LONDON TOPICS

Evening Star, Issue 19784, 7 February 1928, Page 3

LONDON TOPICS

BITTER XMAS WEATHER DRAMATIC PRAYER BOOK DEBATE [From Our Correspondent.] '.December -2._ London is very literally in the grip of the first spell of real old-lashioiied winter this old capital has known lor more than a decade. The sky above our .shimmering Cockney roofs is dapple bine, shot with pale sunshine. Ihe earth below our Cockney spats and kncc-gailcra is adamantine. At night the Fleet street scribe well might quote: “Bitter chill it was; the owl for all his feathers was a-cold.” How long it may last even the wise cannot guess, but it started in the approved manner with a hard black frost, and a pricking of the chilled Cockney thumbs seems to tell that London is heading for a real Dickensian Christmas. Tho gripping frost is here already, and an ominous lowering of the best barometers hints at snow in the near oiling. But how differently different Londoners view the outlook To the well-fed moneyed suburbs it spells exhilarating outdoor sport and mirthful glow. Jo the pinched slums of dingy areas, though even there the kiddies try to keep warm by sliding in the streets, it moans a bleak alternative between starving the table or stinting the grate. A hard winter, as the Communists’ newspaper has not been slow to note, accentuates class hatred. Those poignant contrasts arc inevitable to human society, and are nowhere more emphasised than in the Moscow Bed Utopia, but they are none llic loss distressing for that. To-night I passed from they gay portals, glowing with heat and light, of Strand hotels, queued with luxurious motor cars, to the grim Embankment, where the cold lamps wound like a fiery serpent above the seats on which misery huddled its pitiful rags. This is the season when Hives should remember Lazarus. THE NEW NOTE;

All over London the ice is now hearing, wherever there are, ponds or lakes, its merry burden of .skaters. It takes one bark many years to catch the ring of steel on ice, but how startlingly the post-war skaters point the moral of our changed ways. Not only is the average skating skill higher beyond all compare than in Victorian days, thanks to the roller skating rink perhaps as well as to Switzerland, but the costumes they wear are unbelievably hotter. Whether at Hampstead or at Battersea — and of the two the ice at (he latter was better cared for than at the lormcr—the ladies sported neat bools, long suede gaiters, short skirts, jazz costumes, jazz wraps, and jazz hats. 'I he ice parade order for all sell-respecting males was plus-fours. But even the most voluminous and copucttish plusfours arc less gracoinl as skating costu in ccs than the post-war feminine kilts. For tohoganniug on the snowclad heights, onr Cockney ladies wore stout stockings and breeches. WINDING UP.. Old parliamentary hands declare that nothing so dramatic as the House ol Commons’ debate on the Prayer Boole has been staged at Westminster since hhe historic days ol ihc outbreak ol the wai. It was absorbingly interesting during last Thursday’s memorable discussion to feed how a solid majority lor the Bill was tapidly inciting away under the iiillneiice of impassioned oratory. The Bill's .supporters claim that the result represented a triumph of emotionalism over reason, and that ii members had voted nest day alter sleeping on the cpiostion the denouement would have been dificrcnl. But the fact remains that the opponents of the Bill showed most vigor and purpose and committed no Mien error as did its supporters when they allowed .Lord Wulmer to wind up the debate on their side. wild, jit: cabby o:<: j The torpedoing ol all the patient hopes so skilfully built up round l ho new Prayer Book, which was to have achieved Dr Davidson’s lifelong hope of effecting a great Anglican compromise between age-old warring ecclesiastical movements, raises one interesting question of a personal nature. It has always been understood that the mam reason prevailing with the Archbishop of Canterbury in falsifying all the innumerable and recurrent rumors about his retiicment was that lie -desired. before leaving Lambeth Baiaie. to assure himself that the temple ut peace was well laid. Will I he uddeu dislocation of all Ins elaborate wn-.-ir affect Dr Davidson’s intentions in tuis matter ? It might well be that, ii not immediately, at least within measurable time, lie would prefer to idiminish his heavy task to other and younger hands. On the other hand. Dr Davidson is, though a. famous primate, still a, lighting Heot, and this reverse may serve merely to make him set. his teeth and earn- on. EXIT ‘TIM;’ Though I foreshadowed it months ago, Mr M’Neill’s .succession to Mr Healy as Free State Governor-General in Dublin is sad news. Not that Mr M'Neill’s is not a good appointment, but because Mr Healy is simply irreplaceable. There is only one "Tim.’' For two generations he has been the most fascinating personality m our publie life. As an orator of slow, mordant humor he had no equal in the palmiest days of Westminster. Yet no man, despite the lerocity of his political vendettas, was more loved. And, like good wine, Mr Healy has mellowed with maturity. His countrymen have cause to honor the sagacity and judgment with which, at the most critical moments before and after the treaty, he shepherded Southern IrelamFs best interests. His band was, as is well known, active in the drafting ol the Free State constitution. Among the crowded memories ot Mr Healy that stand out now' ho is making his last bow before the public curtain is his astounding brilliant impromptu Uganda speech in the .House of Commons. He rose effervescing with Jrish grievances, but was promptly ruled out of older by the Speaker, the vote being one dealing with South Africa. 'Without a halt “Tim” launched forth a corrosive oration cl satire, every .syllable strictly germane to Uganda, but every word a deadly Irish innuendo It was a feat of tiebating genius unequalled in the annals of Westminster. His, cut-nnd-thrust encounters with bis Irish opponents were dazzling as I lie sword duels ol D’Artagnaii. They never failed to draw crowded audiences. And yet this is the man whose delight was a romp with small children. One famous statesman's little daughter, asked what she thought of the great Mr Gladstone, naively replied: " Mr Healy has spoilt me for all other men.” VETERANS OF THE SEA. None of the steamships built to-day are ever likely to last so long as the famous little vessels that were launched in the middle of last century. The famous Glengarry, one of the first steamships, is now being broken up after battling with gales round the Western Isles of Scotland for eightythree years. There are other famous little steamers, such as the Birmingham (.123 tons) which has been sailing the seas since 1855, and now lias been sold to a Liverpool linn to go on working indefinitely. The Iron Duke (146 tons), a tramp built in 1849, is still running out of Bristol with cargo. The’steamer Himalaya, which was the crack U. and 0. liner when she left her stocks on the Thames in 1853, is now a coal hulk at Portland. But she was recently pronounced fit fo go round the world. The oldest steamer alloat is the Premier (129 tons), which carries passengers out of 'Weymouth on the pleasure cruises. She was built in 1346.

