The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 8

8 THE MANCHESTER GUARDIAN, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1936 OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENCE Selfridge Ltd. (Editorial lioovuf, London. NOTE. This space is occupied entj da? by aa article reflecting the policies, principles, and opinions ot this House ol Business upon various pomts ol public Interest. SELFRIDGE LTD.

announces the resignation of the chairman, Sir Christopher Needham, who has been chairman since 1922. Sir R. Noton Barclay, who has been deputy chairman since 1932, ha3 been elected chairman. (10) County championship cricket ended An Appeal to Portugal The "non-intervention" agreement provides that no arms or ammunition shall be exported from European countries either to the Spanish loyalists, as might lawfully be done, or to the Spanish rebels, which is a defiance of international usage. The justification for such an agreement is that although it may be unfair to the legitimate Spanish Government it will prevent the civil war from leading to an international crisis.

It is at least essentia that the agreement shall be made to work and that all the European Powers who have now promised not to send arms to Spain shall see that their word is kept. For this purnosn it is proposed that a super visoiy committee shall meet iu puts Islam in the position of an alien or enemy faith. But if Indian politics appear for the moment to be shrouded in the mists of illusory ambiguities and fantastic projects, one has a feeling that hidden in the fog not far ahead there await us hard realities. All parties Liberals, non-Brahmins, and Moslems, no less than Congress men are ready to resent any remnant of British supervision and control. The man who does so most energetically will be accouuted the greatest statesman.

Our provincial governors will need to be accomplished diplomatists to avoid clashes arising from the discharge of their special responsibilities. But our governors are not always so simple, so pompous, or so irascible as the world supposes. Most of them will play their hands skilfully enough. And their opponents may not find it easy to present a united front. Perhaps modernist thought will in the next generation erase the line that divides Hindu from Moslem, sponging out traditional fears and hatreds along By PRIVATE WIRE tage.

Several firms are showing boxes of King Edward chocolate adorned with portraits, large or miniature, of the King, but mobt of the others are waiting to make their loyal display in the coronation year, and, of course, keeping their plans secret. It is pleasant to find old favourites such as the sugar mice, described as essential for every Christmas tree, and what aie probably the earliest English sweets that still remain in favour, sugared liquorice, and the little black liquoi ice disks, made in Pontefract, and therefore allowed to bear a stamp of the castle. The sale of these sweets, always hand-made, is said to have increased immensely during the last few ears. Chocolate manufacturers find a growing demand for assortments with many different fillings. One firm is showing boxes with a dozen different fillings, and distinguishing the hard and soft ones with dark and light This is important, since people have strong feelings in favour of one or the other.

Ono does not like to think of the tragedy when a mistake is made in the darkness of a theatre. A Million a Week on Sweets The stands at Olympia may well look prosperous as well as decorative, for tho consumption of all kinds of sweets in this country is steadily rising. It is said that a family now buys on an average ono and a third pounds of sweets every week and that tho weekly turnover to a million pounds. As everyeno seems to be eatinpc COURT PERSONAL QUEEN MARY'S FIRST, VISIT To WENSLEYDALE As is her practice when in Queen Mary lost no time in setting oir see something of tho countryside jestcrdi Accompanist by Lady Cynthia CoUille, -lady-m-waitiag, by the Princess and Lord Harewood, she left House, where she arrived on Muim evening from SandririRham, and into tho heart of Wenslejdale, a part of country which she had not hitherto vitr Queen Mary passed through a larye of Wharfedale on the journey, and at IV Burley-in-Wharfedale, Ilkley, liurnsall, Grassington large crowds assembled to i. her.

She was kept busy acknowledging salutations of motorists she passed roads and of the inhabitants of the townships and villages through wliRii i car was slowly driven. The little village of Wensley was -in i excited from an early hour when it known that it was to recehe its lirf r. iait within living memory. The s. -children were given a holiday and in force on the village green.

