The ignorance of the ordinary stay-at-home Britisher on all matters connected with the Far East is alarming, even if not dangerous. At dinner the other evening a professional man speaking about railways China mixed up Tientsim and Canton in a delightful manner, evidently mentally ring them asof geographical situation sular to Brighton and Bournemouth. Then, too, the Western Morning News recently announced that some German officers had been arrested for sketching English fortifications in Hongkong and Shanghai. The blind lead the blind, and so it is little wonder that our Model" is generally looked upon as a British Colony Phe scissors-nd-paste-weeklies keep: the ball a-rolling with their highly imaginary '"Facts" or Items of Interest," and therefore with so. many. well-read: people (2) to deal-with one has: the alternative of being wise- or of adopting a Munchausen man-norism and-being, considered wiser., However, the lick of- interest shown: by the ignorance of the. public has, of course, everything to do with the apathy displayed by the F.0. as far as we are concerned. Were we in. better touch with folk here questions would be raised and some naturally obstreperous. M.P. would take us under his protecting: wing, with. the result: that action. wol be foreed upon the F.O. whenever grievance arose; but until those Elysian days arrive we must be content with things as\they are, and swallow snubs the ante way that Colonial Governors The Foreign Office: is not by any means the only Grand Communion of British Competition Wallahs, bound up in red tape, with a total disregard of their masters, the public. Mr. Heaton has been worrying-at his. old bote noire, the Post Oftiee, with regard to tele: graphic, inconsistencies. The powers of that establishment have arrived at the aéinine conclusion, among thers, that "father-in-law" is to be charged for as three words while "mother-in-law" is taken as only one word. Whether courtesy or the New Woman movement has thing to do with this decision it is impossible to say.
The death of Sir Augustus Harris has given birth to columns of reminiscences, all of which go to prove the loss sustained by the theatrical world. Nothing shows the wonderful resource and energy of the man more than the now oft-quoted fact that he took. Drury Lane Theatre with only £3 es. Od. in his pocket; this is a slight advance on the usual half-crown story.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.