By 0, H. Garay London, May 20.
In a piping, seasonable nortieas? wind, the crowds stood Ly thousands in the Mall last night, to watch tha} carriages containing beautiful débutantes—the adjective is ble on. these occasions and, in fact, the, "huppez sackless" as 'Thackeray's "Seames" called them, contain a wondrous proportion of pretty gitls—on their way to their Majesties' first Cour: of the season. It may take a carriage two hours to get along the Mall to che palace doors, and some of the girls had portable wireless sets and others draughts orb gammon boards—for this ancient game is all the rage again—to pass ithe time, in vain does Mr, Ramsay Mac-Donald denounce the House of Lords *Servile to every whim and propose. of the Tory Pariy"; in vain does Me. Snowden desire to' tax the land 0 5 to get back at the wicked dukes Who are supposed to have filched is, "he desire to move in ducal sur-Toundings is as strong as ever, ani if you cannot move in it, to near as possible to the smell So great is the demand for presentations shat women cannot make their curtsy more than once in four years. And now it seems men are Keen as women to be present, Tickets for the royal enclosure at which cost a pound 30 years are 95 for men and £4 for women now; and stil the demand exceeds the supply.
One of the most splendid figures in the pageant ws the Sultana of Johore. She formerly Mrs. Helen Wilson, a very beausifut Scottish widow, and her husband had the State jewels of Johore raught secretly ¢o London under a special guard, They include a tiara of large diamonds, a deep diamond collar close round the neck, another 9 diamond collar that hangs loosely Jover the shoulders and a broad diamond. bracelet on each wrist.
Meanwhile, though few of us can {fo to Court, we can all get radiance and variety of colour in the exau'site display of tulips polyanthus, azaleas, etc, in the London park Which Yeally have no superior. Lo: fand cold as the season the display marvellous, a constant refreshment in these hard times, Following on the reduction of the bank rate to 24 per cent, persistent} reports are current that a bold conversion of the 8 per cent. War Loan is impeding. The amount, of this loan is £2,087,000,000, yietdin 5 per cent,, so the saving effectes by' conversion to 4 per cent, would repayable at 100 notice, Its. pre Yaluo is about 1028 and many hoid-€ts_ have been selling out, to get heir. profit. while they may, and fainvesting in long-term Goxeramest stocks at lower rates. These in been driven. up. 4 per cent. Is to 951 from a Towest point this year of 85%, 4 pee cent. Funding Loan from: 88% *9 86h and 3} per cent. Conversion Loan from 75 to 8% capital is. so shy just now of anything with a risk attaching ind there is $0 much idle money available, that the moment stems decidedly' favourable for conversion.
The upshot, of this week's debates in the:
louse of Commons is_th the alliance between Mr.
George and the Liberals who follow him is now virtually a coalition The Land Taxation proposals which have revealed this fact are denounce the Opposition as the firs: step towards nationalization imposing a general and annual fire on those guilty of being landowners. Sir John, Simon also takes this vievt and. a few Liberals go him, The majority are with Br, Lloyd George, Te should be explained that Conservatives would not object taxing a landowner on the increased value of his land which was due no effort of his own, But the present Project makes no such distinction. Thus the owner may have to pay the tax, while the profit has gone fo the man from whom he bought ite One amendment is getain to be granted, namely the exemption of public playing fields. The value of, these to the very class of people feast able to pay the tax is admitted land the Government are obviously! Inervous of the odium they would incur by inflicting it, An enormous number of amend-mens to the Finance Bill haz been sent in, which include an atter? to reduce income tax from 4s, 6d. to 4s, and to raise the minimum on which surtax is levied to £2,500, These will never go through.
The best criticism of the Rudget comes in a loiter to "The Times") from Mr. Geoffrey Drage, who emphasized that it can only be balance led by borrowing from the Am dollar exchange reserve, whi means spending capital, atd that Jcontain's no provision' for sapplementary estimates, nor for the unemployment insurance furd, ad tional costs of which are mounting] Jat the rate of 1,000,000 a week, Mr. Drage says that'"the feeling]
"relief" with which the Budget has been received "must be anni Jated: the country must be made to understand the situation.'
The debate on Bri relations with Russia, evoked by the unquestionable activities of Moscow's agents in India, degenerated an undignified wrangle, a taunt by the Prime Minister at Br, Cit chill's "mischievous opinions" about India, which suggested that Mr. [Churchill and the Communists. were equally to blame for the disturb: janees in India, and an_ explicit statement that the government sav Ino reason for doing anything about the Soviet sedition mongering and Idid not mean to do anything.
Te was rather significant, however, teat the government's majori: y in the subsequent vote was only 20—1243 to 223, "Saved by the Liberals" Jeried the Conservatives ironically.
is very rare for a, condi for murder to be reversed on appeal] lout it has happened this week in respect of a Liverpool "insurance named Wallace, found guilty of murdering his wife last Janua she being hacked to death in a most lbruial way. The defence was that] Wallace was called out of the house lby @ faked telephone call, the intention of the murderer being ¢o rob, and death being the result of mrs. [Wallace's attempting to defend her husband's property. It was furch Jemphasized that during the 18 Jof their marriage, Wallace and his wife had lived on terms of the greatest affection, The done murder, there mist have been blood lon his clothes; but as there was none, the prosecution suggested that he had stripped himself naked and worn a mackintosh, The case aroused tremendous feeling in Liverpool and when the appeal came on prayers were said in the cathedral and other churches hat ight be guided ight jon. There was general complaint that the police 1ad pressed the case against Wallace with undue severity; the police, but said that he and his brother Judges had come to the conclusion that the case agains:
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.