Thti i given a special smile and a waie et hand by Queen Mary as she passed into grounds of Bolton Hall, the rcaidcm Lord and Lady Bolton, where she renuir to lunch. Lord Bolton is Lord Lieutenant of North Riding, and his home contaiiia n1 valuable paintings, old tapestries, antique furniture. The hoube also museum of antiquities, and tju Mary spent a large part of the aftorn inspecting these treasures before niutn-back to Harewood House for dinner. MR. EDEN HAS A TEMPERA TVRT Mr.

Anthony Eden, the Foreign Sici, i is indisposed with a slight temperature has been ordered by his medical adv remain in bed for a few days. Mr. will therefore be unable to attend to i -meeting of Cabinet Ministeis, w' foreign affairs are to be considered. Mr. Eden returned to London i from the country to be present at Station yesterday to say good bye lo the Egyptian Prima Mtnistci, members of the delegation lun tl left London.

As it was impossible for I i to leave his house, ho was i-Sir Alexander Cadogan. Sir Miles Lamp- -British High Commissioner for Egjjit, -also present, SIR FRANCIS JOSEPH Sir Francia Joseph is leaving for Pu Africa on Friday, October 2. to retire the Federation of British Industries at ti. Jubilee Exhibition at Johannesburg. Francia was president until May of tin-Federation of British Icdustries, which u.i, responsible for organising interest the British exhibitors in the exhibition.

Sir Francis has accepted an invitai.n'i LONDON, Tuesday Night The King's Household Lord Gerald Wcllesley's appointment as Surveyor of tile King's Works of Art in succession to Sir Cecil Harcourt-Smith is the most interesting of tonight's Household appointments. After being in the Diplomatic Service for eleven years, having been secretary at the Embassies at Petrogiad, Constantinople, and Rome, he ictired in 1919 and turned his mind to architecture. He served an apprenticeship to Mr Goodhart-Rendel and was responsible for a number of memorials and some ecclesiastical and domebtic work. He is a man of fine taste and has interested himself public movements connected with architecture and design. He is an authority on portraits and busts of his ancestor, the great Duke of Wellington.

Lord Colebrooke, who has been appointed Master of the Robes, a post whith has been in abeyance, has held a position at Court for a ood part of his life. He was a lord-in-w aitmg fiom 1906 to 1911 and a Captain Gcntlem.ui-at-Arms fiom 1911 to 1922, and has been permanent lord-in-waiting since 1924. His new post will not be altogether a sinecure, as it carries with it responsibility for the ceremonial garb of the Sovereign on his Coronation. The appointment of an extra groom-in-waiting puts a sharp end to the rumours that the King intended to do away with grooms-in-waiting. The National Peace Council and the Brussels Congress To-morrow night a send-off conference in London will be held by the National Peace Council, to which all the British delegates to the Brussels congress have been invited.

This council, which is the permanent coordinating organisation for the British peace societies, is not the body officially responsible for the Brussels congress, which is convened by the International Peace Campaign, of which Lord Cecil is chairman. The Peace Council points out that (although it has already given substantial help to the campaign), as an organisation composed of pacifist and non-pacifist elements, it can only co-operate in the campaign with reservations on the "sanctions" issue. It will be represented at Brussels by a delegation apart from the delegations from its affiliated societies and the teachers' delegation. Dame Adelaide Anderson's Funeral The funeral of Dame Adelaide Anderson took place to-day at Brook-wood Cemetery, where she was laid to rest in the family grave beneath the shade of trees. Jlanv people were present relatives, former colleaguas, and other friends.

Among them were her brother. Sir Alexander Anderson, ana jjiibs Anaerson, her sister. Several of the women had worked with her in the old exciting days when the case for women factory inspectors still had to be proved to the public, including two of her first colleagues at the Home Office, Mrs. H. J.

Tennant and Mrs. Streatfeild, and Miss Gertrude Tuckwell, who as honorary secretary to the Women's Trade Union League had urged the need for this factorv inspection and had been strongly supported by her uncle Sir Charle.R Dillrp. -then rnTnVi. nf Parlia ment. Three women factory inspectors represented tne ttome Umce inspectorate of to-day.

