LONDON TOPICS

Evening Star, Issue 20140, 3 April 1929, Page 13

LONDON TOPICS

£40,000,000 CLAIMED [l’rom Oub Cokkesi’OXDEnt.] A ROYAL PROGRESS. The King’s journey by motor ambulance from London to Bognor was a genuine Royal progress. All the sixty miles of route were lined by sympa-' thetic crowds, who greeted the unique procession with subdued cheers and loyal. benedictions, and a perfect run was marred only by the behaviour of two typical road hogs, one in a rakish yellow car and the other in a limousine, who insisted on tearing past the Royal invalid’s ambulance with roaring exhausts. 1 saw the start of the journey at Buckingham Palace, and was agreeably surprised by the King’s appearance. His Majesty looked nothing like so thin and ■worn as one might reasonably have expected after a three months’ severe illness. "When the King smiled and gently waved his hand the crowd went nearly crazy with delight, and burst into unrestrained cheers. At Craigwcil the Queen shook hands with the stretcher party, who had rehearsed their difficult task, unprecedented in English history, -perhaps, by carrying a Royal equerry up and down the staircase beforehand. THE POLITICAL COMEDY. My shrewd impression is that the three recent by-ejections have as unduly elated the Socialists as they have unreasonably scared the Conservatives. Battersea looks the most ominous of all, of course, because hero Labour gains a strong Conservative seat. But when Mr J. R. MacDonald congratulates himself docs he quite realise the facts? What killed the Conservative pig in Battersea was an enthusiastic alliance of publicans and bookmakers, the former outraged because they must close their bars earlier than any of their neighbours, and the latter furious because of the betting tax. The bookies have displayed real genius and great energy in organising their electoral campaign, and, ] am told, are making no idle boast when they chum Midlothian as their pigeon, too. It would be a screaming comedy if Mr Baldwin lost the General Election because of the hostility of two old friends like tbo publicans and the bookies, but I question whether with the best hate in the world the latter could organise with the same efficiency for a General Election as for an odd by-election or two. During the Battersea polling the Labour voters drove to the booths in limousines, while the Conservatives went in Baby Austins and 'Trojans. FORTY MILLION LAW CAbB I do not know what will happen to Mr Churchill or to the British taxpayer if a legal action now pending at the Law Courts matures. Eminent counsel are briefed on behalf ol a group of business men, who claim £40,000,000 from the British Treasury. The law officers will light the action on bebaH of the Government, but the point is a novel and perplexing one. The claim is that property to the huge amount stated was lust through the action of Germany, which action was in bleach of The Hague Convention. Under the Peace 'Treaty of Versailles any such damage appears, in the first Hush of enthusiasm that wanted to hang the Kaiser, to have been made a first charge on any reparation payments. For some years now our Budgets have contained a small item of millions on account of reparation*, and the question to bo settled is whether even these meagre crumbs must be handed over to private citizens. PETER AXI) C/ESAR. The reconciliation of “ Peter and Ciesar,” as it were, will give in one direction a marked impetus to the cause of world peace. The Vatican will in duo time become a member of the League of Xations, and will be able to exercise an enormous influence on the practical future thereof. Apart Vi om this influence, the Pope will now bn able, not only to come out of the Vatican, but if he so desires to visit other countries. No doubt bis first official visit will be to tbo .Ring of Italy, but it is also possible that His Holiness may even at some date return the call the" King and Queen of_ England made him when their Majesties were in Italy. America will, I hear, bo certain to extend an invitation to have tbo honour of entertaining the first Pope who ever crossed the Atlantic Ocean, ami the Irish Free State would like nothing more than to receive him in Dublin. What is important is that the settlement of the agelong Roman question puts Rome on the* map of the world again in large letters. HELLO CLEARING HOUSE. The inauguration of transatlantic telephony has just quietly_ celebrated its second anniversary. This is one of the most romantic miracles of all the post-war achievements in practical scientific development. Among the calls put through last year by wireless and land line were some from Madrid to Havana, from Paris to San Francisco, from Copenhagen to New Orleans, and from Berlin to Boston. The remarkable point about this long-distance phone service, however, is that this country has become the world’s telephone clearing house. All calls trorn America must be transmitted through Rugby and Cupar. So that the “ small island off the coast of France is now the nerve-centre through, which passes all the whispered converse between the Old World and the new and East and West, t am told that there is .frequently less delay in making a telephone call over thousands of miles than in ringing up the next town. FIELD MARSHALS’ MEMORIALS. Memorials to the late Field-marshals Earl Haig and Sir Henry Wilson are in course of preparation. 'That to Lord Haig, which is to be erected in Whitehall opposite the Royal United Service Institution, will be of practically the same dimensions as the equestrian statue of the Duke of Cambridge, which commands an equally prominent site in Whitehall, immediately opposite the Horse Guards. It is not likely, however, to he completed before the beginning of next Y ear > though there were suggestions that the work should be pressed lorward for unveiling on next “ Poppy Day. Sir Henry Wilson’s memorial will take the form of a building in London for the accommodation of Army officers widows. As funds in hand will permit this being carried out only on a very limited scale, a committee has been formed, with the Duke of Northumberland ns chairman, to collect additional. subscriptions. NEVILLE’S CIGAR. It is certainly news to me that there is any breach ol etiquette in an altej’1 dinner speaker smoking, a cigar while he is on bis feet. Mr Neville Chamberlain, who Inherits the late Mr Joseph

