Sir Bolton Eyres-Monsell's announcement in the House of Com. mons yesterday was not unexpected, He himself in July, Lord Hailsham and Sir Joha Simon more recently, have emphasised inthe plainest terms how dangerously. low our naval defence hes been reduced, particularly remembering its pecu:
workd-wide duties. Our hope of getting other nations to follow our example of building fewer and weaker ships. Like the foxes "in Aesop's fable they could not sce any reason for cutting off their tails because we had cut off ours.
The Japanese are laying down cruisers which wi be pocket-battleships. "The United States envisage £50,000,000 naval programme, which according to the "Daily Telegraph" will make the United 'States Navy alnolutely supreme by the beginning, of 1937, in battleships, cruisers, aircraft' carriers and submarines, with a naval personnel 15,000 more than Great' Britain's.
Ignatius Phayre, who knows America through and through, does of believe "much in these' programmes, of which indeed we have: heard. before. He says that they are mainly a political move design: ed to force others to curl their armanenty by realisation of what a dollar-for-dolan race with America doubt, "that President" Hoarevelt moan, But there appears
tower employment figures. means (o build cruisers, if only to And Hitler's colossal, even though machine-made majority gives Europe a bad shake. "Wo must try to understand the German point view" writes Lord Lothian in the the passion for sug-resting that the real fault. is. on cur side for which some. Britons fare famous. But how understand Germany's point of view, when her leaders x0 palpably say one thing abroad and another quite different thing at hom More than most seares, the "toy" pistol scare deserves attention. A couple of days ago a 12-year old, boy nomed Raphael Sage accident tally shot himself in the head with cone of these, and the bullet has} gone in so deeply that it ix doubtful whether it can be extracted, The state of the law which permits the sale of such weapons at eny toyshop to any child, is amazing. "These pistol, which "mostly. conte from Belicium, are rather less than 22 re; the barrel smooth and it is this which allows them to be sold without a licence—but about seven inches long. They will fire the pellets known as B.B.
promiscuously though a toyshop will, shat, which a gunsmith wil not sel The pistols ere raid to be meant, for shooting small birds and ver-in but at close range there appears doubt, that they are even eapable of killing a man, Sowerman's Case Another side of the question is shown by a letter, to which the Gi ies" gives prominence from the medical officer for Islington who quotes the case of a sewerman whom, he attended, who died of tetanus due to a scratch in his hand inflict-Jed. when firing a toy pistol. The writer of the loiter tiaoed the sperm to the cartridges which arg fitted with hair felt wads. He emphasizes, that tetanus, resulting from a' I scratch due to the rough finish of these toy pistols, has attracted a great deal of attention in America, Were he says, it_ is known as "Fourth of July Tetanus", ving to the number of eases which oe: jour after Independence Day Celebbrstions, The infection is very virulent, death usually occurring. within 72 hours. Other examples jin England are ited, besides that of the Islington sewerman.
After years of freedom to take a car out on the roids. merely purchase of a 5s, licence, motorists are threatened ith a'test_more severe than any police court doctor mposes on a suspected "drunk."
This wes foreshadowed by Lord Londonderry in the House of Lord's debate on the Road and Rail Traffic. It appears agreed that drivers goods delivery vehicles ought to undergo a test: tradesmen's motor vans are perhaps the worst terror the roads. But if they, then why not all' motorists? It" seems reasonable, and no one in the House. of Lords was keener on it Earl Howe, the famous racing mo-, torist Here wre some ideas, The applicant for a licence would appear before a medical board. Having satisfied the examiners to: 2ge, alcoholic consumption, hereiditary saints, vaccination, ability to say quietly ahd clearly "British con seaton." "We shall not sheath sauce shop in the Strand" and sword cle" "Burgess fish
forth, his blood pressure. will be taker, "At an"unexpected moment, revolver will be fired behind hit, fand his blood pressure will imme: diately be taken again. "If it has risen by much, he will be rejected fas having too' nervous a tempera ment to bs trusted with @ ear Not Official View Tam not in a position to say that euch tests represent as" yet the official view, But test there ought to be and almost certainly will be. The National "Safety First" Association has issued a statement this Week, based en reports supplied by 227 cut of 234 Chief Constables of Great Britain, which shows that in the July-September quarter. this year the number of persons killed in road accident was 161 per cent, higher than in the same period I year, Lack of appreciation by many fers of the tremendous potential ies of the modern motor engine is one principal cause. Another is arterial roads, Sir David Murray, R.A. who has just died at the age of 84 in the "Langham "Chambers. studio which he took over from Millais 50 years ago, is no more popular with the modernist. school thin they were with him. Tu fact hie denuneiations of their works were as rich jand variegated as the colours hhis palette, But at least he was jone who painted because he absolurely must, whose art sprang from. trepressible emotion, not, as ona cannot but feel of too much modern art, from cold mathematical design, David was wholly self taught. From 15 to 24 he worked in com: mercial house in Glasgow, but daily he vote early and rotived late to int and draw. Finally he took the plunge, retired to Loch Cor= risk, Isle of Skye, and settled down seriously to baconies an artist. Hix first, picture sent to the, Royat Academy "The Valley of Corvisk" wax accepted, and theneeforwara his pictures were hung at Burling ton House every year to the end of Nature was akvays his ove, and he travelled widely study her both in France and Ttaly. He was made an A.R.A, in 1801, an R.A. in 1905 and wan knighted in 1918. With his thick white hair and strong features, ho was a not able fire at every Royal Academy, where he liked to take parties of friends round the pictures and expatiate on their qualities. He wax a lovable and charming companion, with a howe of reminds: conces of the notable artists of the ast half century "Anothsr leat stich has at least eadbye to "public life thie namely Mme. Tetrazzini,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.