Not, perhaps, before it was time. the National Fitness Council has decided to send out a questionnaire to 200 women-athletes, to settle the question "Are athletics injurious to health Sixteen questions are listed. including habits of smoking, diet training, nerves, and others, designed to show the effect of athletics, if One group of women, however, is evidently determined to do something communally. At the recent meeting of the Women's Central Advisory Committees of all the Conservative and Unionist Associations—that is. the most important political organization for women, over 3,000 of them being present—an overwhelming vote was given against the abolition of corporal punishment proposed in Sir Samuel Hoare's judicial reform Bill. The few who defended it were scarcely allowed a hearing. The: course, included Lady Astor like a certain once famous dramatist has "never posed às being ordinary")
When she sarcastically urged her audience to'read the committee's report, there were shouts of "We have read it," and her reply was drowned in cries of disapproval. The unfor-y tunate Captain Peake, Under-Secre tary for Home Affairs, who was pre sent to defend his chief, rashly said that "the. needless infliction of pain on any human being is a thing to be avoided"; which evoked shouts of "What about the victim And there's the rub. The controversy has since been carried on fiercely in the correspondence columns of the "Daily Telegraph," and both here and in the conference the evidence is that women are overwhelmingly in favour of retaining be Medina River conti any, on future motherhood. Although the questions are hardly yet in the post numerous leading tennis players, hockey players, cricketers, golfers and swimmers have of course, already been interviewed. Some are already as fruitful vines upon some masculine wall. The others are quite certain that they will be equally capable of the same role when fate sees fit. But the results of the questionnaire will be áwaited with interest. To the lay mind it would seem to be a matter of the old Greek wisdom, "Nothing in excess." The girls whose names are for ever in the papers hunting championships may not injure their health, but they do acquire a very scorched, wrinkled and weather-beaten appearance.
The Delectable Isle Since I last wrote I have been playing truant for a week at Ventnor and more than ever I feel that, in spring and autumn at least, no place can vie with the Isle of Wight for tranquil old-world charm. Cowes is rather an exception. It seems mon-str ously incongruous with the Island's character that Cowes should have become an important centre for the building of men-of-war and battleplanes. Yet so it is the banks of! beneficial. their youth, We bought season tickets on the alway (eight shillings for seven s, go where, when and as often as you please) because Thomas, the, m puppy, despises the whole breed of motor cars, which make him sick. But anyway the motor buses rather bang you about and the trains will get you anywhere you want] most comfortably, except between Blackgang and Alum Bay, where indeed Shanks's pony is the only effective means of progression. There is ne little train in particular, between West Ventnor and Merstone, consisting of one coach and tiny engine hich I wanted to bring home to play with in the garden. When the engine driver sees any passengers coming along the road he kindly waits for them. But no one hurries on the Island.
Of course the country was a mass of varied colour, every sort of spring flower, against a setting of young green, copper beeches and laburnums. It is the interior of the Island with its well-cultivated fields and old stone farmsteads which fascinates one even more than the coast. We were lucky in our weather, basking the whole week in glorious sunshine, which surrounded the Island with waves of molten gold.
Martyrs for Their Faith.
This brought out the now inevitable crowd of sun-worshippers. On Sandown beach three girls, in brassieres
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.