The Observer from London, Greater London, England • 18

18 THE OBSERVER, SUNDAY. NOVEMBER 20, 1932. ministration followed. Its astonishing occupies the latter part of Mr. Garvin's first volume, and the disclosures in that part explain a good deal in the political fortunes of Britain from that day to this.

Against Gladstone's disinclination to welcome new men of an anti-traditional type, Chamberlain forced the doors of the Cabinet. Thus when he had sat for less than four years in the House of Commons, the Birwinghum man became President of the Board of Trade. In his department he did many things; but his watchword, as when Mayor of Birmingham, life before property." His fight toras, poor Jack against the coffin-ships an impassioned and desperate struggled with the furious enmity of what was then the most powerful of interests. He staked his political life and seemed beaten; but as 8 result of his blazing crusade everything he battled for was secured to the merchant service in subsequent years. As a Cabinet Minister he was as much a challenger and disturber as he had been outside.

The chief questions for the memorable and discordant Government of 1884- 1843 were Ireland, Africa, German colonial expansion-there the origins of the Great War begin to appear- and the extension of the franchise agricultural labourer. The franchise struggle of 1884 was a ferre affair between the parties, and led to the Aston riot. Radical colleague more responsible than Juhn Bright, with horror, thought, his any man for the bombardment of Alexandria and the British occupation of Egypt. As a historical question this is very considerable, even a question of prime magnitude in the record of world-politics. From the bombardment of Alexandria to Gordon's fate the tale is told by Mr.

Garvin's biog aphy in another way altogether. How. cannot documents be said before former publication, but the supplement knowledge of the tine. The Irish question, however, and the British social question really dominate the latter half of the first volume. The disclosures of fresh evidence become continuouS.

Captain O'Shea begins to play his extraordinary part. Chamberlain makes yet another light in the Cabinet for bolder concession to Ireland instead of coercion. Knowing nothing of Parnell's futal secret, he negotiates by the Kilmainhain compact the Irish leader's release from prison. He seemed marked out for Chief Secretary, but Gladstone had other ideas. Frustrated for the inoment by the Phoenix Park murders, Chamberlain at length takes up another and far bigger plan of conciliation.

Entirely new and of capital signifcance for students of political history is the account of his struggle for an Irish National Council; though he made it absolutely clear that he would never consent to any scheme involving separate Parliaments. Thence the earthquake soon to coine, as the opening of the second volume will show. Simultaneously with his projects for Ireland Chamberlain began to carry to a climax the struggle of the Radicals against the Whigs. At the beginning of 1885 he had opened his first campaign for the Programme. By Ransom speech, above all, he spread the terror amongst the comfortable classes.

Owing to hopeless dissensions the second Gladstone Government collapsed at last in June. 1845. There the first volume breaks off leaving Chamberlain at very height of his energies and his purposeslittle witting of the succession of personal and political tragedies just about to begin and very soon to throw down the whole high fabric of his Radical dreams. How he escaped total ruin was a miracle. At Ally, scarcely knowing at Arst how to start, he had to try to build up again from the ground.

He did it. The second volume Is already in the hands the printers, and will be publisted by Messrs. Macmillan few months hence. Very different from the this second volume is filled by the events" of 1011 years only. IL covers the of secession, combat, and change froin the summer of 10 the summer of 1895.

when Chamberlain becomes Colonial darkness Secretary. to This happiness decade again brings Chamber- from lain's human life ruined by loss of friends after the Liberal disruption, though this only made him in his way more terrible as a fighter. The third volume is complete In typescript, but is unlikely to appear until early next autumn. It carries the narrative up finch the beginning Boer War of the WAS present thought to century. be almost over.

After the Khaki Election, the I'nionist regime had renewed its majority. Chamberlain was at the very top of his power and his conceptions. Many-including some not of his own party- called him 4 4 the man of the new century." Finally the range and variety of his Imperial administration will be depicted and his last fight for Imperial and national reorganisation will be described. This fourth volume is fully planned out and the writing should be completed within another twelve months. Like the rest of the book the Arst volume about to appear on Tuesday next week is full incidentally of pen-portraits of Chamberlain's contemporaries, major and minor.