Chamberlain's penchant for a good Havana, occasionally puffed his cigar while ho addressed a recent city luncheon gathering, and this deportment is, said to have caused much talk amongst the sticklers for form. Long before the war was supposed to have upset all our social canons I can remember distinguished people combining post-prandial oratory and a good cigar. "Joe” Chamberlain made adroit use of his Havana in such circumstances. When he paused, and took a somewhat prolonged pull, you could be sure something particularly bright and incisive was coming. CROFTER MEMORY.

The late Lord Derby was rather pedantic about “form,” but I have seen him make an after-dinner speech with a cjgar in his hand. Lord Birkenhead’s cigar, which is almost as regular an asset of the Press cartoonit as Mr Baldwin’s pipe, but has a curiously different innuendo, is not allowed to languish while tbo earl is making an after-dinner speech. But the late Mr Chamberlain did not always smoke cigars. I recall a dinner bo gave to newspaper men who bad gone north with him when he officially investigated the Scottish crofters’ troubles, at which the host served excellent champagne and good cigars to all his humble guests. But to their astonishment, and perhaps even embarrassment, the famous statesman himself settled down to a pipe and a tankard of beer. AN OLD CAMPAIGNER.

The present Bombay trouble is Majorgeneral Sir Frederick Sykes’s first experience of the sort since ho succeeded Sir Leslie Wilson as Governor a year ago. Though remarkably umnilitary in looks, and resembling a jaded city man more than an old campaigner, Sir Frederick’s “past” suggests he may he irmly equal to the occasion. It is twenty-nine years ago since ho enlisted in the Imperial yeomanry for the Boer War. Twelve years later lie joined the R.A.F., with whom he saw thrilling war service in France. At the armistice he was Chief of the Air Staff, and afterwards Controller-General of Civil Aviaton. Ho married a daughter of Mr Bonar Law, and went in for politics as M.P. for a Sheffield division. To the indignation of- Lady Sykes, their little sou was promptly nicknamed “Bonze” by her husband’s old R.A.F. comrades, but the name stuck. “ Bonzo ”ho remains. LILY LANGTRY. Lady Dn Bathe, a victim of the influenza epidemic at Monte Carlo, was seriously ill a few months ago on a London visit. She is still remembered as Lily Langtry, the far-famed Jersey Lily. In her heyday she was certainly the loveliest woman in Great Britain, and one of the brightest; but slie looked tragically passe when I saw her a year or two ago at a New Year supper. As an actress she was not without talent-, but her beauty was her glory, and half a century ago it mad© her a sort ol society queen. Buskin paid court to her, and Oscar Vv ildc, whose ' Lady Windermere’s Fan ’ was written specially for her. composed a poem, ‘Hie New- Helen,’ in her honour. ABSENT-MINDED PUNTERS. The list 'recently published of unclaimed articles lelt by forgetful people in. railway stations or trains, which ranged from a compote set of jazz band instruments to the mueh-neglcctcd umbrella,’ is only one example of the fact that carelessness is the world’s most besetting sin. I was talking the other day to a well-known racing man, ami lie' told rno that the annual amount of unclaimed bets revealed at settling in London’s biggest bookrnaking chib was between £2,000 and £3,000. Apparently the habit is not confined to this country, lor the 1* rench Government, which runs the totalizator and pari-mutuel on the racecourses of its couutrv, had over G.OOO.OUOfr lelt on its hands last year for the same 'reason. This, at the present rate of exchange, is about £48,327. AT HIGHGATE. TOO! Suburban is at this moment undergoing a sort of third-degree inquisition "by emissaries of a new American vacuum cleaner. 'I he gentleman übo iv an ted to sell me one at toclay was a 100 per cent. New Yorker, and hustle was obviously bis second name. He wasted twenty minutes ol rnv time. but. as T expected, was not devoid of marketable journalistic copy. On the strength of bis dynamic quality bis firm put him on the iiilelltgciizui. suburb of liigbgnto. He set about it noblv. Rut just when things were beginning to Inim, at 10per cent, commission on all cash sales, a policeman ian him in. That was annoying, but thoie was worse to come. The station sergeant told him the constable bad “pinched” him for loitering will) intent! The New Yorker managed Ip prove bona Tides after a hectic h.illhour, but be is not the man he was. Lord Byng has shaken his IUO per cent, morale.