LONDON TOPICS

Evening Star, Issue 21746, 14 June 1934, Page 2

LONDON TOPICS

BUDGET BOUQUETS [From Our Correspondent.] April 26. Air Chamberlain is very pleased with the reception accorded to his Budget. It is agreed by practically everybody that ho has made the best possible use of his opportunities. From all sides, and from quarters with no sort of political obsessions, one hears a chorus of approval. But tin's does not mean that there is general approval of our existing scale of national expenditure. Income tax still remains higher than it was during the Great War, and. until drastic economics arc made, not in dole payments but in directions where we spend twice as much as our neighbours with less than half as efficient results, it can never be brought even within sight of the Gladstonian level. And until that happens we shall bo carrying on without any available reserve for a great emergency. Financially, we are still sitting on the safety valve. THE LAST CHAPTER. That the latest French Note has been taken by our Government as the occasion for issuing a White Paper, bringing publication of the recent disarmament negotiations up to date, is by no means a happy augury. Taking stock of international conferences or negotiations is very much the same as winding them up. and one is inclined to fear that the White Paper may, in fact, be the last chapter of these discussions, Such fears are borne out by the nature of the French Note, which entirely contradicts the general forecast that France was prepared to concede Germany some right to rearm. Germany’s enormously increased estimates' for military expenditure are doubtless at the bottom of the French volte-face, which many admit is excusable in the circumstances. Nevertheless,, the tone of the Note, and its insistence upon Germany coming back to the League before any question of her rearmament can lie considered, nukes the chance of anv further progress extremely improbable. In the light of the White Paper, and remembering that its contents were in the knowledge of the Government before the Budget speech was delivered, Mr Chamberlain’s warning that lie must prepare himself for increased expenditure becomes more than ever ominous. Even if the White Paper may he considered the lasi «->ap. tor, there still must remain an epilogue. There is still Geneva. At the worst the ideals of peace and disarmament, cannot he buried without tbeir funeral orations. THE CHANCELLOR. I suppose it is only natural that, as he grows older and his brows begin to be tinged with white, Mr Neville Chamberlain’s resemblance to his famous father becomes more startling. I was sitting behind him during his Budget speech, and the slope of the back, the poise of the head, the attitude whilst leaning on the Treasury box, all recalled Mr Joseph Chamberlain most vividly. Mr Neville’s leftelbow must hare pressed the exact spot that his father’s used to when lie was addressing the assembled Commons, Full-face, of course, Air Neville’s moustache rather spoils the illusion. It is almost a pity that Sir Austen, who hears much less striking resemblance to his father, has alone preserved the orchid and monocle tradition. and with those adornments. Air Neville would make the old hands a: Westminster gasp. MYSTERY MOVEMENT. It is odd that little or nothing should have got into the newspapers about what is known as the “ Mystery Movement.” 7lleally there is no mystery about it at all, for it had its origin in one of' the most famous clubs in Pall Alall. And the whole object of the movement is to make of this country a “ decent England an England that shall in very truth be a country for decent people, as well as heroes, to live in. Its membership embraces peers of the realm, members of the Government, and horny-handed men of toil in the East End of London. Hank is counted as nothing more than the guinea stamp. But all members are expected to subject themselves to self-discipline and selfsacrifice, giving up, if necessary, remunerative posts on behalf of the common weal. Aleetings are held from time to time in different parts of Loudon, and in every instance there is an empty chair, supposed to denote the presence of tile King. EASING UP? In quarters which maintain a close liaison with Moscow it is now stated

that Stalin is modifying the regime of the Soviet Terror. According to this authority the dreaded Ogpu, or secret police, are being disbanded, at least in part, and there is to be an end of secret trial and summary execution under tho Soviet. A special commissar is to he however, who will still exercise autocratic power of banishment. Those modifications are instanced as proof that the Soviet regime is now firmly settled in the saddle, and that Bolshevism is a popular institution in the new Russia. Remembering the denials of any persecution in the past, it is interesting now to have the statement that thousands of political prisoners are being released, and that, though exaggerated, there have been secret executions without any formality of trial. These conditions, it seems, were “ a legacy of the Republic.”

PUKKA. Colonel Harold Alexander, who has left for India to take command of a mixed infantry brigade, looks rather like Brusiloff, the Russian general, who at one stage gave a little reality to the “ steam-roller ” metaphor. ‘ He is an old Harrovian, and is' honoured on the Hill, not only for military achievements, but still more for playing an epic tenth-wicket innings at a moment of tense crisis and drama in an Eton and Harrow match at Lords. Colonel Alexander’s Army record is a brilliant one. He commanded a battalion on the western front at the ago of twenty-five, when most junior subs arc still in their salad days, won the M.C., D. 5.0., and Legion of Honour. amVwent over the top thirty times'* At thirty-five he was O.C. Irish Guards, The sort of chap, in short, who would rejoice the heart of Stalky and Co. If Ids hick holds, Colonel Alexander ought < to got , his baton before be is done with the Army. EHEU FUGACES! Field-Marshal Lord Allenby, when he took the Cavalry Division to France in 1914, was the youngest British general in the field. His seventy-third birthday is a reminder that all our Old Contemptiblcs are twenty years older than when they marched to the music-hall tune which has since become an anthem. Alleuby’s cavalry patrols were the first khaki warriors to meet the German field-grey legions, but _ it was not on the western front their commander won his laurels. The Allenby peerage and £50,000 were earned in the East, against the same foomen our medieval knight-crusaders encountered, and Allenby’s victorious sweep, punctuated with familiar Bible names, included Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulchre. Ho was popular with the troops, though the infantry did grouse over the forced marches. My gardener, an ex-Die Hard, and a pious chapelgoer, reminded me to-day how he was sniped from the Mount of Olivos! LONDON’S APRON. Our military exports are deliberating the question of London's air defences, find once again the capital of thej British Empire being perhaps the most vulnerable spot on the map, the pros and cons of air aprons are being considered. It is often said, parrot fashion, that the wire-netting suspended from linos of kite balloons, which was a feature of London’s defences Inwards the end of the war. sea reel (ho German raiders

