HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SEPTEMBER 28th, 1929.
PAGE TWO
SNOWDEN'S METEORIC
TRIUMPHS
CAREER.
XTEND OVER MANY YEARS.
林
Phillip Snowden, Socialist Chan-which one loosened and removed their eyes in amazement when cellor of the Exchequer of Great earth, Snowden in plain language they read all this. Here was Britain, finds himself to-day in called n apade a spade. It shocked somebody at last battling for. the totally unexpected role not only the French, who called him a cad, them. And..of all things, the hera. of hero of his own party, but and the more they insulted him in who was doing it was the man one enthusiastically backed by their press, the more the British they had been taught to fear the most. When the Labour party the Opposition parties, lauded cheered their champion.
was going on from strength to with unanimity by the entire What Young Plan Provided.
strength, the Tory and Liberal The high spots' of the Young leaders respected the emotional and romantic Ramsay MacDonald, He is the miracle man of latter.plan were three:
but they dreaded Snowden day British politics.. If six years
man who worked according to logic and carried his logic to the point of ruthlessness.
British
entire prees and the
British nation,
Snowilen's career is one of the
It altered the percentages of re- or even six weeks ago, anybody parations the various nations had been rash enough to predict were to get from the figures adopt Buch a thing, he would have been ed it Spa-and to Britain's loss. marked as crazy. And it is all It divided the payments Germany because, for the first time in six was to make 'Into two classes, un years, a statesman has battled for conditionul and conditional. The romances of world politics. He the hard-pressed British taxpayer former were to be paid by Germany was born 65 years ago, his father by telling Britain's late Allica in any event. The latter were to being a poor weaver of Cowling. an aptitude for that Britain is not going to suffer be postponed or suspended in case The son had
Germany had financial difficulties. books. Largely by his own efforts, because of their financial plans.
he educated himself and entered The payments to France, Italy and the British governmental service A Contrast in Men. It is the turn in the long lane. Belgium were to come largely through its civil service ranks. out of the unconditional repara- For five years, in every conference tions. Those of Britain were to But when he was 20, one day designed to liquidate the debt and mollify old hatreds, Britain was come largely out of the conditional while riding a bicycle, he had an represented by Sir Austen Cham-payments. The other countries accident which broke his frafl sure of their body. He hovered between life berlain, Foreign Secretory in the were, therefore,
share. Britain was not. And, and death. His former work now Tory cabinet. He came to be con- furthermore, a part of the re- was impossible, and for a year he sidered in some circles a wooden Jath painted to look like steel. Heparations was to be made in goods lay in bed pussing the long hours by reading. He had been a was deemed the tail to Briand's largely to Britain.
Snowden plainly told the con- Liberal in politics. His studies kite. What the French wished, ho ference he was not having any, made a Socialist of him. largely, agreed to.
So when The Hague conference He would not agree to any altera of the powers was called to take tion of the Spa percentages which up the Young plan for the final meant a net loss to Britain. He leave his room, he was doomed to settlement of reparations Germany wanted a larger percentage of the go through the world with the aid was to pay, nobody looked for unconditional payments to be al of a pair of sticks. He made his lotted to Britain. And he was living by lecturing and writing. much trouble from England.
But they forgot Snowden. Ho unwilling that Germanya keen He became chairman of the Indo- is no wooden Inth. He is all steel. industrial competitor of Britain pendent Labour Party for a long Where Chamberlain, in highly should dump reparation goods into polished diplomatic language, was accustomed to call a spade, an Champion of the Taxapayer. agricultural Instrument with The British taxapaycra rubbed
GLIMPSES
•
Britain.
OF NATIVE LIFE.
Young hopefuls perched on a pile of straw at Stanley
(Photo, W. Stone).
His Political Rise, When Snowden was able to
period of years. He contested the
House of Commons seat in the impregnable Tory town of Black- burn in, 1900, but was defeated. He was elected in 1906 and hold the seat until 1918, when he was defeated, because, like his chief, the present Premier, he was a con- vinced pacifist and said so all dur ing the war. In 1922 he went back to Parliament."