Her Industrial Women Friends The International Labour Office, on whose behalf Dame Adelaide had made her third visit to China, was renre- sented by Mr. Robins. Miss Maclaren represented the Young Women's ounscian Association, with wmch she had been closely associated here and in China, and IWisn Poz-ilo UTakaonn represented other organisations. Miss uoi-omy came on behalf of Miss Margaret Bondfield and of the thousands of industrial women of the Union nf fipnprn! nnA Workers. There were representatives of the Central f.

Training and Employment, on which Dame Adelaide had served since its incGDtion. and nf fio TnfAmninnni 1 Association for Labour Legislation. 1 I me uiauy ueautuui, wreaens was uub irom tne uninese Jimbassy. Confectionery at Olympia The National Display Convention ought surely to visit the chocolate and confectionery exhibition at Olympia, where most of the exhibitors have entrusted the design and an angement of their stands to professional display firnis, with brilliant results. One manufacturer has a spacious stand with a double line of show windows, outside and in, enclosing elegantly designed sianas.

jNcariy.au tne stands appear to be more spacious than before, with more goods displayed to better advan- yesterday. Derbyshire, the new champions, finished the season with a band- some victory ove: Leicestershire. (4) Spot cotton at Liverpool rose 5 points, to G.6od. for middling American, and futures were 7 to 2 points higher. In New York spot cotton was 11 points dearer at 11.87c, and futures were 6 to 11 points up.

FOREIGN The rebels failed again yesterday in their attack on Irun and their casualties have been very heavy. (9) diplomatic correspondent reports that, Germany and Portugal persist in giving no reply to the pressing invitations to join the London committee that is to supervise the embargo on arms for Spain. (9) The Pulestine Post reports what it states to be "the Arab terms for the settling of the strike in Palestine. (9) A1 strong attack on German anti-Soviet prebs propaganda was publibhed yesterday by Izvestiu," the Soviet Government's official organ. (5) New Zealand, Norway, and Latvia are the latest countries to have sent replies to the League Assembly's request for suggestions for the reform of the League.

(5) The rescued passengers of the Imperial Airways liner Horsa describe the thirty hours they spent in the heat of the desert without sufficient food or water. (9) A Danish steamer is aground off Denmark with 150 representatives of the British bacon trade, who are cruising round Denmark, aboard. (5) India the Unreal and the Real The opening of tho new session of. the Indian Legislative Assembly recalls to mind an old translation of a famous Indian prayer: "Lead us from the unreal to the real." Certainly the Assembly meets in an atmosphere of unreality. There may be important business, but it will hardly be discussed in a serious or responsible spirit.

For at present the elected members of the Assembly have neither power nor a policy. Their thoufrhts are therefore turned to the situation that will be created by the introduction of the new Constitution in 1937 and 193B. As most of the leading politicians of all parties have pronounced this new Constitution unworkable and antagonistic to the evolution of Indian freedom, they are somewhat embarrassed in explaining: their plans for working it. Yet all parties agree that it cannot be prevented from coming into force and that the sooner it comes into force the better. Further, it is admitted that the Indian Nationalists must seek to dominate the new Legislatures.

Again, even the pro-Congress press insists that a policy of indiscriminate obstruction and wrecking in the LeKisIatures would merely weaken the position of Congress the country. Havine entered the Legislatures, you can no longer regard the Government as wholly and invariably alien and satanic. Still, Congress maintains that its primary object will be to wreck the Constitution. Even that large section of Congress which favours accepting Cabinet positions in the provinces argues that this is the beet means of steering the ship on to the rocks. Yet neither those who favour taking office nor those who would refuse it seem to expect or desire the early collapse of the new Constitution.

No one seriously believes that it would be possible to convene a Constituent Assembly whose decisions would command general respect. What might be expected from such an Assembly is indicated by the fact that Congress itBelf dare neither accept nor reject the Communal Award for fear of exacerbating Hindu or Moslem feelings, while the mere refusal to do either has sufficed to destroy the influence of Congress in the Punjab and in Bengal. Thus Congress ha3 to face the coming elections for the new semi-sovereign Provincial Legislatures without any decided attitude towards the Communal Award and without a declaration whether the party will or will not form a Cabinet in any province if invited to do so. Last, but not least, Congress daro not say whether it stands for Socialism and Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru's highly modernised attitude towards religion or for the nineteenth-century capitalism of the millowners or for the religious, social, or economic traditions of Hinduism and Islam or for Mr. Gandhi's ascetic and eclectic religion and economics.

