LONDON NEWS.

Hokitika Guardian, 25 March 1920, Page 4

LONDON NEWS.

WHITEHALL PANTOMIME. LONDON, Jan. 20

It is really remarkable how the London newspapers don’t even get the fun of the fair at their own doorsteps. ■This is one tame paragraph in most of them mentioning that a motor van caught fire in Whitehall and blistered the Cenotaph. Yet the story is as good as a pantomime, and better. The van caught fire all right. It looked like a blazing tunnel. The driver stood in despair looking at it. Policemen blew their whistles. Others rang up thp fire brigades. First on the scene from this “call” was a huge London fire escape, the very newest and latest tiling in tall unfolding ladders, designed to rescue shop girls from the 10th story attics! But then arrived a fire engine. One gallant fireman armed with a hose got going on the ground, and aimed his spout at the gaily blazing van. He got the wrong trajectory, with the result that he hit the assembled crowd right in the eye! But then he got fairly on the bottom of the van, aiming upwards. Hey! presto! Up through the top of the miraculous van spouted the water, carry ing with it into the merry London air a shower of ladies’ stockings and knickers. Even the crowd wiped its eye to enjoy the joke. •

A SERVICE HOUSEHOLD. LONDON, Jan. 20.

A remarkable experiment is being successfully tried at Aswerby Park, Sir George AVhichcoto’s beautiful 16th century hame near Sleaford, where the entire domestic staff consists of ex-ser-vice men. This experiment has now been in progress several months, and was adopted owing to the difficulty of getting satisfactory maids. Five exservice men are employed, and they run the whole place, no women being empioved <it nil. There is one ex-s©r-gennt who spent a, year in Germany as prisoner of war, three ex-privates, and one naval rating. No military status obtains. The ex-sergeant washes up, the butler is an ex-Private, the cook an ex-private of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, and so on. The men wear no special uniform. The butler dresses like any other butler, and the rest wear aprons, except the chef, who dresses the part in the ordinary way. The lady of the house declares the men are infinitely better than any women servants, and the men say that they are well treated, quite satisfied, and get on well together.

DOCTORING THE CHINKS. LONDON, Jan. 20,

To-day I met an old sergeant-major of my acquaintance, a handsome figure of an old R.H.A. man, just “demobbed” after winding up in France in charge of a Chinese Labor Corps. He was very amusing on the subject of the Heathen Chinee. The great trouble be bad with them was malingering. His M.O was a sentimentalist, too fond of marking men “No duty.” The result was a monstrous regiment of Chinese on the morning sick parade every day. Happily the M.O. fell sick himself. In bis absence the S.M. took sick parade that morning. It was a bumper house again. 'Hie S.M. sent across to the nearest R.S. dump for a firkin of mineral oil—a horrible mess, like atrabilious vaseline—and one of those big ladles used for baling out hot metal. Each Chink got careful attention and a ladleful of vaseline. a fair brimmer and no heel-taps. All that afternoon the camp was like a troopship ’tween decks during a bad nor’-west gale in the Bay. Next morning there was one Chinaman on sick parade. And lie bad—in the words of the sympathetic S.M. —‘‘a sure enough broken arm.”

PARIS AERO SHOW. LONDON, January 20:

A business man recently returned from Paris gives me some interesting farts concerning the International Aero Show now being held in the French capital. The leading British firms are showing their latest products—aeroplanes designed for commerce, and not simply converted war machines. In this respect Britain has a great lead and the sections given up to the display of machines from this country attract the big crowds of possible purchasers. The French aircraft industry, which led the world until the war, is suffering from the effects of prolonged. official supervision. My informant does not think much business : s being .transacted, although foreigners) from all countries are visiting the show. This he ascribes to a natural hesitation in peoples who have no experience of the safe reliability and low cost of aerial travel. He considers that our makers should demonstrate their machines abroad. I believe several wellknown firms are making arrangements for such displays during the coming spring. A determined bid will be made especially to secure the South American markets. Next July the British Aero Show will be held, and by then it is hoped that the work of education ■will bear fruit to the form of substantial orders. WINTER. IN THE PARK.

Quite unusual activity is being manifest this winter in Hyde Park and Rotten Row. Instead of being practically deserted, the place is crowded with people. The riders in the Row were never before so numerous out of the season, and it is interesting to note liow many of the ladies have not definitely abandoned all love for the old fashioned side saddle, despite the royal taboo placed upon that much-discussed “astride” fashion which is now all the go. The rising generation of Mayfair and Belgravia will certainly he good horsemen nnd horsewomen. Little tots of hoys and girls are now riding regularly and taking serious lessons. The popularity of the park, however, is not confined to the Row. Fashionable folks are promenading there this winter in great numbers, and the nursemaids, with their charges wonderfully arrayed in expensive furs and thick velvet, are a perfect regiment. Feeding ‘the birds on the Serpentine is now the popidar amusement in the mornings. And the ambition of all the sentimental youngsters, sometimes leading to bitter tears, is to “give the ducks and geese a chance.” These tame and domesticated birds, however, stand a poor chance against the marauding gulls, who generally snap up all the morsels specially donated to their more sophisticated kinsmen.