A perusal of the newspapers being published in England gives, so far as their advertisements are concerned, a good picture of the actual conditions prevailing in the homeland. And from all that can be sech, these are not so bad. There has been, in the much curtailed issues of the great London dailies, a marked increase in the number of food advertisements. Patent foods which specialize in the provision of numerous vitamins which the average person did not worry about during peace times, are given good play, Presumably the advertisers hope, by emphasizing the vitamin content of their products, to take advantage of that section of the community which is always frightened of its food supply, and to show that there is nothing to be alarmed about, so long as a few transports get through the German attempts to blockade, and that these transports contain the vitamins necessary to the successful conduct of a war. While the Government is quite justifiably proving that Great Britain's food supply is not being seriously menaced by the German U-boat and aerial attack, adver-fisements of this nature should be deprecated. They give the wrong impression. The figures quoted by Mr. Winston Churchill and other officials of the Government show that, while Britons would be wise not to be over-confident, there is nothing to worry about the immediate supplies of essentials, both in the matter of food or munitions, and that any tendencies to dwell on the losses which have been suffered, and which must admittedly be suffered in the future, should be taken in their right proportion. Any other point of view is foolish, and is diametrically opposed to the advice given by Sir John Simon, the Secretary of State for Home Affairs, when he urged the British public not to underestimate the gravity of the task the Allies have undertaken—the restoration of normal peaceful relations throughout the western world—but at the same time not to overestimate the difficulties. The warnings contained in British statesmen's speeches may, in the past, have been over-emphasized, but the fact that these warnings do not make the slightest difference to the British chances of success is perhaps too often overlooked.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.