away. Actually only one German plane was caught in these monstrous fishing nets, and even that one was not brought down. The pilot merely crashed on landing. Probably the aerial nets achieved more in psychological effect than in actual fact. Germany knew of their existence almost before we had them up, and rumour made, them a nightmare to German pilots. To be of any use in the next war. if we have one, kite balloons suspending nets will have to be amazingly high to stop modern planes, THEY’RE OFF! Popular interest is not yet aroused in next October’s big air race from Loudon to Melbourne. But that event, the biggest thing of the kind ever yet staged, is causing keen rivalry in aviation circles. Entries arrive from all over the habitable globe, for the prize is £15,000, a competency for life, in addition to a gold cup of handsome design. There arc plenty of gay adventurers eager to risk their neck on those terms, but a condition of entry is that every pilot must have flown for at least a hundred hours. We may count on at least thirty British machines being “ up,” and many are being made specially and secretly for the occasion. It is a go-as-you-please race, except that all pilots must report at Bagdad, Allahabad, Singapore, and Port Darwin. The take-off can be from any air port in England. Each flyer must carry three days’ supplies and a lifebelt. The England-Australia record will probably be cut down to four days. IMPROVED POLICE LIAISON. The idea of a police cabinet, centralising detective work and maintaining i the closest liaison between the police all over the country, is not new. It is already in being, at any rate in part, and there are signs that the improved organisation and prompter co-operation are having results. Though still too many, so-called car banditries show a steady decline, smash-and-grab robberies arc becoming fewer in London, and bag-snatebing is practically stamped out as an epidemic. The latter may bo in large part duo, however, to the salutary efforts of Sir Ernest Wild'at the Old Bailey. He has made it plain to the youthful ruffians who indulged in this form of crime that any sentence carries with it either the cat or the birch'. Curiously enough, the typo of criminals concerned dislike the latter even more than the former. It hurts their amour propre more. MISTAKEN HYSTERIA. Anyone who has had to follow murder trials in court knows how utterly futile it is for outsiders to form an opinion on the case from the most careful reports. This perhaps accounts for the widespread feeling about Reginald Hinks the Bath' electrician, whose appeal against a murder conviction has been dismissed. There is a black record of heartless, fraud and even ingsnatching against this man, but, in accordance with our most scrupulous traditions. these facts were never allowed to get out or influence the jury in the murder trial. The day the appeal was dismissed I took a taxi fiom Fleetstreet to Westminster to hear i;he Budget, and rny taxi was hold up alongside another on the Embankment. Inside the other taxi, which afterwards turned over Westminster Bridge ror Brixton, sat two prison warders .and

Hinks. That grim taxi-window vignette haunted me whilst the Chancellor was making his speech.' FAMOUS PUBLISHER. I suppose every schoolboy and schoolgirl used to know Mr C. J. Longman by name without any knowledge of the personality that lay behind the publisher of those school books which occasioned some of us so much tribulation at “ prep.” As a matter of fact, he got his football blue at Oxford, played cricket i|i the excellent company of W. Ct. Grace, and made his century at Lord’s, and was in his day champion archer of England. It was my privilege to know the old gentleman in his declining years, and a more charming companion it w'ould be hard to meet. With advancing years golf became his only recreation, and the enthusiasm with which he pursued it was amazing in an octogenarian. Not content with one, or perhaps two, rounds in a day, ho would go out afterwards for a little quiet practice. And that in spite of the fact that in the course of his round ho would sometimes beg permission to lean on his opponent because of his utter exhaustion. PLUCKED FROM THE BURNING. To the astonishment of the navvies engaged on demolishing the husk of the old Loudon Pavilion Music Hall in' Piccadilly Circus the debris created by their busy picks and shovels is behaving in n reverse manner to the ladies at Mr Wellex-’s tea party. It is “ a-dwind-ling wisibly ” before their-very eyes, The mystery is explained by the strong sentimental attachment of Cockneys to the old “ Pav.” Souveniring is going on wholesale. Old gentlemen can be detected purloining a half-brick, pocketing an electric bulb, or oven endeavouring to stow away a gas bracket. Anything is good enough, so long as some sort of sbuvenir can bo secured. It would be quite a good jlan to lot the .souvcnirists do the whole job of demolition perhaps. If everybody m authority' turned a blind eye in about a week the old “ Pav.” would be “ won piecemeal for .suburban museums. GRIM. Ju tiic bright lexicon of modern youth anything horrid or unpleasant is now “ grim.” That poor little word is working overtime wherever up-to-date young people congregate. Not to use it every two seconds is almost equivalent to pleading guilty to elastic-sided boots or woollen undies. Grnn, therefore, seems the very mot juste for the latest manifestation of sox warfare in London. These symptoms of sex antagonism have broken out in the New Bond street area, and the serried belligerents are respectively the women and male mannequins. It seepis the former fiercely resent the invasion by the latter of what was once their sole exclusive domain and preserve. Not even for displaying striped pyjamas or fancy mackintoshes will the outraged fair ones tolerate the notion of male mannequins. When the two meet at salons of fashion they behave like the Biblical war horse, pawing the carfiet and crying “ Ha! ha!” among the petits fours.