A LETTER FROM LONDON

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19719, 9 December 1926, Page 5

A LETTER FROM LONDON

GREAT CHEMICAL COMBINE

JOTTINGS FROM CITY LIFE

(From Our Special Correspondent.—All Rights Reserved). LONDON, October 28.

Sir Alfred Mond. Sir Alfred Mond, the big figure in j the' new chemical combine, has become j in the public eye what he has been in ' the eyes of the industrial world for j years —a king of industry. A friend j who knows him well declares that there i is no othe’r man in the country to-day who can, with so little effort, persuade others that they should follow his leadership. Sir Alfred Mond can enter a board room for a meeting that anyone else would say was bristling with difficulties, and, in a quarter of an hour will have every man present in agreement with him.. He is a man who thinks quickly and clearly, and he possesses the rare ability of saying the i eiaet minimum that has to be said, ' without one unnecessary word. His income is colossal, but no one who has worked under him will deny that he earns every penny of it. The Chemical Combine. A friend of mine’ reading the names of those responsible for the great chemical combine, commented on the number of Scottish and Jewish leaders of the movement. He recalled Sir Robert Horne’fj story of the Scotsman who said:—“What puzzles me is where these Jews get all the money I make off them.’’ Perhaps more to the point is the remark of a certain young nobleman who, having been invited to embark on a certain transaction which was obviously meant for the benefit of the promoter: —“You se’em to forget that my father was a Scotsman and my mother a Jewess.’’ Tn point of fact the new enterprise has behind it a team of the ablest brains in this country, including not a few Englishmen. 1 believe the preliminary investigations, which have been carried out :i> the strictest confidence have’ been in progress for some months. Much spadework still remains to be done, but there is little* doubt that it will be successful. Cause and Effect. Whe’n the public grumbles about postwar railway fares, and when the trad-

ing community brings charges of I freight profiteering that throttles in- ! dustry, the companies have one effective retort. They point to the immensely swollen charges that in these postwar times render higher railway rates merely essential. And the most impressive item of all, as usual, is wages. It may stagger most’ people to hear that the wages bill of our railways today is almost three times as heavy as it used to be before the war. The actual figures are £47,000,000 then against £ J 20,000,00 p now. If these official figures are in no way deceptive, and there is no reason to suppose otherwise, they go far to explain why our train journeys cost us more’, and why traders have to meet much heavier freightage bills t'han twelve years ago. And incidentally they afford rather a flatter ing tribute to the energy and sagacity of that bete noir of all fervent “Reds’’ Mr. J. 11. Thomas, M.P. He may not be a good imitation of Trotzky, but he •does seem to look after the members of his union. Dr. Salter. M.P. Dr. Alfred Salter, who has got himself into trouble by his reference to the habits of his Parliamentary colleagues, might, if he had chosen, have been a Harley Street specialist with a princely income, for he made a large collection of gold medals in his student days at Guy’s and gained a gold medal for his M.D., thesis at the age of 23. He has preferred, however, to work for the twenty-five years as a general practitioner in Bermondsey, where, to his professional duties, he has added great activity in municipal and other public work. It was some time, how ever, before he could induce Bermondsey to accept his Parliamentary s?r vices. Ho is a clean shaven, plain-vis-aged and quiet mannered man, who. seldom speaks in the House, and he has surprised his friends by his allegation against his colleagues of all parties. As one member said yesterday, “ I hope I never get into Dr. Salter’s hands after a motor accident. His standard of sobriety would be too much for me.” A Happy Suggestion. The Federation of British Industries has demonstrated its interest in the British film industry by a very practical suggestion. Sir Max Muspratt, as chairman, has written to every cinema in London a letter calling attention to the fact that British films arc : not well-known in the Dominions, and he suggests therefore that it would seems a good opportunity to call attention to British films, while the’ Imperial Conference is in London, by having at least one British production on the programme in every London cinema while, the Conference' is in session. If the suggestion is carried out, it may have a good effect. It is a fact generally recognised that the British films have a very poor show in the' Dominion markets. In Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, American films rule the roost, and have a stronger monopoly than they have even in Europe. Genii of the Umbrella Warren. A stalwart Canak of my acquaintance admires, more than anything else in London, the Lost Property Office at Scotland Yard. He says that dingy little umbrella-warren on the Embankment works more amazing miracles than when Aladdin rubbed the lamp. Allowing for the romantic imagery, there may be something in it. London connotes 7,000,UU0 people, most of whom are constantly losing things. And the betting is 100 to 1 that Scotland Yard hands them back with a bored smile. Aly Canadian friend bought a featherweight “mac,’’ and kep£ forgetting, about it. Three .times in ten days he 1 left it behind, But “the Yard” always had it, neatly packed and beautifully docketed. “I left it in a taxi one night at 11 o’clock, with my favour ite pipe and a Princess Patricia’s Own tobacco pouch in the pockets,” he said, “but at 11 o’clock next morning I was signing the receipt for it at Scotland Y r ard! ” Limbless Soldiers. I hear that an organisation is being formed specially to care for the interests of limbless ex-service men, who number about 50,000 and are scattered all over the country. It is proposed to form a network of local Committees, with honorary secretaries, whose duty it will be to advise the men in their difficulties, assist them in their pension claims, keep an unemployment register, and generally act as “soldier’s friend/’ The Secretary is Captain H. Josselyn. “Margot’s Son.” - I hear that Mr Anthony Asquith, the youngest son of Lord Oxford, is one of the producers of the naval battle films uf Coronel and the Falkland Islands. A great deal of work is being done on these films, and they should bo ready in a few months though it will be doubtless some time before they are released. It had been arranged that in one part Mr Chruchiil should be shown in his room at the Admiralty, surrounded by members of the Board, receiving messages and giving directions. But Mr Churchill has finally decided that he will not appear in the flesh, though the actual room used by the First Lord during the battles will be lent, and an actor will impersonate Mr Churchill in the seat of the mighty. Mr Anthony Asquith has been at film work ever since he came down from Balliol two years ago. He seems to have inherited no love for politics. Films and ballet dancing are his chief interest He has, however, written a play which was produced by a dramatic society at Balliol some time ago. West Indian Disaster Later news from the West Indies show that the devastation worked along the track of the fearful hurricane was tragic indeed. Besides the naval sloop foundered in the tempest, many merchant vessels have suffered. There is one feature of this catastrophe that will rouse will public attention. According to so. reliable an authority as Admiral Mark Kerr, who knew the

