A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
T is a fortulite chance that the Indian province, Bombay, which I is the scene of the most serious disorders, has its destinies directed by the man who is by common consent the most successful provincial Governor in India. It argues no disrespect to Sir Roger Lumley to say that he has done unexpectedly well in India, for during his fourteen years' membership of the House of Commons (which he entered at the early age of 28) he was known as a popular, diligent but in no way conspicuous M.P. His appointment to Bombay in 1937—he was then 41 came as something of a surprise, but it has been abundantly justified. Sir Roger, who has the whole govern- ment on his shoulders, since Bombay is one of the provinces where the Ministry resigned at the behest of the Congress Party in 1939, has maintained his popularity with both Indians and Europeans. He is hardly likely to be India's next Viceroy, because it will pro- bably be felt that a new situation would best be handled by a personality new to India who has already won distinction in other fields. If, on the other hand, Indian experience is regarded as an essential during the period of transition the choice might well fall on the Governor of Bombay. He is, in any case, the obvious person to serve as Acting-Viceroy if Lord Linlithgow should have occasion to leave India, for consultations at home or any other reason, before his already-extended term of office expires.
* * * * I suppose the Archbishop of Canterbury felt it necessary to " recommend that prayer for seasonable weather be offered until the gathering of the harvest is complete," but I cannot help feeling that it will add to many devout persons' perplexities at a time when perplexities are numerous enough as it is. Very many who believe profoundly in prayer as a spiritual force effective both in their own lives and other people's feel that prayers for rain in one case and absence of rain in another savour much more of the mentality of the Old Testament than of the New—though I am well aware that individual passages could be cited in opposition to this view. Such lesser problems as how to reconcile the value of rain to fire-fighters with the value of rainlessness to the farmers are a small thing beside the difficulty of iden- tifying a God who varies the course of Nature at will with the God Who is Spirit, and to be worshipped in spirit and in truth. The Armada Memorial legend, " He blew with His winds and they were scattered," is well enough as a memorial inscription, but the suggestion is reminiscent of the caprices of Aeolus and Neptune in the first book of the Aeneid. No one would say a word to shake the faith of those who sincerely believe that prayers about the weather will determine the weather, but does Dr. Temple lay it down that all good Churchmen should believe this? Surely the petition, " Establish thou the work of our hands upon us," without prescrip- tion of methods or conditions, is enough for us all.
* * *
Are we an increasingly dishonest race? Meticulously honest myself, I am getting concerned about my fellow-men—or, in this particular case, probably my fellow-humans who are feminine. I see from an answer given in Parliament that 28,000 towels a week are stolen from lavatory-carriages on trains—or were, for in conse- quence of the felonies no more towels are to be supplied at all.
Obviously all sorts of people will steal objects from a public service corporation which they would never dream of stealing from a neigh- bour, and persuade themselves in some perverted way that the quality of the action is different in the two cases. It is not ; it is precisely the same—just plain theft. Lord Woolton's latest pronouncements (on such major necessities as biscuits, such minor necessities as cakes and such luxuries as sweets) have set me investigating the length of Lord Woolton's tenure of office. He has, I find, been Food Minister for well over two years, succeeding Mr. W. S. Morrison, whose brief stewardship not many people remember at all. No Food Controller (as they were called then) in the last war held the post as long, and in any case Lord Woolton shows every sign of being equal to his task for the duration. More a target for the average man's—and still more for the average woman's—criticism than any other Minister, he can still walk about the streets in comparative security. Some people would like to throw eggs at him because of egglessness, but he has seen to it that there are none to throw (or at any rate only once a week). But, all things considered, Lord Woolton has done a singu- larly difficult job singularly well. The best testimony to him is the ready acquiescence with which any new restriction he may feel it necessary to impose is received. At the end of the third year of war the nation is being perfectly adequately fed, parts of it better fed than ever before, and the various coupon and points systems ensure as fair treatment all round as could be reasonably devised. The Food Minister's best reward as he goes his unmolested way through London should be, and no doubt is, the absence, particu- larly on the children's faces, of that lean and hungry look which according to neutral travellers is prevalent throughout almost all Europe today.
* * * *
The wind bloweth where it listeth, and sometimes it listeth to blow northwards when persons interested counted on its blowing southwards. That no doubt is why a number of leaflets intended by the R.A.F. for eager readers in France descended in Sussex in a region where the.natives, wno picked them up, admired the illustra- tions and puzzled over the text, which was in the language of the land of Mr. Hilaire Bence's nativity, not of the county of his habitation. Some of them have reached me through the good offices of one native (not unlearned in French), and very good leaflets they seem to be, with their heading
Apporte par vos =Es de la R.A.F. LE COURRIER DE L'AIR
1942 No. 2 Distribue par les patriotes francais
Illustrations are excellent, text is good, and print is small but clear Manifestly a sound piece of propaganda.
* * * *
I referred last week to the Short Guide to Great Britain supplied to all American troops in this country, writing on the basis of a temporary issue cyclostyled on foolscap sheets. The actual booklet, which I have now received, neat pocket-size, 32 pages, deserves even higher praise. In the middle of the booklet is a clear map of the British Isles, with the principal cities, and no others, marked, there are three pages of a glossary of the two languages, quite as valuable to Britons as to Americans, with all the pitfalls about biscuits and pies and suspenders (masculine) dearly signposted, and a page of cuts of the insignia of British Army, Navy and fur Force officers. The author of this admirable work, which would have a great sale on bookstalls (English for news-s-ands), was, I understand, in civil life a publicity-agent (I use this humiliatingly English term through ignorance of the American) in New York. He can rarely have done a better job of work. jANUS.
Previous page
