LONDON TOPICS

Evening Star, Issue 20136, 28 March 1929, Page 11

LONDON TOPICS

MINERS LOOKING TO FRINGE JTkom Ouk Corkespoxdext.] February 7. A friend who followed the Pr.ineo of Wales round his northern tour tells me there is no humbug about the cordiality with which the mining population welcomed him. .Everywhere the miners and their families showed a sturdy sporting liking for him, were keenly interested in his movements, and welcomed his coming as likely to press their misfortunes on influential people more powerfully than anything else could. Most of them Jistencd-in to the Prince's fine wireless appeal on their behalf, and, knowing ins intimate relations with statesmen, like Mr Baldwin, Mr Lloyd George, and Mr MacDonald, they are hoping against hope that something really practical may come of the visit. Such possibilities arc being eagerly debated in many humble mining homes at this moment. That the appalling state of things deeply impressed, and even shocked, the Prince was easily seen LORD BALFOUR. It is somewhat ominous that oven the Government’s political opponents are discussing possible' changes in Mr Baldwin’s next Cabinet. The Liberal Party’s still festering wounds explain its lack of noble confidence in the immediate future, but it is not easy to say why Socialists are so lukewarm about their prospects at the coming General Election, Two Ministers expected to drop out of the Treasury Bench line in the next House of Commons arc Mr Bridgeman, of course, and Sir William JoynsonHicks, who is credited with a personal desire to accompany the First Lord of the Admiralty to the House of Lords, and it seems impossible that the Earl of Balbour, the Conservative Nestor whose parliamentary career extends from 1874 to 1929, can continue his active Ministerial work. It is forty-four years since he entered a Conservative Cabinet. OUR INDUSTRIAL METHODS. Some commercial men regret that safeguarding is a prominent political Lsno at the forthcoming General election. Their objection is based not on political, but on business grounds. They saw that, in order to stem the tide of post-war depression, unusual exertions are necessary for British trade, and that one important phase of tlio.se exertions must be the relentless modernising of commercial and uidns-tria-1 methods. The longer this is delayed, as in the exemplary ease of llic coal industry, the worse it will he, and the contention is, well founded or not, that lots of linns are deliberately marking time to_ see what comes of the safeguarding issue. _ Business authorities who adopt this view regard the. safeguarding proposals as a dangerous opiate. Even if _ safeguarding realised every expectation, they say sweeping reforms ol business methods arc still imperative. SOJOURN AT BOGNOR. Each day further progress is made to the arrangements for tho King’s reception at Graigweil, Bognor, but I understand it is the Queen’s wish that the indoor domestic staff should bry as small as possible. The duty of detailing and allotting the duties is, of course, entrusted to Sir Derek Keppel, the King’s Master of the Household. As matters stand at present the three nurses who have been _ constantly in attendance on His Majesty will go down, but I. am told that the Queen herself will take only a lady-in-wait-ing in addition to her iipiucdiatc personal attendants. By the installation of a, .special telephone, and telegraph cable, the. necessity of transferring a large post office staff is avoided. One secretary only, in the lirst instance Sir Clive Wigram, will be at Graigweil. In 1 bo rirciiinstaiices lile will be very quiet at Bognor, but, being within easy motoring reach of town, the Queen will make frequent journeys to Buckingham Unlace, and ihe Princes will also be constant visitors to Bognor. THE CHANNEL TUNNEL SCHEME. More actual facts concerning the- proposed Channel tumid were given to members of Parliament this week than have hitherto been at their disposal or that of the general public. The occasion was a (forded in a meeting of members of all parties—called at the House of Commons by Sir W illiam Bull^ —lor the purpose of meeting Baron D’Erlangcr, chairman of the Channel Tumid Company. The. proposals, which are now referred to ■informally as the “ Channel scheme,'’ are still prominently under discussion, and members were glad to have the opportunity of putting questions to Hie, highest authority on the matter. As a result of these"question!ngs it was made clear that then” will he a British company and a. French company, while there is a little probability of a holdings company being formed under tho League of Nations. Baron D’Eilanger said that the precise estimate of the cost lor completing the tunnel was £30,000,0f.".'', and that the French and English companies would divide this equally between them, lie was confident ol (hiding the money without State assistance oi any kiiul, but should it be the desire of the Government to take pari, ho indicated that he would he pleased to afford it any assist-ape© in doing so. Ho estimated that the tunnel _ would carry something like lour million passengers yearly, and that the annual vecsipts from this source and from freight would Ko in the neighbourhood of £4,1)00,QU0.

