FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 15, 8 April 1927, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By

the LOOK-OUT MAN

THE GROAXERS Every time butter-fat falls a penny a pound a deep groan goes up in the Auckland Province and its echoes shake the length and breadth of the Dominion. It is even suspected that it travels much further tnan the limits of this land, which may account for the fact that American newspapers occasionally star reports of earthquakes in New Zealand. The groaners and moaners ought to visit the hospitals or the homes of henpecked husbands and take lessons in how to suffer in silence. In what cheerful contrast the merry men of the C.T.A! You never hear them moaning about hard times. They wouldn’t last long on the road if they did. Note the cheerful optimism of the speeches at their annual meeting in Auckland. Optimism begets confidence and confidence begets energy—and energy makes trade and encourages investment. Let’s all form an anti-moaning club, “crack hardy,” and follow in the footsteps of the buoyant boys of the C.T.A. HAPPY SOUTH AFRICA Alone of all the British Dominions, South Africa should be financially happy this year, for, after a long spell of “hard-uppishness,” the Budget shows an excess of revenue over the estimates of £1,700,000 and, allowing for increased expenditure,, a surplus of £1,150,000. This fortunate position is largely due to the enormously increased production of alluvial diamonds —and a universal financial improvement which permits the world to buy them. The importance of the diamond fields to South Africa will be realised when it i 3 remembered that the value of the diamonds exported from that country up to the outbreak of the Great War was, roughly, £180,000,000. Now, if we could only locate a diamond field in New Zealand !! ! TREATIES WITH CHINA A timely rebuke has been adminis tered by Professor Soothill, professor of Chinese, Oxford University, to the glib politicians in Great Britain who have been denouncing the “old treaties which were imposed on China by the opium and other wars that disgraced our history” (to quote Mr. Ramsay MacDonald’s foolish phrase). In an informative article in the “Sunday Times,” London, Professor Soothill proves clearly that opium was only the accidental cause of the so-called Opium War of 1840. The real cause was the treatment accorded to Lord Napier, Captain Elliot, and the British traders they represented. That war was waged merely for the right of diplomatic intercourse on terms of reasonable equality with the Chinese Government. It might be well for modern politicians to read over even one of the treaties they so lightly denounce, concludes the professor. “If, instead of ignorantly condemning the past, they would confine themselves to considering the needs of the present, they would be on safer ground. The treaties admittedly need revision; but, as the Chinese say, ‘You cannot clap with one hand,’ and search is being made to find the other hand.” LOUISE LOVELY'S LOVE Louise Lovely, the girl who succeeded in making something of a name for herself at Hollywood, obtained her divorce in Sydney last week. Her husband was Wilton Welch, with whom she appeared in vaudeville in the days when she was known as Louise Carbasse. Louise was the originator of the first “screen

tests”, (conducted with considerable lucrative results for herself) in Australia. Welch created something of a sensation when the pair returned from the Land of the Dollar by startling Sydney with the magnificence of his fur coat, a garment which might well have been sported by his wife. All Sydney knew the late Madame Alberti, the mother of Louise. She presided for many years at the desk of her Phillip Street cafe. Madame knew -what was what in French cooking, and was deservedly popular for the excellence of her cuisine. Welch refused to return to his wife, so Louise told the judge who awarded her a decree. Since her triumphal tour of the Commonwealth, when the screen star sought successors for the magic silver sheet, and from which her Tasmanian picture resulted, Louise Lovely has made few public appearances. Her disagreement with Welch was not unknown, and the divorce proceedings consequently not unexpected. PRINCE AX/) PR OLE TAR IA T The social savoir faire of the Prince of Wales has now been practically completed by a personally-conducted visit to a fried fish shop. He must be getting quite reassured about his popularity in the East End. There are some queer cards down that way, and_ some undesirable alien agitators; but' woe betide the man or woman who attacked the Prince by word or deed in Hackney to-day. “He has the best possible appeal to London’s proletariat,” says an English newspaper.