It is thus tactless or even dangerous for a Congress leader to express in public his real opinion on almost any subject of real importance. No wonder, then, that in this atmosnhere of unreality good Indian Nationalists fear that in spite of its immense prestige and the absence of effective opposition the Congress nartv mav. after all, win no very impressive victory in the coming elections. Local leaders have been galled by the restraints and orders imriosed from headquarters and have mutinied, and that bold old rebel Dr. Moonje, the champion of militant Hinduism, has been caught trying to do a deal with Dr.

Ambedkar to prevent the Untouchables from joining the Christian or Moslem ranks. Imparl they were to have Dr. Moonje's leave to become Sikhs, since Sikhs, if not Hindus, at least retain the Hindu culture. In return for this Hindus would assist these converts to Sikhism to retain the special electoral privileges which Mr. Gandhi conceded to the Untouchables in the Poona Pact The proposed "bargain haa scandalised all good Congress men, since it clearly WE RECOGNISE ABILITY By CALLISTHENES As this Business continually expands, as each department improves upon past records andfjrows almost before our eyes, we discover an ever-increasing demand for greater ability than ever from those in control of its many sections.

Such ability should be, and in our case usually is, made available. The added experience of each day that is acquired by the person in charge acts as an incentive to do things an even better, bigger way. Successes and failures impress their lesson upon the thoughtful assistant, who starts each fresh day armed with a new and valuable experience such experience as textbooks can never hope to convey. The heading of this little article reminds us ot the really extraordinary change during the past 25 years in the attitude of the public towards tbe retail distributing houses. Where a post in a shop was considered as about the last thing to look for, as in no way in keeping witli an expensively acquired education, these great businesses now serve as a magnet to the thoughtful, progressive minded young man.

We are continually being approached by college-educated men who discern in business an outlet for imagination and enterprise. Rightly enough, discovering their flair for industry, they have laughed at the antiquated notion of there being something derogatory in trade." A foolish notion, one that nowadays would be regarded as antediluvian as only the idea of the untravelled mind. This infusion of new blood is all to the nood, for business is worthy of the best of the young commercial minds available. Yet there is always the possibility that a young fellow may drift into business life. although his inclinations clearly point to a less exacting occupation.

There is no room in this fascinating industry for the undecided, the half-hearted. To accept the weekly pay envelope, knowing full well that one has no flair or inclination for- trade, is self-deception at its most pathetic. The college-educated man with the mind of the student, the young person of philosophic bent, are like fish out of water in an enterprise which finds itself continually up against realities. This is no place for the cloistral-minded student, for a business such as this demands not merely enthusiasm and ability but commercial ability of a high order. Commercial life is exacting, its needs are ever widening; and where the collegiate mind really finds itself in tune with the ideals and aims of the distributing business we are happy to accept the candidate at his own valuation.

His progress is in his own hands, for we too have a flair we recognise ability when we see it! Selfridge Ltd. FURNITURE, CARPETS, LINOLEUMS. Spacious Showrooms. BAXENDALES MILLER ST. THE GUARDIAN MANCHESTER, WEDNESDAY, September 2, 1936 TO-DAY'S PAPER SPECIAL ARTICLES Big River 18 Indo-China: Critics of French Administration 9 Saturday Competition Announce ment of a New Ice Age Trade with the Baltic States (by Sir Kenneth Stewart) 10 The Gliding Meeting 3 New Play at the Vaudeville 3 His Maesty's Theatre as a Cinema Wings of tbe Morning Wireless Programmes 4 CORRESPONDENCE- The Trials and Executions in Moscow (Mr.

Theodore Dan and others) IS The League and Anti-League Fronts (Miss Eleanor F. Rathbone, M.P.) IB Murder of Jewish Children in Palestine (Professor L. B. Namier) ig HOMK There will be a meeting of the Cabinet to-day. (9) The "London Gazette" announces further appointments to the King's Household, including Lord Colebrooke as Master of the Robes and Lord Gerald Wellcsley as Surveyor of the King's Works of Art.

Master of the Robes is a new post. (9) The negotiations for a whaling agreement with Norway have broken down. A statement by the Ministry of Agriculture speaks of protecting British companies from sabotage inspired by their foreign competitors." (3) Following the decision of the General Purposes Committee of Sunderland Corporation not to offer an official welcome or hospitality to H.M.S. Cairo, the General Purposes Committee of the River Wear Commission yesterday decided to welcome the officers and men on behalf of the town and port. (3) The King has sent telegrams of congratulation to the chairman of the Cunard-White Star Line on the record made by the Queen Mary.

(9) Mr. D. A'. C. Page, the Gloucestershire county cricket captain, died in hospital early this morning from injuries received in car crash when returning home last night at the end of the match between Gloucestershire and Nottinghamshire.

(0) Glasgow magistrates have decided to send to prison all persons convicted on charges involving tho carrying or use of weapons, or involving a gang or hooligan elansent. (3) JEhe. board of District Bank Limited London this week, and all the Powers that accepted the agreement except liussia, Germany, and Portugal have promised to send representatives to the committee. No difficulty is anticipated from Russia, but the co-operation of Germany and Portugal is vital, since there are grounds for suspecting that German (and other) arms have been ouiuBgicu mrougn XisDon to tne Spanish rebels. There is, of course no embargo on the export of arms to Portugal, and it is notorious that Lisbon is full of sympathisers with the rebels.

The Lisbon Government has assured the British Ambassador that the arms embargo will be made effec tive, but the reservations which the Portuguese Government has attached to its participation in the non-intervention agreement and its delay in accepting a pressing invitation to ioin the London supervisory committee must arouse grave misgivings. For if any loophole is left which endangers tho effectiveness of the arms embargo it is open to the Madrid Government to complain not only that its lawful rights have been denied to it by the European Powers but also that the rebels have been allowed the assist ance which it has been refused. Portugal will jeopardise the traditional friendship of this country if she does not take prompt steps to do her part. The Tutor on Wheels Scotland Yard is putting vans equipped with loud-speakers on the roads in London to give instruction and advice to road-users who appear "to stand in need of it." The loudspeaker, we are told, "has a message" for such misdemeanants as drivers who insist on sticking to the crown of the road, pedestrians who cross with traffic lights at danger, and cyclists who ride three abreast. But precisely how will the loud-speaker deliver the message 1 We can easily imagine traffic occasions hen a sudden bawling in a guilty driver's ear would be likely to diminish rather than add to the sum total of safety on the roads.

The start, the sudden swerve, the horrid bump when the matter came to court defending counsel might make a pretty case for asserting that too rapid admonition was contributing to produce too many accidents. Presumably the police will see that everything on the road is reasonably clear before switching on the full voice of instruction. But, again, serious driving crimes are rarely committed when the road is clear they usually involve other pedestrians or cars. The exact usefulness of the loud-speaker is consequently a little difficult to follow. Or are the police to pursue the guilty parties, pull up alongside, and dmonish them loudly and publicly? Pillorying of this sort might certainly be a deterrent to carelessness, and so might loud-speaker rebukes to heedless pedestrians at treacherous corners.

With the threat of a summons for dangerous driving (or walking) hanging over them, few people are likely to refuse to pay attention to the admonition when called on. Still, the British people area "prickly" lot, and the police had better go about the business with tact if thev want to draw full benefit from what promises to be interesting experiment. District Bank Changes Sir Christonher Neerlhnm'R retire ment from the ehai Bank is not, happily, a retirement from public work. What the bank and the business community lose the University oi iiiancnester gains. Last year Sir Christonher acnr-nfprl flir- of chairman of the Council, and, with the conscientiousness that is characteristic of him, he is anxious, one may guess, to give his full energies to the University's work, which ha has sn deeply at heart.