Owing to the extent of the subject-matter and continual vigour of Chamberlain's activity, the whole work necessarily has to ho done on the big scale. like Morley's or the Buckle-Monypenny Disraeli." Mr. Garvin dedicates his biography, To the City of London and the City of Birmingham." LONGER TRAINING FOR NURSES. RECOMMENDATION OF L.C.C. COMMITTEE.

If recommendations of the Central Public Health Committee of the the L.C.C. are approved by Council on Tuesday, the probation period of nurses in the Council's hospitals and institutions will be niaterially extended. The Committee state that their experience has shown it is difficult for a young probationer entering the age of eighteen years to complete her course of training satisfactorily in three years. "The crowding in of practical theoretical work," the Committee say, medical and surgical knowledge, is not especially in view of the advance in 200d, and we are strongly of opinion that tiLe porind of training in general nursing should he four years, and that the period training of nurses undertaking supplementary training in general nursing he increased from 11'O years to 1tirve years." MR. RUNCIMAN 62.

Mr. Walter Runciman, President of the Board of Trade. who was sixty-two yesterday, spent his birthday at Doxford Hall, his Northumberland home, where he entertained Ar. Flandin, the ex-Minister of Finance for France, to a little -L world; and bad become the real pioneer of what is now called Rationalisation." Instead of continuing on these lines and becoming a millionaire, Chamberlain deliberately sold out when he was yet only thirty-seven to devote himsell wholly to civics" and politics. His subsequent political independence was based markedly on this possession of independent means Long devoted in his leisure to social service amongst the working-classes, he was late in coming into politics.

At the beginning of the bitter struggle on national education, this. young manufucturer, whose name had been unknown to Downing Street and Westminster, challenged a great Government, and emerged in a few months as a national personality. He wanted all elementary schools, publicly maintained, to be unsectarian and popularly controlled, with facilities for all the religions to teach their distinctive tenets by voluntary zeal during allocated hours, He thought the Nonconformists betrayed when the Liberal Government established a system. His first interview with Gladstone was clash. With the most stubborn audacity and amusing resource, young Chamberlain for several years carried on 8 struggle that to any, man might have seemed hopeless.

did a good deal to othere bring down Gladstone's first Adminis- tration when all concessions that might have been wisely made to the Nonconformists were denied. Before that fight was over he took up the social questions in town and shire. and became the leader of Radical reform. For long he was even more anti-Whig than anti-Tory. Becoming Mayor of Birmingham, he transformed the place.

With immense executive energy he carried through in three years the health-saving and lifesaving measures that municipal idealists for twenty years bad talked of in vain. His own vivid letters, as quoted in Mr. Garvin's first volume, are the best of the tale; and the tale is an epic in its way. Chamberlain was a very great executive citizen -probably the greatest of the nineteenth century. The hot controversy about Chamberlain'g theoretical Republicanisin and practical royalism in the early 'seventies 15 examined and settled in a way that recalls flaring passages of mil- Victorian politics.

Now they are some, sometimes thought lame and conven1ional, but were very far from that. At that time Queen Victoria, owing to her long seclusion since the Prince Consort's death, was not popular. His private sorrows meanwhile are in desolating contrast to his public success. He takes a black view of human destiny in, but no public sign of this appears. and his own.

He almost despairs withde He conceives that the only anodyne is to work harder than ever to alleviate the common lot Then the coming first volume shows in what curious circumstances he went into Parliament relatively late in life. He had resoived never to enter the House of Commons unless elected before he was forty. In the nick of time, just before his fortieth hirthday, a lucky vacancy made him member for BirmingAt first he felt himself in a hostile atmosphere at Westminster. Coolly and surely he made his mark both in before speaking he and action. years passed acquired mastery in Parliamentary debate "equal to his command of the platform.

biography gives new glimpses of the Beaconsfeld Parliament from 1876 to 1880. HIs 'double power as agitator and organiser lay in the constituencies. How Chamberlain founded the great Liberal machine, the Caucus, is told for the first time in this opening volume of the Life." Here again the material brought to view by the biography supplies the largest addition made in recent years to the history of political organisation. Air. Garvin examines the permanent question of the machine in politics.

Chamberlain duced Gladstone to bless at a giant meeting the foundation of the Caucus. the two inen were types hardly coInpetible. The B.rmingham system applied to National politics played a definite part in Beaconsfeld's overthrow AS that aged genius discerned. Gladstone's second AMERICAN SENATOR'S DEATH. DEMOCRATS NOW IN A MAJORITY.

SEATTLE, Saturday. Senator Wesley L. Jones died at his home here this morning at the age of sixty-ntne. Senator Jones was defeated in the last elections, and, had he lived, would have had to reliquish his seat in March, 1933. His death gives the Democrats a majority of one in the short session of the Senate.Reuter.

Back to the Land. Sombre against the fading sky, The pylons take the hill's long line; like monsters who divine Themselves held up to cbloquy: Lofty, unyielding, on they stride, Knowing what task they have in handTo lead men workless, wan, unmanned, From slums to 8 green wa side. Yet not the same their sires did see, Whose days with brutish toil were Alled; To hamlets lighted now, -land tilled By harnessed BAINES. WINTER AT SALFORDS, SURREY. Week -End Weather.

DULL, SOME RAIN AND RATHER COLD. OFFICIAL REPORT. GENERAL is rather uniform over most of the country. A deep depression near Iceland is moving north-east, but secondaries will affect the northwest of the British Isles. Over most of England there will be little change.

LONDON, ENGLAND S.E. and MID- I LANDS E. -Light variable wind; dull; local drizzle and fog; rather cold. ENGLAND S.W., MIDLANDS and WALES variable wind; dull; local fog; rather cold. ENGLAND N.W.

and N.E., MIDLANDS and WALES N. -Light variable to south-west wind; mainly cloudy: or dull; local fog; rather cold. FURTHER, OUTLOOK. North-West, probably and with local fog. quiet and dull in the South East, (By Our Meteorological Correspondent.) Under the influence of a belt of high pressure extending north-eastward from an anti-cyclone in mid-Atlantic, marked improvement in the weather was experienced throughout Scotland yesterday.

Over a large part of that country the day was fine and sunny, though fog persisted in some places. The amelioration did not reach England and Wales, where conditions were dominated by a shallow disturbance over the Bay Biscay. This system caused an interval of steady rain in southern districts during the night ante early morning, the fall amounting in instances to more than a quarter of an inch. Later there were occasional bright intervals locally, but in general the sky remained- overcast, with widespread drizzle and fog. As on Friday, sub-normal temperature ruled, except in the far south-west; the p.m.

readings ranged from 34 deg. at Renfrew through 42 deg. in London to 52 deg. at Guernsey. November has been, SO far, the dullest part of an exceptionally dull year.

So far AS London is concerned, 1932 threatens to prove even more notable for lack of bright weather than 1931. Last year's total duratinn of sunshine at Kew was 1,965 hoursthe smallest since 1880; this year's contribution now stands at only 1.192 hours, so that unless the average daily duration for the next six weeks reaches hours25 minutes more than the normal-1932 will replace its predecessor as the most sunless year of the twentieth century. A LONELY MAN'S DEATH. Notes which stated All alone. No one to mourn me.

Find have one to trouble about me," were left by pano unidentited man who was found dead on of straw in a disused house at Freckenham, SuMolk. A disinfectant bottle was found. The man was about sixty years of age. An inquest will be held to-morrow. RED CROSS CLINIC.

When Louise Duchess of Argyll, vice Society, president of a the bazaar British in aid Red of Cross the Red Cross clinic at Kensington Gardens, yesterday, at the residence of Sir Robert and Lady Perks, it was stated that the number of persons who attended last year at the clinic was 33,000. THE BATTLE OF THE PLANS. WILL GERMANY GO TO GENEVA? DECISIONS REST WITH FRANCE. INFLUENCE OF MR. NORMAN DAVIS.

