The approach of Xmas ig always Ineralded in this office by the arrival, jin good time for the mails, of Messrs. Kelly & Walsh's cards and calendars which they recommend for attention to those who wish to keep in touch with friends and relations at Xmas time. Particularly noticeable is a series of beautifully coloured prints by Elizabeth Keith. Far the first time the publishers have been able to {Induce Miss Keith to allow them to reproduce six of her most popular subjects in the form of Xmas cards and calendars, The colour process [used is said to involve as many as (fourteen printings, so that the purchaser of these calendars and cards is demanding an exceptionally advanced form of the printer's art. The pictures are, of course, iustrations of scenery in China, and Miss Keith's skill in catching the character-istles of Chinese architecture and terpreting them in artistic form is well known that detailed exposition unnecessary. The cards are sppropriately adorned by jade-like devices. The calendars are mounted on silk land are so arranged that after the year to which they refer has passed they can remain as permanent a¢ornments of the home.
The report that tentative suggestions for the cessation of hostilities between Italy and Ethiopia have been. passing between Paris and Italy, while undoubtedly important, should not at the moment give rise to any very rear hopes. That view is cor roborated by the fact that the miimum terms submitted by Italy have already been rejected by the governments of France and Great Britain as unsatisfactory. Had they been otherwise it is obvious that neither of the two latter countries could have bound the League in any decision it might ultimate arrive at, though it is more than likely that' any arrangement which proved satisfactory to the three countries at present negotiating and, of course, Ethiopia, would carry considerable weight before the League. In the meantime it is to be expected that Italy will be obliged to indulge in a race with sanctions which should not now be long in coming into fect. While London believes that under their pressure Italy will be obliged progressively to curtail her demands, there is also the fact to he considered that Italy will at the same time energetically pursue her eampaign in Abyssinia, with the result that if an early settlement of the whole unfortunate business is to be expected progressive sanctions will be probably offset by successive military Sains, leaving Signor Mussolini's demands not greatly changed in the long run. In view of such a possibility it would be well at this juncture to regard reports of these preliminary overtures rather as a hopeful sign than as seed likely to come to an jeany fruition, much as that is to be desired.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.