His resignation from the chairmanship of District Bank will, however, be generally regretted. The bank has advanced steadily during his term of office, and its enhanced status has been lately shown by its merger with the County Bank and its admission into the London Clearing House. Sir Christopher has brought to its service a wide knowledge of business and public affairs, based not only on practical a lively interest in all questions of economics and finance. His speeches nave ranked amnni ihp innrp anlirl informative of those of the bank chairmen, full of meot hut judgment. He has always put Lanca- snire interests the first place and has served them well.

It is fitting, nerhaos. that th joint-stock bank with its head office in Manchester should have turned to an ex-Lord Mayor of the city and a former representative in Parliament far Sir Christopher Needham's successor. Sir Robert Noton Tlarrlnv ia a. riiaKn. guished and public-spirited citizen to wnom tne business and civic life of Manchester owes much and who commands confidence.

with the reverence for Vedas and Koran, old gods and old command ments. But if it does, the old cleavage may be replaced by another not less dangerous. If modernist thought spreads through India's villages, how can the existing economic system come to terms with twentieth-century Socialistic thought! In the West the difficulty is great enough, but in India the gap between the property-owning and salaried classes and the wage-earners and peasantry is far wider. It is not only with Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru that we have to reckon. There are thousands of young graduates with no property or hope of finding employ ment from the State, the capitalists, or the constitutional politicians.

Will they not seek power and employment by teaching the men of no property to demand justice? Some day our provincial governors may find themselves invited by tho property-owners into an alliance against Communistic forces. If they can resist that tempta tion the British Raj may render yet one more great service to India. Disease and History At the conference of the Sanitary Inspectors' Association yesterday Sir Leonard Hill touched on one of the most fascinating of all subjects for speculation the influence of plague and pestilence on the history of man. Who can tell how far the destiny of nations has been changed by some chance epidemic Some think that when, in the Old Testament, the angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians it was the bubonic plague which saved Jerusalem from Sennacherib, and that tbe mice which ate tbe bowstrings of his army were in fact the rats which carried the infection. The plague at Athens, so vividly described by Thucydides, may have brought about the defeat of the Athenians in the Peloponnesian War with the consequent decay of Greek civilisation.

The plague which ravaged the Roman Legions in the East during the peaceful rule of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius may have first breached the wall in the Roman Empire and let in the barbarian hordes a few years later. Certainly the bubonic plague which spread over the whole Roman world in the sixth century a.d. hastened the rot of tho Dark Ages. In the fourteenth century the "'Great Pestilence," or Black Death, killed 'one-third of the. population of England, nearly a quarter of the whole population of Europe, and helped to bring about a social revolution by striking at the poor in their crowded hovels and leaving the rich in their luxury of sanitation.

In 1664 the bubonic plague came back to London as the Great Plague, and in one year alone, according tc Defoe's figure, took 68.596 people from that city. Yet these are only the dramatic strokes of disease. It is difficult even to speculate on the effects of yellow fever in West Africa, of malaria in Ceylon, or of all the countless epidemics that have spread in China for hundreds of years. But yesterday Sir Leonard Hill looked at the other side of the picture. We know some of the effects plague may have on politics what of the effects of politics on disease? In The Shape of Things to Come Mr.

H. G. Wells has imagined a new pestilence the Wandering Sickness following on the breakdown of civilisation through continued war. Sir Leonard Hill gave substance to this fancy. To-day, living together in great cities, suffering from too little exercise, without sun and open air, eating unhealthy food, we are only saved from terrible epidemics by the most rigid sanitary precautions.

When war or revolution occurs these precautions lapse water is infected, lice, rats, mosquitoes, and flies multiply, and disease is let loose upon a population ill-fitted to resist it. It has been estimated that after the Russian Revolution there were twenty-five million cases of typhus and three million deaths. Sir Leonard Hill suggested that at any moment typhus may also break out in Spain and might even force peace upon the combatants. The last war did not cause any widespread epidemic, unless one counts the great influenza epidemics of 1918 and 1919, but typhus broke out in many of the actual fighting areas where men were crowded together. And just as the' invention of ships spread disease over the world, bringing the plague from the East to tho West and taking syphilis from Europe to America, so the invention of aeroplanes has brought new risks.

Sir Leonard Hill fears that in this way an infected mosquito may some day take yellow fever, which is endemic in Central Africa, to India and the East. In the face of the great common enemy of disease all races are as one race the human race and all wars only civil wars. chocolate, the trade is not looking for now customers but trying to make them all eat more of it. Another task is to convince people that, provided they are sufficiently energetic, eating sugar will not make them fat and that tho hard-working woman must have it. The demand for barley sugar, so much approved by doctors for its energising qualities, is increasing.

The price of chocolate has diminished in the last sixteen years, while the consumption has so inoreased that the sales tonnage in 1935 was '20 per cent above that of the previous year. People are buying quantities of block chocolate, and because so much has been said about its value cn sporting occasions young men are now bu.ing more than young women. Theatre audiences in London and Scotland do not eat much of this form of chocolate, but in all other towns thev do. Some facts have been discovered by diligent and solemn research, as, for instance, that young men usually buy boxes of chocolates as presents and girls buy for themselves, that girls in the South of England get more of these presents than girls the North, and that 50 per cent of them are given to young women uxiuci xmri-y. Apples in August Though the fruit and vegetable orops in August have been good they are likely to seem misleadingly so when contrasted as they are in a report just issued by the Ministry of Agriculture with those of August, 1935.

A May frost made last year's crop, particularly of apples, extremely bad. On a basis of 100 points, meaning the maximum possible, the normal average is 50, and this year in Kent it was 70 or 85 for Bramley's seedlings, as against 40 last year, and for Cox's in Essex it was about 65, and in the Evesham and Pershore area the full 100, as against three last year. Yet the fruit wholesale firms say that the market for cooking apples (the Bramleys) has been bad owing to the even greater glut of plums. The plum season being shorter, people buy plums while they can. Thanks to the tardy August sun the apple crop should continue being good, as good even as the splendid crop of 1934.

For the fruit farmers and hole-salers this large, crop comes at a particularly interesting time. The storage of apples in this country has always been a difficulty, not so much because the British farmer's methods were inferior to those of the Dominion or American importers but because the tougher-skinned American, Canadian, or Australian apple was more amenable to storing than the more tender British apple. Gas Storage of Apples In 1927 the American Agricultural Commissioner could say that after December, owing to the waste in British apples caused by poor storage, there was hope for the imported, better preserved American apple. This has remained true till now but this year is seeing the first use on a large scale of the gas storage of British apples, by which, through the preservative gases thrown off by the apples in a sealed room, they can be stored far longer. The universal method before was cold storage, or, for some British farmers, the elementary barn or darkened room storage.

By these methods British apples were hardly obtainable by January. But this year, owing to gas storage, it is said that the supply must last till at least March. As an instance of the hope being placed in this gas storage one farmer ia known to have spent 16,000 on its instalment, but the fruit wholesale firms are somewhat disturbed about its possible effects in this the "change-over" year. renowned successes as "The Ziegfeld Follies," "Whoopee," and "Rio Rita." This film presupposes no such ignorance of this important fact. Ziegfeld was great, in the American sense, from the days when he introduced Sandow at the first Chicago World's Fair to the time when he had four "hits" on Broadway at the same time.

The representation of this greatness is done with such consistent loud-pedalling that the picture lacks climax as much as it needs relief. Many of the scenes, re-creating early productions, capture the spirit of their period, but show follows Bhow until each is cancelled oat. Elaborate numbers are staged with an elaboration beyond the stage's scope. This either defeats the film's ends or suggests that the cinema has been unable to improve on Ziegfeld's early revues. Certainly, in spite of their revolving stages, they do not excel those still led by Mistinguett, who was to-night in the audience.

The life of Ziegfeld is interestingly portrayed, and William Powell, Louise Ratner, and Myrna Loy satisfactorily head a large cast. But this life centres round the stage shows, and these are disappointing. R. H. from the Federated Chamber of Industrn -of South Africa to address South Atrie.ui industrialists at Pretoria, Johannesburg.