(By Our Diplomatic Correspondent.) The Council of the League will meet tomorrow, formally to receive the Lytton Commission's report on the Far East and the Japanese official commentary on 1t. That commentary is already in the hands of the Secretariat. The only executive action that the Council has to take is to convene a special meeting of the Assembly to discuss the whole matter; but much will depend on the Council's skill this week. It is generally recognised that the convening or the Assembly would A A A be a useless measure unless the Council were able lIL advance to project the probable lines of a solutioncidental importance of the work that will begin to-morrow is that it is generally expected to produce the formula that will enable Germany to return to the formal pyroth the Disarmament Conference. von Neurath left Berlin last night for Geneva.

His technical object is the Manchurian discussions; but there is no longer even a pretence of disguising the fact that an equally important object will be to discuss with the British and French delegations the latest proposals for disarmament. If he Ands (as is regarded now as likely) that the French delegatton is prepared to go far enough in the sense of Sir John Simon's pronouncement, it is the German policy to resume official participation in the work of the Conference. There 1s ground also for the expectation that Mr. Norman Davis's presence in Geneva this week will enahle Washington to discuss the question of the War Debt with the European Governments concerned, as well as to exchange views about the convening of the World Financial and Economic Conference. in particular the opportunity will arise for a British Government explanation to both Washington and Paris of its reason for not being able to take a decision about the standard except in the context of the kindred Anancial matters; in other words its reason for wanting the Conference to meet 800n rather than late.

FRENCH RETICENCE. Tha fact that the semt-official Press continues to abstain from giving any definila opinion on the British disarmament proposals is interpreted by papers both of the extreme Right and of the extreme Left as evidence 'of a desire to conceat from the public as long as possible the fundamental opposition of those proposals to the French point of view. The reason alleged 13 that the French and British Governments have need of one another's support in the matter of the debts to America: but Great Britain 1s not disposed on. that account to give a free hand to French military power on the Continent of Europe, and is therefore determined to bring Germany back into the Disarmament Conference, even at the price of concessions which are humiliating after the threats which were uttered by Germany when she departed from the Conferenceconcessions which must lead the Japanese to the conclusion that the best way to bring Geneva to heel is to gO out and bang the door. Pertinax," who has long since been disposed to let the Germans re arm a little, as long as France is allowed to continue to arm as much as she likes, finds this British lack of tolerance for French militarism most unreasonable.

OPPOSITE POINTS OF VIEW. (From Our Own Correspondent.) PARIS, Saturday. GENERAL CATOR'S DEATH. HEART FAILURE IN HUNTING FIELD. The verdict yesterday on MajorGencral Albemarle Bertie Edward Cator, D.S.O., who died in the hunting Acid on Friday, was that he tell from his horse dur-' ing all altack of angina pectoris, and died during, or as a result of, the attack.

His death occurred while he was out with Earl Bathurst's hounds, and the inquest was held at Coates. near Cirencester. Captain F. U. Swanwick, of Fosse HIll, Coates, said that they had had quite a hard run.

Alter jumping a ditch they reached a gate which Major de Freville opened. General Cator leaned forward to catch it with his hand but drew back and put out font instead. I think," continued Captain Swanwick, he caught his toe very slightly, in the end of the gate, not enough to upset him. His horse went on through the gate about five yards. Then General Cator lurched sideways and fell on his head rather heavily." Dr.

H. E. Graham sald that General Cator's health had been very bad and in his pocket were capsules for his heart. Everything pointed to angina pectoris. MR.

A. II. II. GILLIGAN. FORMER M.C.C.

CAPTAIN TO MARRY. Mr. A. H. H.

Gilligan, one of the famous Sussex cricketing brothers, announced his engagement yesterday. He is to marry Miss Marjorie White, only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Henry White, of Rusholme-road, Putney-hill, Mr. Gilligan, who is thirty-six, is the youngest son of Mr.

and Mrs. W. A. Gilligan, of Park-terrace, Bognor Regis. In 1929-30 he was captain of the M.C.C.

team which toured New Zealand, and played several matches in Australia on the way. DIVORCE FOR FORMER M.P. A decree of divorce was granted by Lord Pitman in the Court of Session at Edinburgh, yesterday, in an undefended petition at the instance of the Hon. Charles brother the Earl of Haddington, and William hair of Piccadilly, formerly M.I'. for Bath, against his wife, the Hon.

