The first machine on a regular service has spanned the Atlantic and when it reaches Southampton, via Marseilles, commerical flying across the world's stormiest ocean will, at long last, have become an accomplished fact. The distinction of being the first country to normalize a service across the North Atlantic falls to the United States, whose enterprise and initiative have carried American commercial machines to other parts of the world, but under American air navigation requirements passengers will not be flown across the Atlantic until five successful flights have been made. This is a wise and perfectly reasonable precaution which will enhance the security of the new service, for the Atlantic has claimed many victims' in exploratory flights inspired chiefly by the spirit of achievement rather than the application of ordinary commercial methods to the possibilities of a new line of communica-lions. As the situation stands at present, the new American service is likely to have virtual monopolistic rights for some time to come according to a series of circumstances, largely arising from the strained political conditions in the world, but this does not detract from the credit which must be accorded to American aviation interests in forging ahead despite difficulties. The original suggestion of Atlantic services encountered much political opposition because where a commercial aeroplane can go a warplane will find it much easier. Long stretches of sea are no longer the formidable obstacle once considered in the scheme of air strategy, and aviation, far more than any other form of transportation, as a result of rapid developments in range and power, is growing increasingly suspect. Imperial Airways made several exploratory flights and proved that fifteen or sixteen hours from continent to continent is an ordinary feat. Unfortunately, European conditions which have diverted construction effort to military purposes have resulted in a delay in the delivery of suitable craft which have been modified by accumulated meteorological conditions on the northern route. France has already had a stab at the crossing on a commercial basis, while in the Southern Atlantic, Germany has been eminently successful over a number of years in developing a route by means of landing craft. All this goes to show that military necessities have not completely submerged commercial enterprise, but the long delay in realizing the original plans is a regrettable aspect of a re-arming world which has little time to direct energies along the more useful courses of civilization, Swallow The Whale Reversing the procedure made time-honoured by Jonah's misadventures with a whale, American students appear to have begun a craze for swallowing live goldfish. According to a Domei message published elsewhere, this feat has been performed by on American student in Japan, for the trifling charge of ten sen per spectator. And so far the cables have not been burning with news of the daring, if somewhat revolting, youth's subsequent indigestion. The goldfish swallowing craze was originated by a Harvard undergraduate, and continued in the universities of Kansas and Missouri. In the former seat of learning a student turned himself into a human aquarium by swallowing no fewer than fifty of these live fish, without apparently suffering any inconvenience, while a charming female student of Missouri followed suit in the interests of publicity—meaning, of course, her own interests. The feelings of the goldfish were not, of course, considered. It may be argued that swallowing live goldfish i more heinous than swallowing oysters or winkles, and from the point of view of strict analogy no doubt that argument would be correct there must nevertheless be a public revui against the spread of the practice, as goldfish have a certain ornamental value which oysters—at least, in good health—cannot be said to possess, Also, the tactfulness of swallowing a goldfish in Japan, where they are a cult, if not a religion, can be questioned. It is to be hoped that the authorities of the school where this occurred take appropriate measures against the youth who did it. But of news of this there tan be little hope. After all, no one recorded what happened to the whale after it had swallowed Jonah and got rid of him at his proper port of destination.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.