A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
ASENTENCE in the telegram addressed by the Ross and Cromarty Unionist Association to Mr. Baldwin goes to the very heart of the issue raised by the contest in that constituency. " Your action [in sending a telegram of support to Mr. Malcolm MacDonald] challenges the whole democratic structure of the Unionist Party." To that charge there can be no convincing answer. Whether Mr. Randolph Churchill's election would be a matter for national rejoicing or not is immaterial. The unques- tioned fact is that he has been democratically adopted as Unionist candidate by a majority vote of the Unionist Association in the constituency. The Prime Minister, who is leader of the Unionist Party (for Unionist and Conservative in this case are synonymous) gives his support to a National Labour candidate adopted by the National Liberal Association in the constituency, and by that alone. It may well be in the national interest for Mr. MacDonald to get back to Parliament. From many points of view it is. But if a local Conservative Association is to be opposed by the leaders of the Party in London a shattering blow is dealt at popular repre- sentation as commonly conceived. The right of a con- stituency to make its own choice of candidate freely, without fear of repudiation by national headquarters, is fundamental to the right working of our Parliamentary system.
• One reason, no doubt, why Mr. Kipling's illness has aroused more sympathy than any other British author's would, is the appeal he has made to readers of all ages. There are the eternally-fresh Jungle Books and the Puck of Poole's Hill series. There are the collections of short stories—some of them as good as any of their kind ever written. There are the Soldiers Three type. Some schoolboys, I suppose, still read Stalky and Co, though I hope not. And in addition to all that there is the poetry, some of it as bad as The Absent-Minded Beggar and various much more recent efforts, some of it as good as Sussex by the Sea and .Macandrew's Hymh and The Song of the English. And for another class of reader again there are Barrack-Room Ballads. It is amazing versatility, and it gives the writer an amazing vogue, even wider, I believe, in America than here. How far that is a good thing is debatable. When all is said that should be said for Mr. Kipling this country is not necessarily best seen through his eyes. * * * * Italian propaganda in this country is very active, and inspires considerable mistrust. I have just been given a copy of a telegram alleged to have been sent to Signor Mussolini by a group of foreign correspondents with the Italian armies on the Adigrat front. It runs as follows : " The journalists of six countries after visiting along the Adigrat front the superb battalions of Blackshirts at outposts guided by Generals Montagna and D'Alba, admiring fighting, spirit and supreme devotion of troops to civilising mission sponsored by Your Excellency express pride in being witnesses to magnificent work done by Fascist Italy on African soil." The date is October, 1935, but the message is still doing duty. It bears two British signatures, "Warhust, for The Times," and " Durand for the Daily Telegraph." Mr. Warhust, I find on inquiry (a) is Mr. Warhurst, (b) is a photographer, not a correspondent, (c) did not sign any such testimonial. Mr. Durand, I believe, is still in Africa. It would be interesting to know what the facts are in his case.
* * I mentioned last week the striking success achieved by Canon Sheppard's appeal for the Ethiopian Red Cross. He asked, it will be remembered, for £5,000. Since Sunday week, when the appeal was made, the flood of letters has, I understand, continued unabated. Within a week more than three times the amount asked for had been subscribed, and there is no doubt a considerable advance on that by now. The final figure will shortly be announced. With all due respect to Canon Sheppard, whose appeal was admirably phrased, there is no doubt that it is sympathy with Ethiopia that has drawn subscrip- tions from the average man's pockets. The Italians, with their bombing of the Red Cross, no doubt helped, but tlic rush to subscribe is indicative of feelings that go deep. Macaulay said that the typical Englishman always sym- pathises more with a weak country that is wrong than with a strong country that is right. When, as here, it is a case of a small country that is right, the impulse has double force.
* * * I see that Sir Eric Teichman, who has been following Mr. Peter Fleming's route from Peking to India, has been held up on his last stage because the Viceroy's aeroplane, which started to Gilgit to fetch him, had to come back owing to ice forming on the wings. It Is odd that no remedy or preventive should have been discovered for this rather serious handicap to aviation. I asked Mr. H. G. Wells, who has just got back to England from Hollywood, whether he flew there from New York. He told me that he tried both to fly there and to fly back, but in each case the aeroplane was forced down through ice on its wings, and its passengers had to be sent on by train. I suppose sooner or later some means will be devised for dealing with the ice problem, but till it is; flying in certain regions must remain an erratic affair.
* * Who goes about in these days biting whom ? The question is suggested by a statement in a report of the League of Nations Health Organisation to the effect that 1,500 cases of human bite were treated at various Pasteur Institutes in the past year. The number, spread over the institutes of many countries, is not great, but why any human bites at all ? Are the assailants mainly children ? Or the sufferers mainly dentists ? Or is it all part of the good thorough methods that make the fighting man what he is ? An analysis of the statistics would be instructive.
JANUS,
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