Wanda Baillie-Hamilton, of 1, Oldbury-place, Marylebone, N.W., on the ground of her misconduct with William John Muir Low, otherwise known as John Loder, a actor. The co-respondent's address was given as the 05 that of the respondent. The took place in London in July, 19.1. LONDON AND SPINOZA TERCENTENARY. On Thursday next, the tercentenary of Spinoza'5 birth, the British Institute ol Philosophy proposes to hold a public meettverstly College.

Gower-street, C.1. at M. 15 p.m., at which speakers will discuss aspects of Spinoza's life and philosuphy. Professor S. Alexander will preside.

After an address Professor A. Wolf there will be short speeches by Sir Herbert Samuel, Mr. John Buchan, Sir Frederick P'ullock, Dr. Stanton Coit, and others. GRETA GARBO CHASED.

WILD STREET SCENES IN COPENHAGEN. COPENHAGEN, Saturday. Greta Garbo, the mysterious, appeared and disappeared here to-day, and during the hour that she was in the city she gave Press representatives, photographers, and hangers-on a wild chase round the streets, in which speed limits, traffic lights, and were all disregarded. The Danish Press had learned that Greta Garbo, whom nobody has been able to interview since she came home to Sweden six months ago for a holiday, was crossing from Warnemunde to Gedzer, and when the express train that meets the ferry came into Copenhagen to-night a small army of Press representatives and photographers was waiting for the fllm star. Greta Garbo, who was quickly recognised although she was wearing a black wig over her natural hair, was accompanied by the Countess Wachtmeister, who 19 well known in Copenhagen.

The reporters surrounded the two women and asked Greta Garbo for an interview, but firmly and courteously she refused, and when the photographers tried to snap her she pulled her long cloak over her head, hurried to a taxi, and drove off. No one had heard the directions given to the driver, and the reporters commandeered all the remaining taxis, and the chase was on. The leading taxi headed for Kongens Nytorb, the great square where the Royal Theatre, the Royal Academy, and a fashionable hotel are situated. Four times the taxi played my-leader round the garden in the collare. and then, without stopping, it set off in a new direction.

Whenever the car slowed reporters jumped on to the running board and thrusting their heads through the windows, begged for an interview in vain. The chase went on at a smart pace, and for a third time it led back to the railway station. This time the ladies got down. Porters were quickly summoned and removed the luggage, and a few minutes later the hunted couple were seen to enter the 7.30 p.m. train for LAST COPING STONE AND DEATH.

SCAFFOLDER THROWN FROM NEW TOWN HALL. As the last coping stone WAS being placed in position at Barnsley's new Town Hall, Henry Logan, thirty-two, 8 Manchester scaffolder, was hurled to his death by the dislodging of stone and the collapse of scaffolding. Witnesses at the inquest yesterday could not account for the accident. Wellard Tasker, a stonemason, said that the last coping stone was almost posttion when suddenly the scaffolding went from underneath him, and he came to rest about twelve feet below. I saw the stones go over in a wave," he said.

They followed me down like a pack of dominoes. Just one sweep and it was over." Logan, he added, was thrown to the ground seventy feet below and was killed instantly. The inquest was adjourned. CELLAR-DWELLINGS OF KENSINGTON. COUNCIL SEEKING NEW POWERS.

Kensington Borough Council is to discuss the obtaining, in a Parliamentary Bill, of powers that will enable them to prohibit the use, as dwellingn or sleeping-places, of places unht for human habitation, or rooms, wholly or partially underground, which are linproperly ventilated and lighted, and not at least seven lethe Council height from proposes toor to to re-house ceiling. the dispossessed people in new houses on the Dalgarns-gardens site. The Ministry of Health has sanctioned 8 housing scheme, costing £150,000, for Plymouth. mo on was sure of Shell Aviation Petrol Mei. Mollison dew from Bogland to in 4 days.7, bours piloting a De Havilland Pume Moth freed with a Gipsy Major engine:.