Rudyard Kipling " (Rupert Croft-Cooke)—Carl T

CONTENTS PAGE NOTES—J. P. COLLINS ... ... ... ... ... ... 1 THIS IS KIPLING COUNTRY STILL ... , ... 3 THE CHURCH THAT WAS AT ANTIOCH—SIR STEPHEN ALLEN, K.B.E., C.M.G., K.C.S.I 4 THE UNITED SERVICES COLLEGE—COL. H. A. TAPP, O.B.E., M.C. 8 WAS KIPLING A CHRISTIAN?—DR. DICK PHILLIPPS 10 FREEMASONRY IN KIPLING'S WORK—BASIL M. BAZLEY ... 13 " RUDYARD KIPLING " (RUPERT CROFT-COOKE)—CARL T. NAUMBURG ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 14 LETTER BAG ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 15 THE KIPLING SOCIETY SALES DEPARTMENT POSTCARDS : LIST OF MEMBERS : Burwash or Kipling's Grave. Extra copies for members 1d. each or 9d. per dozen. only, 6d. * * * * * * JOURNALS : Extra copies for members BOOK PLATES : only, 1/- each. Special prices 1d. each. which may be obtained from the Secretary, apply however to those numbers which are nearly out of print. All the above are sent post free. Correspondence should be addressed to— THE HON. SECRETARY THE KIPLING SOCIETY 98, GOWER STREET LONDON, W.C.l. — Tel.: Euston 7117 — THE KIPLING JOURNAL published quarterly by THE KIPLING SOCIETY VOL. XVI: No. 92. DECEMBER, 1949 Notes RUDYARD'S ROD. Lastly, he introduced Sir Malcolm IR Roderick Jones, who presided Sargent as one who enjoyed Kipling's over the Kipling Society's recent friendship, and who was awakening Sannual lunch in the absence of Europe and the Commonwealth to Lord Wavell, expressed the general the genius of our composers, besides regret that that gifted man had been adding to our laurels as few men could. called away by urgent matters at the last moment, and how much they all MUSIC AMONG THE NATIONS. missed such an eminent blend of the Sir Malcolm, who had a warm recep- great army leader, the man of letters, tion, answered with a speech which and the eloquent lover of Kipling. could not have been bettered as an He referred to his own friendship example of informality at its best. with the poet and romancer, both He had met Kipling in an exclusive in South Africa and here in England ; society, he said, where Sir Roderick but omitted to mention the way in had confessed with undue modesty which he himself had saved the house to having gained its membership at Rottingdean dowered with so many by " accident." Having entered this Kipling associations. It was there match of meekness—or inverse egotism, that the episode occurred whereby as it has been styled,—and having the immortal " Recessional " was spared created a round of cheers and laughter, the oblivion of the waste-paper basket, Sir Malcolm finally assented that, and thanks to three percipient women as the chairman had said, his lot was was soon revised by the author, to to visit the chief cities of the Common- appear in " The Times " next day to wealth, Europe and America, to the admiration of the world. conduct famous orchestras in the Those who had belittled the poem sort of compositions that stirred for the racial boastfulness wrongly mankind. When he found Germans imputed to it, failed to discern its were pushing their wares by system real value as a solemn rebuke for and other devices, he simply set him- that very fault . We must re- self to use British music as national member, Sir Roderick went on, that propaganda. (Hear, hear). It proved when the Royal Jubilee had filled so highly acceptable, and made itself many patriots with national com- a policy well worth pursuing. Sir placency, it was the poet's purpose Malcolm then gave convincing in- to send our thoughts back to higher stances how our German neighbours quarters, and humble our pride into utilised their opportunities without divine praise and thankfulness. Nor a blush, in order to obtain information was it the only occasion for such a likely to be much more useful in rebuke, and Sir Roderick begged diplomacy than in the realms of art. those who were unaware of a later Finally, the chorus of laughter was poem, " The City of Brass," to read reawakened when Sir Malcolm related and study it for the solemn and how easily these inquiry agents had cautionary lesson it embodied. It gone off with distorted information appeared only in the columns of the that must have got them into heavy " Morning Post," and never was there trouble with their superiors. All this a time when its message was so vital. was told with the relish of a captain 2 THE KIPLING JOURNAL December 1949 of a Test team recounting his victories actually right within five per cent. on setting the field to his side's ad- vantage ; and there was applause at A TOUCH OF SURPRISE. the finish when he said he had no Rhodes so relied on having him apology to make for beating our up country that he resented Little's rivals at their own game. return southward on French leave. When he promised to go back north THANKS AND ALL THAT. as soon as the new railway reached Dear to the harried pressman is a Umtali, Rhodes reminded him when fragment of apt and hand-picked this day came, but the real terminus reprint. Think what it might mean if came in Rhodes's death, and Little this modest journal had to subscribe to was never the same man after. He all world papers that freshen up their used to tell how the Empire-maker pages with a rare bit of Kipling anec- built the Bulawayo pile called Willough- dote. Our labour of continual search by's Buildings as a dormitory and would be overwhelming ; Bloomsbury mess-room for prospectors coming would be blocked with paper salvage ; to town. Little used the place often, and postal expense alone would out-do and late one night stole in quietly devaluation. Therefore we rejoice when so as to disturb nobody else. He some bronzed and bright-eyed reader found a sleeping stranger in pos- a hundred horizons away, sends us session but did not wake him. Here a gem from the local organ. Consider is the rest of the yarn in the crisp the slick and easy process—shock terms Archibald used for telling it :— and recoil at the discovery, a scurry to the desk, and quick, thy scissors, " In the morning this fellow Memory ! A pencilled note to cover looked at me in amazement. the scrap, the dab of an air-mail " Didn't hear you come in,' he stamp, a few lines of address, and then said, half-challenged. hey for the post-box, wall-slot or ' No,' said Little, ' I was quiet dispatch-bag closing its juty jaws about it.' on the very brink of flight ! Yes, but They fell to talking about Rho- these struggles with time and fate desia, its prospects and its char- and climate melt our tough old acteristics. Little said he was a hearts, and render these smudges of prospector in for a night or two. ink and type inestimably precious. ' What do you do out there in the bush?' the other asked. HOT FROM THE SOUTH. ' I look for gold. I turn up Thus, Mr. G. S. Wilkins, of Bulawayo here, there and everywhere. And North Rhodesia,—-who lurks with I'm always welcome, what's more, true colonial coyness under the rebus because I come with Kipling.' " P. O. Box 97,"—sends us a clipping ' Yes,' he went on. ' I might from the Bulawayo Chronicle recounting almost say they look out for me. the virtues of that popular veteran, You see, I read to them. I travel the late Archibald Little, of Belingwe, with Kipling. I'm never with- as preserved in the recollections of out him. I'd lose a lot before his kinsfolk, Mr. and Mrs. Stuart I lost ' Barrack-Room Ballads.' Little. Year after year his associates Ever read them?' and friends besought him to write out Whereupon, of course, the other his memoirs—from the Jameson Raid confessed he was Kipling him- back to the pioneer raid into Loben- self." gula's lands, in the early years when serving Sir George Farrar as manag- A TALE OF TWO OCEANS. ing director. But Archibald's best A member of the Kipling Society days were given up to Cecil Rhodes has written pointing out a geograph- and prospecting for gold and diamonds ical slip in " Something of Myself." with a stop-watch and a horse. This It occurs on page 102 where it speaks worthy beast kept such a regular of Invercargill, N.Z., as " the Last pace that A. measured land by counting Lamp-post in the World," and in- its steps, and when the land came advertently places it in " the South to be surveyed, his reckoning was Atlantic." Of course, this last should December, 1949 THE KIPLING JOURNAL 3 be " South Pacific," but as Mr. Har- on his deathbed in hospital, and bord, our honorary treasurer, re- (like Scott's master-story, " The Bride minds us, Kipling confessed more of Lammermoor ") as an anodyne than once that this book got far all the while against intense pain. less revision than the rest. And no wonder, considering it was written J. P. COLLINS. This is Kipling Country Still* REPORTED FROM THE NORTH-WEST FRONTIER, NOW TAKEN OVER BY PAKISTAN MIRAMSHAH FORT, North first to the British authorities and now to those of Pakistan, who have Waziristan. taken over the North-West Frontier The flying bullet down the pass, from us. That whistles shrill " All flesh is grass." The Fakir even boasts that it was TO most of modern British youth he who drove the British out. Kipling seems outdated. The Tonight—any night—the Fakir may conditions he dealt with have swoop from the hills and attack this largely disappeared.

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