The appeal has gone forth in France to be christian in the matter of christian names. Nor was it before time, for the list of names which the war has inflicted upon poor unfortunates is simply appalling. For instance, ''Revanche," "Lo Marne," "France," "Victoire," christian about any one of them. We wonder how many of the young men of the present day in England bear names which were familiar during the: South African War. Certain it was that the number of Robertses, Kitcheners and Baden-Powells who came into existence was enormous, and we have little doubt that all manner of young Britons of to-day are burdened by epithets such as French, Haig, jellicoe and Beatty, although the British parent seems to have kept his or her head rather better than the French. So far as can be seen, the war did produce something like a new name in France, namely, Joffrette or Jofreta, only, overburdened as the Saints' Calendar is with names, we fail to see the necessity for it. It should certainly have been made a crime under the Defence of the Realm Act to inflict these appellatives, and what is wanted to-day is a kind of general amnesty permitting people who have recovered their sanity to christen their offspring with a reasonable appreciation of their future happiness.
Empire Cotton-Growing For a number of years now, and with added energy of late, the cotton consumers of Great Britain have been paying much attention to promoting production within the Empire. India has received consideration, naturally, and the posbilities of a very great exploitation of Egypt, by means of increased irrigation, have bulked largely in the public eye. More recently public interest was focussed on Nigeria, and if we remember aright, a notable combine was formed to carry out extensive cultivation there. In addition to all these, however, a vast new field for cotton has lately been announced, namely, in the Northern Territory of Australia. Up to the present the area in question has been marked on the maps as a desert, but an explorer, Mr. David Lindsay, has just contradicted this impression. Water, he reports, is found in plentiful quantities at a comparatively shallow depth, and already cotton is growing there wild. The latter can be found as far as 200 miles from the sea, the seeds having evidently been carried inland by birds and the wind. Apparently there is no doubt that the cultivation of cotton can be profitably pursued here, and with the Australian government's new attitude towards. the immigration question, we should be able to see much progress in this direction within coming years. The visible supply of cotton is far below the world's needs, so the discovery which Mr. Lindsay has made should rank as of the first impor tance.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.