encouragement of music and the arts. Mr. Ramsbotham has now announced that the Government will give as much more up to a limit of £50,000 as can be got by voluntary subscription. It is expected that the Carne-Bie Trust will at once give the necessary £25,000 so that there should shortly be £100,000 available for this admirable pur-ose.
There are of course people who ask indignantly why all this money should be wasted on art in wartime. They do not, however, complain of the money, vastly more than £100,000 wasted on inane revues, obscene cabaret shows and football pools. 'The new fund is specially to be spent on maleing available to factory workers concerts by' the London Symphony Orchestra and plays by first-class touring companies. The experi ence of the People's Palace in the East End and of the Old Vic, and the enormous Popularity of the midday concerts got up the National Gallery at the beginning of the war are proof that the masses respond to such entertainment when they have a chance to get it, and who can doubt the good result?' The more the Hun tramples with his beastly boots on everything lovely and gracious in life, the more surely we should strive to encourage it. I should be very much surprised to hear that the French Government had abated by one sou its annual grants to the Opera, the Comedie Francaise and the beaux arts generally.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.