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Show WHO'S NEWS THIS WEEK I By LEMUEL F. PARTON NEW YORK. When Sir Walter Runciman was here in 1937, It was reported that he was trying to persuade Washington to lend money to Germany, to Runciman soothe Hitler and Master of make him stop Squeeze Play tfrlht5?to Eng" land. That may or may not have been his mission, but, as a master of the old credit-and-raw-materials squeeze play, he works that way, and, now, as Viscount Vis-count Runciman, he is deep In the Downing Street strategy which swings these two cudgels of empire. Prime Minister Chamberlain appointed ap-pointed him as mediator In the Czechoslovak-Sudeten German negotiations, nego-tiations, but the Czechs toned that down to adviser. Viscount Runciman has been a silent ally of Viscount Halifax in the quiet, glacial-pressure advance ad-vance of the four-power bloc scheme for a European coalition and the final and complete isolation iso-lation of Russia. It was reported from London, un-! un-! verified so far as this writer knows, I that it was he who Makes Moves put over a fast In World's credit double-play Chess Came with France and Italy, the moment the Daladier government came in, and he has been tagged as the man who deploys the empire's financial resources in the diplomatic chess game. His father was a ruddy old sea dog who sang chanteys, a cabin boy who became a shipping czar and a baronet. Viscount Runciman is a pallid, tight-lipped little man, a total abstainer, a former Sunday School teacher, and a faithful chapel-goer. chapel-goer. As president of the British board of trade, he made concessions in empire free trade, but he is a protectionist pro-tectionist of the Chamberlain tradition. tradi-tion. Like many men of small stature, he has the Napoleonic psychosis, psy-chosis, writing books about Napoleon Napo-leon and hoarding memorabilia. '"THIS writer has heard from sev--1 eral assured but not necessarily authoritative sources that Tullio Serafin would succeed Edward Jnhnnn sc Johnson as man-Serann man-Serann ager of Metro- To Boss politan Opera. The Met? Signor Serafin has been highly esteemed es-teemed here for his musicianship, but all was not well between him and the Metropolitan management manage-ment when he returned to Rome in 1935, after a number of years as Italian conductor here. "The Metropolitan has not kept pace with the artistic progress of the modern stage," he said, on his arrival in Rome. "The way opera is put on at the Metropolitan Is ridiculous ri-diculous ... The great fault with the Metropolitan is the little encouragement encourage-ment it is giving to its latent talent." tal-ent." The Metropolitan reply hinted that Signor Serafin was really thinking about money rather than art. In the season '32-'33, he had a fair subsistence wage of $38,200 for the season Tf,J had been worked down to $34,000 l the year he left. He did indicate that he thought that was pretty shabby pay for an ace conductor, but insisted his criticism criti-cism was directed solely at artistic shortcomings. Several years ago, the Metropolitan Metropoli-tan was intent on national self-suf- H- t i . Aciency in music. Home Talent u was going to For Opera discover and nur-No nur-No Bargain ture native talent. That hasn't quite come off, and there have been the usual number of importations. It will be interesting if it brings in not ; only a European manager, but one j who is its sharpest critic. Among music lovers of this writ-i writ-i er's acquaintance, there seems to ! be great indifference about where ! the singers come from as long as j they are good. They insist that mu- sic, above all, must be free from , the sharply nationalistic trends of ! the day. As a lad, Tullio Serafin laid down a shepherd's crook for a baton. Tending the sheep near Cavarzere on the Venetian mainland, he used to walk sev-cral sev-cral miles to town on Saturday night, at the age of ten, to conduct con-duct the village band. He at-ended at-ended the conservatory at Milan Mi-lan and was a full-fledged con- tor in his early youth. At La Scala, in Milan, he was assistant conductor under Gatti-t-asazza. He became one of the nx.st widely known and popular con-duetors con-duetors m Europe. A stanch supporter of the Fascist regime from its outset, he has been conductor of the Royal Opera at Rome since his departure fr.m New p e was rePaced here by Lttore Panizza. ConsontuedsNeKeulurefc |