I happened to be en Hatfield platform yesterday when one of the London and North-Eastern expresses came through. There is a slight} down-grade here and, though not one of the special flyers, she must have been doing well over 80 miles an hour. There is no sight so thrilling io me at least, as one of these huge engines, with its long train of heav: coaches, roaring past like an a ancha.
What then must it see the Coronation London Midland and Sı have been to Scot of the tish on her trial run to Crewe yesterday? Running down the Madeley Bank into Crewe she touched 114 miles an hour; and the return journey of 158.1 miles to London was covered at an average speed of 80 m.p.h. which is a world record. On Monday the Coronation Scot goes into the regular London-
Glasgow run, which she guarantees to do in 6%% hours, keeping up an average of 617 miles an hour in spite the heavy gradients of Cumberland dnd Westmorelznd. It may be some few years ago, the body driver's cabin and tender being encased in one long shell, much sloped bac front, with nothing of the usual engine appearing but a tiny bit of funnel. It must be presumed that this shape has justified "itself reducing wind-pressure and heightening speed, but the appearance is not nearly so beautiful as that of the normal type. However, to save sixteen minutes on the run between London and Crewe is of course a tremendous advantage to the travelling publie—or so we all persuade ourselves nowadays.
But perhaps the most wonderful part of the whole performance yesterday was the engine driver by name Tom Clark. Congratulated on his engine's speed, he on! id that when she was "run ín," he vas sure she would do 125 m.p.h.; actually he had been holding her in. He seemed quite unruffled by his tremendous dash. And he is 63 years old.
Who Was the American scientist, a couple of decades ago. who caused h a sensation with his "too old at theory?
Oil Thought to be in Sussex Two pieces of news from Sussex are worth notice for Sussex is one of the loveliest tracts of country in all the world and in recent years has been one of the most cruelly defaced by the town-planner, the mopper-up of estates slaughtered by death\ duties and so "ripe for development." the jerry-builder and the bacillus bungaloidis, Yet there are still some beautiful bits left—but for how long?
First the oil-seekers really think they have found oil in the Weald near Hellingby. They started boring near Havant in West Sussex some time ago, but could strike nothing. Now near Hellingby the mud sent up from only 1,000 ft. depth shows unmistakeable bubbles of oil It remains to be seen whether there is cil in paying quantities: But the borers are full of hope only the chief driller is doubtful. "Oil: s found in uncomfortable places" he says; "Sussex is too comfortabi Dare cne say one hopes he 15 right? Of course it would be a grand thing for England to get her oil at home. But one would rather she found it, say, among the refuse dumps of South Wale: the Black Country than in lovely Sussex.
The other piece of news is equally According to the other version the most important terms of the negotiations that are being conducted with such secrecy in Tientsin aim at tearing away North Hopei and Charhar from China and uniting it with the already autonomous government of East Hopei into one new independent state with the capital at Tientsin. It is even rumoured that an agreement to this effect has already been signed, though by whom on the Chinese side is not stated, but will not be made public, until Japanese military preparations are completed.
The anxiety of Japanese official quarters to keep the details of the Tientsin negotiations a complete secret would certainly seem to point to something more serious than the comparatively simple military ques-on tf the future of the 29th Arm ie atmosphere in North China today is very similar to that existing at the time of the infamous 21 demands in 1915 and, in recent times, of the fatal Ho-Umetsu agreement, the terms of which have not been made public to this day.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.