser. Advisers of the ex-Kaiser are now discussing the possibility of his return to Germany to end his days in his native land. The ex-Kaiser's 75th birthday on January 27 was marked by articles about him in practically every German paper, with the exception of the out-and-out Nazi newspapers. The Hugenberg Press tributes made Wilholm II a tragic Shakespearean figure fitted with a bright Hohenzollern halo. Most of the papers, besida wishing the 'ex-Kaiser birthday greetings, contented themselves witlr a historical survey of the ex-Emperor's life. The former Kaiser now, it was indicated, is a historical figure; he represents a tragic part of German history. Nothing was said about the attitude of the Nazis to the ex-Kaiser's exile. Perhaps the recent • public threat against reaction was responsible for this silence, remarked a correspondent. The night before the birthday, at a Nazi mass meeting, Herr Engel, a Nazi leader, made a fiery speech against the Monarchists. The "Berliner Tageblatt" is the only paper which reported it. As themes for Nazi speeches were drying Tip, .this new drive against the Monarchists came in very, handy for mass demonstrationsj.it all sounded very important. . '■"■■.■ Herr Engel made it clear that the pure-in-heart Nazi—however he might worship at the tomb of Frederick the Great-^did not desire the restoration of a monarchy. He said that a monarchy, as it existed in Germany prior to 1914, was out of the question. All of which means in plain language that the divine right of WilhelmH has now passed to. Adolf Hitler. , ■ _ '■■:,•■. A meeting of ex-officers and others, at which a thousand people were present, was held in the Marble Hall' of the Zoo in honour of; the ox-Kiser's birthday. At midnight there was a pause in the dancing, and General yon der Goltz called for three cheers for the ex-Kaiser. These were heartily given, and, were heard outside the building. This, stated an ex-officer present, was the signal for between 50 and 60 men to dash into tho rooms from the street and to throw itching powder all over the place and to let off squibs on the dance floor. A Storm Troop detachment and police then appeared and ejected tho intruders, without, however, arresting anyone. The official version of the affair said thatsome of the guests at the ball were wearing the uniform of the steel helmet and swastika armlets, although this was forbidden. General Goering ordered a strict investigation into the affair. The ex-Kaiser celebrated his birthday at Doom, Holland, with much pomp, many member 1 of German Eoyal families having arrived for the occasion. He received numerous congratulatory messages, including one from President Hindenburg, and floral tributes, including one from- the Queen Mother of the Netherlands. The day began with a religions service, Dr. Schneller, from Cologne, preaching the sermon. The ex-Kaiser; he said, had never lost faith in a Saviour of the Fatherland aud the German people, his faith being so far realised that Germany' was now governed in a. national sense. The ex-Kaiser received many 'presents from relatives, including trees for his new pinetnm. Field-Marshal yon Mackensen tendered congratulations on behalf of the old army. I At luncheon Count yon Meiszen made a speech, and •at night there, was a gala banquet, at which sixty guests were present, the men being in full-dress uniform. Mr. li. Morgenthau, Jun. President Eoosevelt's new Secretary of the Treasury has taken up a task as arduous and exacting as any in Washington, aftor the task of the" President himself. Most men might hesitate at the assignment, but Henry Morgenthau, jun., sets his firm chin a little more firmly and goes to work. The United States Treasury Department just now bears the heaviest burdens of a government under the extraordinary stresses and strains of the nation's worst emergency. It must find 10,000,0000,000 dollars in the next six months to combat the depression and to retire maturities; it must deal with a deficit of 7,000,000,000' dollars in this fiscal year end with one of probably 2,000,000,000 next year, and it must maintain the government's credit in the face of a contemplated Public Debt total by June 30, 1935, of almost 32,000,000,000 dollars. The figures indicate faintly the magnitude of the responsibility the President has entrusted to his friend and aeighbour from Dutchess County. In an upper room at the sunny end of the Treasury Mr. Morgenthau sits at the broadest desk in Washington with the eyes of the past fixed upon him. Gallatin and Taney look down at him from the walls and seem to marvel that a man so young in years he is 43—and so little known in the world of money affairs should occupy that imposing office. With him the work is the important thing. Very pointedly he dislikes glory. He seems more than a little bothered by all the attention he gets nowadays; His rule of action has been to let other people have the praise if it. will help to get a piece of work done. Ho was like that in his years of achievements as an agricultural adviser to the Governor and as Conservation Commissioner in New York State. He has been like that in-swift tasks he has since accomplished for the President and the nation. Though a good many Americans have heard of their new Secretary of the Treasury for the first time, the limelight has-been trying to reach him for a long wnile. It is a large job that has fallen to Mr. Morgenthau. In his zeal for his leader and the national welfare he might make the mistake of trying to do it all himself; but he knows the futility of that. For the routine work the Treasury is well staffed with experts. For the special work of the national emergency he draws-around him the ablest men he can. find. ■■ ■ •