His greatest triumph hitherto came on April 12, 1924, when, as Chancellor of the Exchequer in England's first Socialist Govern- ment, he introduced his great budget in which he took the tax off the people's breakfast table.
Wins Epic Tribute.
It was a, dramatic scene. He stood there in the House of Com- mons, his sticks hy his side, His. face attracted attention with its blue eyes hollowed by suffering, his strong, well-formed nose, his thin, determined lips. He spoke for hours. The increasing pallor of his always white face showed the physical pain he was suffering. But from every side of the House, regardless of party, came the cries: "Go on! Go on!" It was a very rarely paid tribute.
Snowden 18 a master of lucid exposition. He revels in figures, He is a formidable debater, with an acid style that burns. And he flashes out memorable phrases :08
PREMIER WHO ALWAYS COMES BACK.
A CHARACTER STUDY OF M. BRIAND.
M. Aristide Briand, the now Premier of France, is the most picturesque figure among world statesmen to-day.
Any man who is a failure at 35: and then rises to become Premier of his country 10 times must have more than a prayer and luck
This 67-year-old wizard of statesmanship, whose ancestors. were Bretons, has become a habit with the people of the Third Re public. He formed his first. cabinet in 1909 and has been doing it at intervals ever since.
He Outdoes the Cat.
Nine times his government has fallen and he has gone down in: collapse, but he has proved him- self to have more "political Ilves" than the proverbial cat.
Born in Nantes in 1862, Briand became, early in life, a socialist,
a champion of the cause of the working classes,
At 35, this maker of cabinots was seemingly" a failure in bis Half chosen profession-law. newspaper man, half lawyer, he preferred the easy life in the cafes of Montmartre, associating with his Bohemian friends, to serious affairs of state.
He served his first term in the Chamber of Deputies in 1902 and seven years later was asked to Nine form his first cabinet. times he has repeated it. It is n. record for all the world.
Made Soldiers of Strikers. With one bold stroke, in 1910, he settled a national railway strike by issuing a mobilization order calling the strikers to arms. Then he ordered them, as soldiers, to man the railroads.
Whether the occasion is an or- dinary national crisis, of which France has so many, or whether it Is a matter of international signifi
· PICTORIAL SUPPLEMENT
AMERICA'S NEW AIRSHIPS.
BIGGER AND BETTER THAN THE ZEPPELIN.
780 FEE
The composite picture above shows how one of the US. Navy's two new dirigibles, now building at Akron, Ohio, will look as compared with a battleship. Each will be slightly longer, but of much greater cuble capacity than the Graf Zeppelin. The sketch shows the enclosed con- atruction. Below is an interior of one of the roomy cabins, and a view of the huge new hangar at Akron, now nearing completion, where the great dirigibles are to be assembled.
Glassed-in Decks.
As the globe-circling dirigible cyclone over Obio, broke in half. Graf Zeppelin continued its re- Parts of the ship that hung below The commercial ships, It is re- cord-breaking flight around the the envelope broke off and fell and ported, will carry the streamline world, workers at the great Good the occupants were killed. principle even farther than the year Zeppelin plant at Akron were officers and members of the crew new naval dirigibles.
going steadily ahead with plans
with the unbroken skin of the
enclosing promenade
for two dirigibles that will be even who were inside the envelope at Their cabins, instead of being larger than the mighty German the time of the disaster, however, built at the bottom of the keel, air liner as the great hangar now came down safely, as the broken will be higher up along the sides, being erected for their construc portions of the envelope, still tion neare completion. containing gas in their numerous envelope completely
to the earth them. Glassed-in In addition, executives of the cells, drifted slowly to th same plant are now working on One of the most striking fea- decks will provide passengers with
two: plans for
commercial
tures of each new ship will be the room to walk and relax and view dirigibles which will be aver presence inside the envelope of the scenery below. larger than the pair now under
In addition, even the propell contract, which are being built for the U. S. navy,
complete airplane hangar. Each ship will carry five scouting will be inside the ships. Wind planes, so devised that they can tannels will lead to each pro- These commercial air ships, he launched and taken aboard peller, and the ships will move under plans that are now. being
without #
matured, will be used in trans, while the dirigible is in fight through the hir oceanic passenger and mail ser- The cruising range of each single whirring wheel being vice. It is tentatively planned to dirigible, incidentally, will be ap- visible.