Durban, and Capetown. Lady Joseph their elder daughter, Miss Rosamon.i Joseph, will accompany him. They exnci-. to return to England on November 30. NEW JUNIOR MINISTERS A number of appointments to junior posts in the Government, announced in July, cp.mo into effeot yesterday.

Lord Feversbam became Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry Agriculture and Fisheries, and Lord Plymouth Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs. Lord De La Wurr became Parliamentary Under Secretary for the Colonies; Mr Geoffrey Shakespeaie Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education; Mr. H. Ramsbotham Minister of Pensions; and Mr. Robert S.

Hudou Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health. IRISH MINISTER MARRIED It was learned last night that Mr. Sean T. O'Kelly, Vice-President of the Irish Fret-State Executive Council and Minister fur Local Government, was married at 6 30 yesterday morning in University Church, St- Stephen's Green, Dublin, to Miss rhjlli Ryan, public analyst for the Free State ami sister of Dr. James Rjan, Minister of Agriculture.

The bride is also sister of Mr. O'Kelly's first wife, who died two years agn, and of Mrs. Hichard Mulcahy, wife of former Free State Minister of Lot.il Government. THE TEWKESBURY ABBEY PILGRIMAGE Thirteen ishops have been invited t- attend the pilgrimage to Tewkesbury Abb Gloucestershire, on Saturday to pray the conversion of England." Some 4 people are expected to attend the cerem-j- which has been arranged by the i Union. Contingents from twenty cities and ica as far apart as Birmingham, Bath, Le r.

Bristol, Oxford and Clevedon (Someiitti arrive by motor-coaches; otufr parishes nearer Tewkesbury will vjV through the night. A party from Nor leach, in the Cotswolds, will be heade1. its vicar on horseback. A feature of the pilgrimage will be "Fiery Cross," syntbol of contini -prayer, which in its journey has lam on i' Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. GOD BLESS THE PRINCE OP, WALES Air Ministry orders issued cstcrrl.i include the following: It hfle been decided that the air Bless the Prince of Wales may continue be played on all customary occasions -heretofore." Miss Jessie Matthews, the film act-v--.

who is ill in a London nursing home, stated yesterday to be a little better. The Duke of Gloucester, grand pres-of the League of Mercy, has appointed i Brocket to be honorary treasurer of 1 League in place of the late Lord Marshall -1 Chipstead. Miss Nancy Stewart Parnell, who contested East Willeeden at the general election, last year, ha been appointed assistant, organiser to the London Regional Federation of the League of Nations Union. The retirement of Lord Grenfell from thi army, in which he held the rank 'i lieutenant in the King's Eoyal Rifle Corps, was announced in tbe "London Gasette" last night. Lord Grenfell, who is 30, is the son of the late Field Maistal Lord Greafelt.

The King of Sweden, who is 78 years of ge, was reported yesterday to be suffering from a slight cold. The indisposition is not, however, considered serious enough to necessitate the giving up of an elk-hunting expedition which the King has planned for next week. HIS MAJESTY'S THEATRE AS A CINEMA London, Tuesday. For the first t.irrfp in its hictm-v Hi Maiestv'a Thpatrp tn-nicyht luvima cinema, when new American musical mm received its first showing Europe. On this occasion dress circle seats were sold at one guinea, and among those in the audience were a host of stage and screen stars, mcludine Flora Rohson.

Gertrude Lawrence, and Conrad It is. perhaps, fitting that the first film to be shown in Tree's nlavhnnsp shmiM be grandiosely spectacular. At the same time, tne mm ot Komeo and Juliet might have been a happier choice. Ihe Great Ziegfeld belongs more to the level of Chu Chin Chow." whinh been His Majesty's most successful production, but was hardly its most satisfactory. Like Chu Chin Chow," The Great Ziegfeld" is more remarkable for no icagin man ior its content.

It began at a ouarter nast pif. anA rlM nnt nul much before twelve. For the whole of tnat tune it dealt with one thing only the career of the int.e "Florence Ziegfeld, jun. English audiences may perhaps need to be reminded that Ziegfeld, was the producer of such.