THE EX Tv A ISJvIi. Those who met Ujo ex-Kaiscr during his; rii'i-m seventieth birthday celebrations agree that,. though he is snow white, lie looks remarkably fit. lbi> is duo to the simple life he now leads und the regular exercise he takes in all weathers. He walks every day in his own grounds or in the paik Jig has given lo" Hoorn—with reservations regarding udmissioji ot the public dining certain hours—and, like Gladstone, he*"* chops wood with enthusiasm. The split logs arc handed over to poor cottagers for firewood. His beard improves his personal appearance, imparting a note of geniality lacking when ho wore that famous Prussian _ moustache only. He might easily bo mistaken lor a retired admiral. Tie began to grow the beard the day lie abdicated, and there is some talk ol a vow on the sueject. The Crown Prince has not greatly changed, but is now as white as liis father. THE VJ.MY TOUCH. There will be more than one sequel to the Goddard case. There is the question of the £12,000 balance in the ex-sergeant’s Hayinarkct safe deposit. A law action is -pretty certain to ensue, over that, though it is said there will be no appeal against Goddard’s conviction. Even more interesting, however, is the inquiry, now being prosecuted by the First Commissioner in conjunction with the Home Secretary, into the dismissal some time ago of certain police officers who reported irregularities to their superiors. There will be nothing luigger-muggci' about

Lord Ryng's methods, and a full report on ibis phase ol the London police* scandal may lie expected. Officers who have unjustly suffered in the manner indicated will ho reinstated or recompensed, and punitive stops possibly taken against those concerned in their treatment. Such action will go soma way to quell the widespread public feeling that things arc still being hushed UP ’ NETTING FARCE. Those "ho profess amazement of cxSergennt •Goddard's admission about betting with bookmakers wliom 1«‘ had arrested-must know little of the humdrum facts of life. Onr existing,betting Jaws arc even more hypocritical than. America’s .Prohibition regulations, and. much more widely disregarded. An enormous proportion of people in this country, of all classes of society, bet more or loss habitually, and the only way they can do so is through bookmakers, whoso occupation when conducted,’ as over !)U per cent of it is> off the racecourse, is strictly illegal. J,t is a, classic example of legisating ahead of public opinion. In London f ban* seen a- friendly constable assisting a bookmaker's clerk lo_ carry bis employer’s takings upstairs to his office, and policemen regularly control tho queues of punters who lino up outside bookmakers’ premises to draw their winnings. PENSIONS EXPENDITURE. At one time, the nation was spending about £105,000,000 a year on war pensions. Now the total is down to little more than half that sum, and it is estimated that the coming financial year will see a further reduction of about £0,00(1,000, due to the deaths of dependent parents, the remarriage of widows, and, most important of all, the passing of children off the roll on, attaining the age of sixteen. There is, of course, also the natural wastage among the pensioners themselves. Tho decline in cost may not continue at tho same rate in future, and large scale reductions cannot he expected for another fifty years. Under Major Trvou the Pensions Ministry lias passed into that happy stage when it has no history. UP-TO-DATE CHESHIRE. 1 have just been seeing a film illustrating the electrification of tho rural districts. It surprised me to learn that Cheshire is our most up-to-date county in this respect. Electric churns and milkers, electric threshers and chaffcutters, I was prepared for, but surely, oven in go-ahead Germany or America not many villages have their electri-cally-baked bread wrapped up in paper by electricity, and their pigs fed. their lawns mowed, their horses clipped, ami oven their travelling horse boxes made bv electric energy. The film reveals how hens in Cheshire are encouraged to lay more eggs by having their feeding time extended in winter by electric light. What distresses one about this film glimpse of what is now happening to our English country is the unsightliness of the overhead electric cables. Would the cost of putting them underground not he recouped by immunity from disablement by wind and weather ?