put them on a regular schedule proximately 9,000 mile without Each of these now dirigibles between Los Angeles and Hawaii, refuelling.
probably will carry about 100 and Commander Jerome C. Hun
Naturally all of these now passengers. Spacious dining saker, vice president of the Good features will be incorporated in rooms, comfortable staterooms, year Zeppelin Corporation, is now
travollers,
cance, the French people seem to in Honolulu in the interests of the commercial ships which are wide lounges, roomy promenade available for turn to Briand as a matter of
this proposed line, and making now merely in the blue-print decks will be course, The very adversaries
plans for establishing a dirigible stage. who caused his downfall come base in the island city. back later beseeching him to for give and take the helm again in a' crisis. He consents with indul. gence that makes Parliament ap- pear like a naughty child.
Indolent in manner, he moves alowly and calmly. His long, curly hair falls over his collar. His moustache droops in a long half curl. His hands are small and ex- pressive. The fag end of an eternal black cigar or eigarette hangs from his lips.
Briand's personal tastes are ex- ceedingly simple. When he is not in the Chamber of Deputles or his small apartment, he is on his farm in Normandy, where he raises pedigreed sheep and indulges in his favourite pastime of fishing. It Is said he hatches plots against. his enemies while watching the fish noble at the bait.
Briand loves the contemporary the latest novel and to-day's newspapers.. Having reached 67 years, he finds the relaxation of fishing, bis bachelor flat, his glass of wine and his slippers a much finer elixir of life than the theatre, the cafe or, even, the Chamber of Deputies.
Briand's oloquence is one of the factors in his amazing success. lle denounces and wooes, mocks and persuades.
His voice is mellow, musical and generally even. His favourite attitude is to bend over the rail- ing of the tribune and lower his voice almost to whisper. A tense silence always follows.
Like President Doumergue
Briand has never married.
Of Raymond Poincare and Briand, Clemenceau once said: "Poincare knows everything and understands nothing. Briand knows nothing and understands everything.".
he goes. He is credited with having originated the phrase
the idle rich." A popular, and more recent anying of his is few years ago it took four sheep to clothe one woman. Now one. ailkworm can do it.
These developments, coming at. the height of the Graf Zeppelin's that Amazing feat, Indicate America seeks to assume uit- questioned leadership in the lighter-than-air. field of aviation, Other Trans-Oceanic Services, In addition to the Pacific line to Hawali, Goodyear Zeppelin officials are known to be studying the establishment of a trans-Atlantic service with other huge air ships.) The enormous Akron hangars erected for building the navy ships. probably will be maintained for use as a reserve airport where a trans-oceanic Zeppelin could dock when weather conditions along the Atlantic seaboard were un favourable.
Huge and modern as the Graf Zeppelin is, it will be outclassed by the United States naval dirigibles.
The Graf Zeppelin is 766 feet long, 113 feet high and has n capacity of 3,707,970 cubic feet.
Each of the navy dirigibles will be 780 feet long, 142 feet high and will have a capacity of 6,500,000 cubiv feet-nearly twice that of the German liner.
When the navy dirigibles take the air the familiar gondolas that line the bulls of all other big. dirigibles to house engines and propellers will be gone. Engines. will be brackets. Below, living quarters will similarly be enclosed In the envelope. Nothing will project outside the skin, from stem to atern, except the control "ear, which must necessarily have observation windows.
Lesson from Shenandoah. This represents one of the lessons, taught by the wreck of the navy's Shenandoah in 1925.
The Shenandoah, caught In a
IN THE NANKOW PASS.
The Chu Yung Kuan, the only gateway between China and
Manchuria, situated in the Nankow Pass,
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