great scientist well, the late Lord Kelvin, who was no imaginative visionary or scare-monger, predicted that wireless would affect the winds. Some time ago there was a suggestion that wireless developments might be affecting the weather, but the idea was firmly laughed out of court by experts and scientific people as ridiculous. There w r as, we were told ? more energy unloosed by a flash of lightning than by all the world’s wireless stations combined. Yet Lord Kelvin, before he died, took strongly the view that wireless was having its meteorological effects, and instanced the Gregali, which used to blow straight into Malta Harbour, but has now shifted two points to the eastward, as an example duo to Malta’s wireless station. Sand Carpets Near the Belgian town of Malines an inkeeper has just won a money award of several hundred francs for “sand carpet.’’ Sand is commonly used as a floor covering in Belgium; and in many villages it is the custom for inkeepers to decorate the floor of the bar parlour with a design in colour sands. At one inn near Antwerp the design is changed every week, tho housewife, a woman of seventy, being remarkably dexterous in tho faithful reproduction of artistic pictures sketched by her husband. The winning design this year showed a panorama of the rebuilt town of Ypres. Customeis are kept off’ the sanded floor as much as possible so as to preserve the design intac , but when the bar parlour is used by the villagers .the “picture” is generally obliterated inside of a w r cck. A Rabbit in Whitehall Just before noon the other day pedestrians in Whitehall were astonished to see a full-grown rabbit running at a great pace amongst the traffic, pursued by a yelping fox terrier. Messenger boys joined in the chase, and for a moment I thought a particularly large policeman, who started forward : from his post near the Cenotaph, was going to start running as well. A somewhat flustered young man, carrying a 1 wicker basket, explained what had happened. Ho had netted a number of rabbits near Horsham, -with the assistance of a ferret, and was taking this one home for the entertainment of a small niece. Unfortunately, when descending from a bus, the basket had come open, and the rabbit had made a last desperate attempt to return to its warren. When I last saw it, the rabbit was making for Victoria Station, knowing no doubt, that is by far tho most convenient way of getting to Sussex. Queen’s Hall Furore The first scandal of a suggestion that Queen’s Hall, our London temple of serene harmony, might be turned into yet another “super” cinema naturally put all the highbrow dovecotes in a flutter. Such a contingency would be a genuine calamity, and, so far as I can fathom, is hardly likely to happen. Behind the threat may lurk a joust at the 8.8. C. and its wireless programmes, which some of the older musicians persist in classifying, with jazz, on tho musical index expurgatorious. Possibly the Royal Academy would bo similarly hostile to envisaging the application of television to Burlington House. Whether this attitude is really wise, and whether it might not be more sapient to welcome alertly, and duly exploit, anything that multiplied a hundredfold the publicity of the best art, musical or pictorial, is an open question perhaps. But it is significant that, tho neighbours of Appletree Farm House, Sir Henry Wood’s centuries-old cottage at Chorley Wood, have long ntt,ecied a wireless aerial above the famous Queen’s Hall conductor’s dcmuiu roof. Sava’s Caricatures A Serb has been among us taking notes. And his notes are being revealed to their victims this week ?n an exhibition at the Pine Art Society’s rooms. The Serb is one A. B. Sava, who seems to be a regular genius among caricatures. Ho has “done’’ most of “the best people” of the day. His caricatures have a way not only of revealing the oddities of the subject’s appearance, but of criticising the man and all he stands for. For instance, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is drawn as a solid person enough, as indeed he is, but somehow his body, as Sava draws it, seems on the point of evaporating. Ramsay Macdonald is reduced to a head weighed down with heavy thought, and poised on a body that seems to be built of iron girders. It is expressionism in caricature. Sava draw not only the outside of a man’s head, but in some subtle fashion he contrives to show something of what he think is going on inside it.