But she does not do heavy .aid continuous work and fight heavy seas like the gallant little tramps, Birmingham and Iron Duke. These are wonderful old veterans when it is considered that a modern built tramp has a life of only twelve or fifteen years." They become uneconomical to run after this period of time. UNWANTED MONEY. The secretary of a number of public companies tells me that two years ago an engineering company with which he was connected was wound up, the purpose for which it was formed having been fulfilled. The company had done very well, and in the winding up every .shareholder was entitled to approximately eight pounds for every pound share held. Out of some hundred and twenty shareholders thirty could not be traced, and there is still a sum of something like £3,600 which is due to these shareholders, or their personal representatives if they are no longer living. They have been advertised for on no less than five occasions, but have still not enrne forward. It would be interesting to know how much money in the aggregate is lying in London banks unclaimed in this way. T heard a solicitor estimate recently that there is probably enough to pay off the deficits of all the London hospitals. DIAMONDS STILL EJRM. Although the South African diamond mines are producing six times the average yearly output of stones, and in consequence De Beers, the great diamond company, lias passed its dividend, merchants and jewellers in London declare that the retail market has not yet been affected They declare that the public rarely evince any interest in the price of diamonds. If a young man wants to give bis fiancee an engagement or birthday ring, bo buys one without bothering to study the market. It is also declared that fine diamonds will never be rivalled for popularity by the recently inferior alluvial stones which are being found in such groat quantities. Fine diamonds are as rare as they ever were, and there will always be wealthy people who will buy those precious stones. Few people invest in diamonds; they buy them as a luxury. ROOM 40. The Admiralty maintains an adamantine silence on the subject of Room 40, where during the war Sir Alfred Ewing and a group of brilliant associates unmasked the Gorman codes, and, by deciphering every wireless message and all diplomatic instructions sent out from Germany, not only enabled us to bo forewarned of the enemy’s secret intentions, but to supply President Wilson with an irresistible reason for joining the Allies. It is assumed that Sir Alfred Ewing did not reveal this well-kept secret of the war without due consideration and probably official acquiescence. But in the service clubs the wisdom of “giving flic show away ” is still being energetically debated. Many service men hold that it was illadvised to tell the world bow onr Intelligence Department gained the reputation of being flic best informed of all engaged in the war. It. will make it exceedingly difficult to repeat Sir Alfred Ewing’s performance, and it destroys the beautiful myth which attributed onr Admiralty’s prescience to a wonderful spy system that never existed.