1932-03-09 — Page 7

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 1932.-

George Slocombe's

::

INTERVIEW WITH THE

"OLD LION

WHEN M. BRIAND SAID FAREWELL

IN THE QUAI, d'ORSAY.'

Believed That No War Is Imminent.

Paris.

tically refused to take a sombre view of the horizon. In the Win- ter gloom of the streets of Parts autalde the brilliant salon in which we talked there was an almost audible rumour of Impending war. The French nation is sick with ap-

Aristide Briand a lonely figure In the desolation of the great apartments hung with Gobelins and crystal chandeliers, which at his apogee were always filled with gossiping politicians and whisper-prehension. The German Chancel-

Ing diplomatists, the greatest of all French Foreign Ministers since Talleyrand-sat with me at a gilt Louis Quinze table and ironically surveyed the Increasing confusion of the world.

M. Briand apologised for the neglige of his attire. With the cares of office he had cast off, it seemed, the conventional clothes of the statesman, and it was in an old blue French shooting-jacket, unbuttoned at the throat, that the retiring Minister received me.

his

He still had that watchful, if weary, air of an old circus lion that I have noted in him for years, whether half-slumbering on bench in the, Chamber of Deputies or scribbling idle figures on his blotting-pad in the Council of the League of Nationa

The great head, with its mane of silvery hair, ita shaggy moustaches that conceal the senai- tive

mouth, stil! гоне leonine above the slim and tapering body. But if the eyes were weary, the familiar voice vibrated without

any trace of the mental and phy- sical fatigue on which his adver- saries have lald increasing em- phasis during the past few months. He was by turns clo. quent, derisive, indignant, acorn- ful, hopeful, and despairing.

be no war.

lor's dramatic repudiation of Re- parations, the domination of Ger man policy by the Fascists of. Hit- lor, the economic crisis in France

these factors have accumulated in a thundercloud which мож darkens the Frenchman's sky.

Only a few minutes before I en- tered the Quhi d'Orsay a middle- 4ged Frenchwoman had spoken to me with anguish of the approach of a chemical war.

Solloquy on War.

And here, inside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on the eve of a Disarmament Conference doomed either to cynical compromise or shattering failure, on the verge of a Reparations Conference sudden- ly postponed, the Minister himself dramatically denies the existence

of a war menace.

"Never in the past ten years," he said emphatically, "has there been less danger of war than

now."

on n

When I pressed him to explain his optimism he embarked long soliloquy.

War? How could war come? For what From what country? reason? Germany had no reason

THE CHINA MAIL.

LOCAL SHARE MARKET.

Sterling Shares Marked Up To-day.

TRADING RESTRICTED.

The official aummary issued by the Stock Exchange to-day states:

The market opened with a| steady undertone, but trading re- mains on a restricted scale, Sterl

Sales.*

Hong Kong Banks, $1,420. Union Insurance; 8430;") Hong Kong Trama, $20/21. Hong Kong Electrics, $74. Cements (Comb.), $17.90/18.10. Dairy Farms, $2811⁄2.

Buyers.

Hong Kong Banks, $1,425. Union Insurance, $430. Douglases, $262. Wharves, $152. Providents (Old), $4.90. Providents (New), $21⁄4- Hotela (Old), $13.90. Hong Kong Realties, $9.90. Chinese Estates, $95. Ewo Cottons, Tis. 14.85, Cements (Comb.), $18. Amusements, $19.90. Constructions (Old), $5.20. Constructions (New), $14. Govt. Loans, 4% premium.

Bellers,

PROGRESS

THE LIFE STORY OF TWO OAK SAPLINGS.

And Their Brutal Murder.

J

By W G

son was killed at estate was broken

Before the "woodman's doër lay aq” That Squire's ing shares, however, were marked green ride that stretched from the Arrae, and the up, that being due to the lower expark gates to the White Hart. It change,

was green because there was little up. The green road had been re traffic: the Squire kept his tipple metaled, and a villainously uncom in his own cellar, and the White fortable motor bus bounced and Hart's customers went afoot. But slithered over it twice a day. Thế there had always been a road there, palca were veterans now. They fing ever since the legionaries levelled their branches right across the road, the ground and cleared the sur-making a horrible mess in rainy rounding woods,

weather. The motor bus skidded Down that ride the Squire canter-into one of them one November day, ed the day his eldest son was born but the tree took no notice, though (It was the year the countryfolk set the bus had a cracked chassis, a on the Pretender's rearguard as buckled wheel, and not a whole pane they hurried back from Derby be of glass left. Next Spring the road cause some of them started looting. Was taken up and relaid with Poor fellows, they had never seen a Cheshire market day before, and tarmacadam, glossy black stuff that showed iridescent where oll-drop-i their impressions must have been

no more unfavourable). The Squire drew rein Ped on it. There were

skida. before the woodman's door and gave

A few months ago men arrived directions. Within a week two oak' caplings were planted, fifty yards with chains and tape measures. apart, across the ride from the cot They climbed the gate into the field tage. The Squire did not live to see behind the oaks, laid out their lines, them trees, for he broke his neck in and drove pegs into the ground. the hunting-field the very next week. Other men erected a fence, parallel George, the woodman, looked to the hedge and fifty feet behind it. after the trees: not that they needed Motorists passing saw and approY much looking after. Your oak willed, for the old road was only wide thrive on, neglect. By the time the enough for three streams of trafike, young, Squire was twenty-one, and And a motorist unfortunate enough able to damn the French as his to be caught behind a lorry or a father was wont to do, they were bus sometimes had to stay behind CAPT. A. C. INGLIS. comely young trees. The green ride it for as much as three hundred yards before he got a chance of was still a green_ride..

That young Squire was killed at passing.

Other men took off the turf and twenty-one-a black year: the year laid it in neat piles. Other men the sansculottes had it all their own slashed with billbooke at the hedge way in Paris-the trees, were still until nothing was left but the roots. young as oaks go. Perhaps forty Other men then dug the roots up. feet to the tip of the highest branch. The axe-men attacked the trees, The funeral of Captain Alexan-And the green ride was still a green They chopped huge notches in the trunks. Into the notches they fitted der Caird Inglis, master of the s.s.ride. Selston, whose death occurred at That Squire married late. His two-handed, saws. Round the up- the French Hospital at 8 o'clock way home from church lay along per branches they slung ropes and yesterday morning, took place at the ride, but it was green no longer, strained them tight with a winch. the Protestant Cemetery, Happy Telford had pasted that way, and. By sunset the trees were down. The now the road was petalled and next day their branches were lop- Valley, last evening.

Docks, $29. Shanghai Landa, Tla. 27. Humphreys, $18.

China Lights (018), $21. Malabon Sugars, $25. Watsons, $161⁄2.

Death of Master of S.S. Bunker's Hill. When his son was or interest to make war. She was

surrounded by powerful neigh-

The

Seistan.

FUNERAL IN.COLONY.

bours-France, Poland, Czecho- Slovakia. There was, he was con- Once he banged the table with vinced, no possibility of dangerous bis clenched fist, and the crystal adventures in that quarter.

·lustres over our heads moved in Sovieta? Their power, founded on revolution, had now become response to the sudden rumbling

stabilised. They had grown con- thunder of that magical voice, It was

when he recalled that servative with time. They had no superb moment in the League As-wish for war. They had become, sembly at Geneva when he similar- he was equally convinced, one of ly banged the table and drama- the strongest partisans of peace.

The captain, who was well stamped hard. Every day, at 2 p.m. ped, and the day after that their In the meantime, M. Briand will tically declared:-

As long as I am here there shall withdraw, if only temporarily, known here, having been for many precisely, the down coach that left trunks were sawn into neat loga, and

years on the Chins Coast, was a the Peacack at. Islington at four in loaded on to a timber-tug. from the political scene. After a

Bur- the morning passed, and twenty! Then another gang set to work on Well, he is not there any long-few weeks on his pleasant farms native of Edinburgh and is

vived by his wife and 19-year-old minutes later the up coach, due in the stumps. They, dug a deep er. After to-day the Qual d'Orsay at Cocherel, through which

at Home. London at 10 p.m., cantered in the trench round each one-road traffic has a new tenant. The old lion eparkling little river Eure wand-son, both of whom are no longer stands with his back to ers, he will leave to recuperate at Another relative is a cousin, Mr. other direction. The hubs used to was a good deal impeded, forthej George Hogg, formerly manager shave the trunks of the oaks, and trees had stood in the hedge--and the abyss into which the nations

here of the National City Bank of the outsides sometimes had their they slashed through the roots. occasionally threaten to rush.

New York, who is now at the hats whipped from their heads by Finally they got a chain round the Lincoln of Europe.

Shanghai office. The sympathy of the branches. "The trees were sturdy stump, and a traction-engine at the The Lincoln of Europe returns

many friends will be extended to men now, in the very prime of life. other end gave a few pants, and the to his farm, his fishing-rod, his

When the next Squire was stump turned over with a rending plain speech with old friends, his

them in their bereavement.

Captain Inglis had been ill for twenty-one the road was green and snapping as of heartstrings and shabby clothes, his incomparable memories, struck down from power

about a month but did not enter again. The coaches were rotting in lay forlorn on the bare loam which as much by the knife of the secret

hospital until about ten days ago. a London yard, for the new railway the turfing gang had uncovered. enemy as by the inevitable fatigue that intimate contact with the ab. He underwent two operations on took, all the traffic. When the But before the stamps could be),

Thursday and Sunday.

a friend's villa in the sunny region of Cannes, which saw the golfing prelude to another of his frequent political retirements.

in an

There he will meditate agreeable careless freedom from conventionality on the mutations of time, fishing, friendships and politics, and possibly will renew

of office. Never looked there A Borbing internal-politics of France moment in European history when without which no French states- his own efforts for peace seemed man can successfully control for more destined to failure. Never eign policy. aeemed his historic role as the conciliator of France and Germany

more necessary.

QUEER THINGS THEY SELL IN LONDON

Squire went up to town his coach

The funeral was largely attend-took him to the nearest station, six removed, something happened in ed the service at the graveside miles off, and then the coach was London. The surveyor gave orders, being performed by the Rev. G. Tlashed fast on a truck, with the the gangs packed up their tools and alterations The general elections, it may be Waldegrave. Family wreaths in Squire inside, looking straight be departed, leaving the remembered, are not far distant,cluded those from the deceased's fore his Roman nose and feigning half finished. It is officially stated and the old lion has not made his mother, wife and aon, and from igorgance of George Stephenson. that work will be resumed when the The two trees were hale and next trade boom is in fall swing." Mr. George Hogg. Nevertheless, he characteris lust spring.

The traffic still swirls along, the old vigorous.

The next Squire' passed, and still road, and the two stumps lie in the the road was green, and still the devastated area elose by, inglorious oaks flourished. The next was an symbols of two centuries of pro- innovator.

or In Germany a man had gress. Manchester Guardian. back a century or two more, by discovered the possibilities of explo merely turning into Pall Mall you slon engines, and one day the Squire may find n that lordly thorough appeared on the green road in the fare of clubs a crafteman who still hargeless dogcart. It stopped at the bends over the bench of the bowyer. frst tree, and the Squite got down, I'did not buy a turtle after all, Here, still wearing the leathern removed his goatskin coat, and but I learned that if I did not re-apron worn by bowyers six hundred tinkered. It was a hot day, and as quire even soup, this obliging rep ille could provide me with a shaving soap so good that it finde its way to At The Old Halley.. Buckingham Palace, writes George Godwin in the Evening Standard..

The Oldest Shop.

A Turtle "on the Hoof" Costs £6.

THE QUILL-MAKER.

If you want to buy a nice turtle alive on the hoof, as it were you must pay by weight. I learned this fact in Limahouse - from *

man

basilisk eye hours after the sharp knife has severed. head from armoured body. His sharp teeth, too, will take, off a thumb as clean ly as a surgeon's knife.⠀⠀

whose father and grandfather be Where is London's oldest shop

STARTING SAT, 12th,

AT

years ago, he shapes from the the Squire tinkered he blessed his CENTRAL THEATRE, Spanish yew the self-bow.

trade, of

twelve..

Howard Hughes

AGE FOR LOVE

ancestor for providing shade. At last he hauled on the flywheel, Thermalsara The quill of the goose supplies engine began to chuff-chuff feebly, more than our London fletcher with and the Squire, resuming his goat- skin coat, mounted and performed a the materials of his trade, Go into the Old Bailey or the Royal Courts complicated fig. The horseless car fore him had followed this un- and what do they sell there? The and you will find there the old-riage moved only and impres usual trade. You can get a nice answer to these questions is to be fashioned, quill, pestil in use, sively. By the time it reached the little fellow of about 60lb. for found in Haymarket, where you may | There

is quite a big busi- second tree it was around £6; but if you want ons as buy precisely the same stuff that messin London, big as Alice's, then it may run you Beau Brummell applied to his deacraft the fashioning into £30—or even more. But not licate nostrile. Like the turtle mer quill pens. You may buy much business is done over the chants, the snuff merchants them in neat bundles and they are counter in the narrow by street of of Haymarket are hereditary very nice to write with. But pre- East London. The truth is, thera | traders with more than a sently, the "nib" gets soft. Then, is no counter; it is a factory. Ships century in direct line of if you know a thing or two, you from the sun-drenched Cayman descent behind them. Who uses BET Islands, in the British West Indies, enuff nowadays7. Quite a large to bring these aldermanic tit-bits into ¦ number of people, it would seem, sands Thames river. They arrive all alive since the snuff business still four-the to die under the guillotine, in the Isher. Once even women used, it turtle soup factory.

You may remember that, Rich

In A High Win

describes

and maybe they will take to it again.

* Intsthe Middle? Templa

barristers

here: the wome

Long the wo

for.

GLASS COMBS

Glass mbs are the latest

umonts back

fasci

o really gfage The

some,

transparent

SVTON AND JOHNSTONE

DE739 MY MYSTERY GIRL.

Columbia

MANY HAPPY RETURNS.

DB726-SWEET AND LOVELY. DONT KNOW WHY.

DB711-GUILTY,

DAFZ-LIFE E JUST A BOWL OF CHERRIES. DB710-CLOSE YOUR EYES.

SPRINGTIME REMINDS ME OF YOU.

THE ANDERSON MUSIC CO., LTD.

Ice House Street.

Tel. 31322

GENUINE REDUCTION

Just Bow A

ON IMPORTED CIGARETTES “

Ardath Cork

10's pkt. $0.20

dec. tin - 0.45

1.00

50's tim 1.00

50%

State Express-333

777

50's the

.90

Greys Plain or Corp tipped": Grey La

50's tin

.80

50's tin

1.89

Aikaty Plain or Corks tipped

Check Roya

50's tin

Black & White

FEDERAL

50's tim 50's tin

1.402

,50

A woonA

TABAQUERIA FILIPINA

Asiatic Building.

NO NEED TO BUY

12V

26, Queen's Road, C.TMTM

NEW DRESS.

TO: GO TO THE SPECIAȚI, HOTEL DANCES.

JUST BEND US YOUR OLD ONE. WE WELL. HAIR IT.

LOOK LIKE NEW.

THE INTERNATIONAL DRY CLEANING &^DYEING CO.

71, Caine Road,

Bộ 13 Wan Nel Chair Bo

Happy Valley. '36, Nathan Road, Kowloon.

King George V

peale t

SOUND

THE DISTIÅLERE AGENCY IS

minorarie;

PRI