To the average worker of to-day, the question of the duration of the lunch-hour" is one of very great. importance. To some business men it is the opportunity for putting through some of the most important and delicate of their deals. To the typist it is the long-awaited and Jealously-guarded opportunity for gossip with other typists, or for doing some hurried shopping. To others it simply represents a period for consuming and digesting food. How long should this "lunch-hour"
it? The question came before Mr. Justice Horridge the other day and he vemarked:—"If women cannot get lunch within three-quarters ut an hour they are not fit to be jurors." This opinion is not generally held, however.
If travel to and from an office by Tube is to be included, lunch can hardly be taken in less than one hour. On the other hand, many of the Government offices only allow their clerks 45 minutes and omnibus drivers are allowed a minimum of 39 minutes. Selfridge's allow workers an hour, but Mr. Selfridge himself takes his lunch very often at his desk. Mr. Lloyd George has the repute of being able to get through his mid-day meal in half-an-hour, or in considerably less, necessary, bat Mr. Churchill is said to dislike having to perform the} operation in less than three-quarters of an-hour, My. J. H. Thomas, the new Minister of Unemployment, cap usefully employ 12 hours.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.