The Ottawa Journal from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • Page 8

The Ottawa Journal Tht Journal ruMahmgCumpany Ottawa. Ltmtttd. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1941. Just 'For the Duration' Mr. McLartt, the Minister of Labor, has told the Canadian people that "all the rights, terms and conditions" which Canadian Labor may surrender during the war will be returned when the war is over.

That is true also of many other rights which the people gladly give up to the Government-turn over in trust The new control of wages and prices, the restrictions imposed on the peo ple by the Defence of Canada regulations all these will go when victory is won. Actually we are not giving up any establish-ed rights: we are but, voluntarily putting them in storage until a more convenient season for their exercise. Should Hitler win they never would come out of storage. And that is the difference between a dicta tor-' ship and a democracy. A dictator takes away by' force the people's freedom, whether they like if or and what he takes he never gives back.

democracy may give up some of its precious rights when a great emergency shows the wisdom of such a step, but does so in complete con- f-dence that they will be restored when that emergency is overcome. So no right of organized labor is being lost, any right of business, nor, of any citizen. A war this demands a closer concentration of authority than is developed in the full exercise of our democratic processes, but nothing less than a crisisof extreme gravity would warrant interference, such as we Ao government could possibly regulations 'when once the crisis Let's Have a Better Blackout. Sunday night's test blackout in Ottawa liardly can be called an outstanding success. Street lights on Wellington, facing the main Government and Wellington street is Government property were not turned out until the blackout period had reached its halfway mark.

There were lights in some 'store windows, some advertising signs had not been turned off. and in apartment houses and some private houses, and even in a few Government offices, lights were visible; If it is important that we accustom ourselves to a blackout, and we think it is. then it is imperative that orders. should be obeyed without ilk. In.H HS alties for those who offend either from ignorance or deliberation.

Had raiders been over Ottawa on Sunday evening their task would have been made infinitely easier by the carelessness of a few people and by the childish curiosity of those who filled down-town streets in the thought that this was some new kind of spectacle for the amusement of the people. Even a test blackout is serious business and -Wust be taken" seriously. The next one should be1, held before the lessons of Sunday-night's experiment nave naed, ana next tune at least offenders should be dealt with -sternly. i Eight More Corvettes. In the United States a few weeks ago the simultaneous launching of a number of naval vessels pn a Satin-day afternoon was turned, into a great occasion.

In many shipyards cere-monies were held, the President spoke, the newspapers throughoutthe country flare-lined this evidence of growing naval defence. No less an occasion, though with less fanfare, was the launching on Saturday last from the yards of Marine Industries. Limited, at Sorel, Quebec, of eight sturdy craft, which went down the ways into the St Lawrence as a prelude to joining the growing fleet of the Royal Canadian Navy. True they were not great battleships, not even destroyers, but four corvettes and. four minesweepers, trim little craft of types which already have proved their worth in the Battle of the Atlantic.

They were, jmristened with the names of Canadian cities, one the At the' same time Captain G. M. