A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
THE Defence White Paper has created less sensation than was expected, and the fact that it is attacked by the Rothermere school for its complete inadequacy and by Labour for its failure to make out its case suggests that a fairly reasonable middle course has in fact been chosen. Two criticisms seem to me un- reasonable, that the Government has not emphasised sufficiently its support of the collective system and that the question of cost is left entirely vague. Actually what is said in the White Paper about support of the League is quite satisfactory, and it has to be remembered that the subject of the statement was not the League, but defence. As to cost, it is obvious that no estimate can be framed now. - Armaments depend on policy, and there is no evidence that either Mr. Baldwin or Mr. Eden has permanently abandoned hope of getting limitation agreement wherever possible. On the contrary there is already renewed • talk 'of a Western Air Pact. If that could be concluded our expenditure. on air defence would obviously be affected. The whole programme is pro- foundly depressing, but there is no middle course between the Lansbury policy and the League policy, and a League policy inevitably involves the Maintenance of this country's armaments at a certain level in relation to Others'.
There will be a gaping Void in the middle of London after this week, when the -Chinese treasures at Burlington House start on their ways to their various homes. For many by far the pleasantest memory of the Exhibition will be the reception given by the Chinese Ambassador at Burlington House itself on Tuesday. There the one inevitable drawback to complete enjoyment—the crowds that normally throng the rooms and make quiet contemplation of the exhibits impossible—Was absent. For though the company was large, so is the Royal Academy, and apart from the entrance lobby and the buffet no room had more than its dozen or so of gueSts at -a time. Most people were seeing the exhibition for the last time. The great Buddha, whose countenance an ex-Cabinet Minister tried in vain to convince me was in the Greek tradition, will gaze inscrutably on the arriving guests no longer. But London will be able to claim that it performed the remarkable feat. of according• to the exhibition almost as intense an appreciation' asit deserved.
* * * * - The invitation to General Sir Frederick Maurice to write Lord Haldane's Life is interesting. It is hard to see how the choice could have been bettered, though at first sight the selection of a soldier as the biographer of a philosopher is unexpected. But Lord Haldane was, of course, more many-sided than any biographer could hope to be. Certain aspects of his character could be dealt with more adequately by his sister, Miss Elizabeth Haldane, than anyone. But no one could be ,better qUalified than General Maurice- to appreeiate a great War Minister, and at the same time he is enough of a politician )11)(1 an educationist to *rite of Haldane-in those capacities with complete competence ; and thought he would certainly not claim to be a philosopher he has inherited enough of the spirit of his grandfather, F. D. Maurice, to move without discomfort in a metaphysical sphere.
Whether Dr. Johnson ever did say " Sir, keep your great words for great occasions," I am not sure. But it is worth saying—unless it is simpler to say merely " Sir, don't talk balderdash." . This to the address particularly of political writers dealing with their political opponents. From one of them I learn that " the Cabinet is now obviously panic-stricken." Panic-stricken. Individually ? Or only collectively ? When the writer in question sees Mr. Baldwin,' or Lord Halifax, or Mr. Neville Chamberlain, walking prosaically down Whitehall to the House does he meditate omnisciently " There, in spite. of all. appear- ances, is a man dominated by terror " ? Or does it occur to him occasionally in a moment of illumination to say " What rot I wrote " ?
* * * * One or two echoes that have reached me of the Olympic games at Garmisch are in their way illuminating.. The British Olympic team, when marching past Herr Hitler, was scrupulously careful to give the correct Olympic salute—hand outstretched to the side, not as in the-Hitler salute, in front. The Press with one Voice--so potent is the propaganda machinery—announced with satisfac- tion that the team had given the Hitler salute. From another source I hear of open hostility displayed against a little knot of English onlookers who were applauding Canada in its ice-hockey game with Germany. It is clear that the Garmisch meeting was intended to serve other ends than sport. • * * * * I shall be surprised if Wisdom Teeth, a first play by Miss Noel Streatfeild, already known through her novels, which opened at the Embassy on Monday, fails to follow the now well-trodden path from Swiss Cottage to Shaftes- bury Avenue, or thereabouts. A straightforward and unpretentious drama of family life, it has crisp dialogue and good character-delineation and is admirably acted. The general verdict of Monday night's audience, " another winner for the Embassy," is pretty safe to be approved by the event.
Proportion " First," said the announcer last Saturday, " here are the clubs that have won their matches in the sixth round of the Cup." After which, such relative trifles as the military coup in Japan, the decisive battle in .
AbySsinia and so forth.
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A Flihrer Out-Fiihrered ?
" I raised my hand, and the Leader ceased." M: Bertrand de Jouvenel, in his interview with Herr Hitler.
JASTU-S,
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