Both in Germany and Japan me testing a new form list aircraft. It net, the function of jangle the propellers, and the idea is to ireraft attached to a hell, by this means getting the necessary height and distance. The general iden is by no means new, ut ix a de for instance, -had "arning. onions =strings of fire-balls—which they! that to a considerable height in the air, at times putting a barrage of them along their lines. If an aevoplane found itself amongst th its career was almost certainly at an end, The best measure of defence against aerial attack, however, was found to be counter-attack, the putting up of a barrage by antiaircraft gun: ing of the hostile machine, and then a spell of rapid fire from the counter-attacking plane. The anti-aircraft gun alone could not be described as direct hit were sor correspondent describe thing like trying to hit mosquitoes with a pea-shooter. Nor was it a bad simile, for time and on the ground witnessed ing spectacle of shells apparently bursting all round an enemy plane and the latter carrying on with its work almost contemptuously. If by rome means it is found possible to fire nets, as the Japanese and German inventors propose to do, it should certainly increase the dangers of the air, and such a scheme will bbe worth quite a lot to the man who makes it practicable, or not, seconded their efforts. In the circumstances Mr. Mackay and other gentlemen of ripe experience {of China can do a great deal in putting right the ideas of all manner of people at Home, and in combating the, insidious propaganda which would ultimately leave the foreign community at the mercy of local" governments of a military way of thinking. We pointed out, some time ago that Mr. H. G. Simms Thad -not hesitated to' put forward views in public which have served to counteract the sort of thing of which we have seen so much, and in doing so he has been rendering a very valuable service to the foreign community here. He has done so dispassionately and with an eye to getting the real facts of the ease nto the heads of the public. With similar experience of Municipal matters and conditions generally in China, Mr. Mackay will be in an equally favourable position to accomplish such work, and we are sure that when occasion demands he will play an important part in defendig the truth, Theatre Prices Like Miss Marie Tempest some years ago, Miss Lee White has felt obliged in' response to a widespread demand, to reduce the price of admission to the grand circle at the Lyceum from $4 to $3, All those who have the welfare of the Shanghai theatre at heart may regret her decision. Yesterday Miss White's manager, Mr. James McGrath, con-that Shanghai "had beaten them." From the size of the houses since the season began, he stated that he was not optimistic about the financial results at the end of the month. One supposes further bad accounts of Shanghai's "mean and mangy public" will go Home. Quite respectable number of theatrical extrepreneurs up to date cannot have been expected to hold out any hopes of the chances of a travelling any money at all swore to vilify us in London. other, Mr. Edgar Warwick, who like Mr. McGrath, brought out a well known music-hall artist who is emphatically still a on the London stage, has, according to information from Tientsin, met with disaster. To have heard three such artists as Sir Harry Lauder, White and Miss Wish Wynn lone season is a record in Shanghai theatrical history. Anyone who keeps in touch with dramatic inligence in the Home press knows what orities and audiences in London and the provinces to-day think of these artiste: ties. If we are going to frighten away such as these by refusing to pay an extra dollar the prospects for the future on the local stage will be worse than for a decade past. In the correspondence which has appeared in our columns on the subject of theatre prices no effective argument has been urged against that of the present visiting company regarding the greatly increased cost of bringing stward a modern revue. The ight increase in admission prices: seems reasonable, It isto feared that, in future, xf Shang-[hai wilt not pay a little more for better class entertainment, its residents will have to wait until they go on leave before seeing anything better than a second-rate cabaret show.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.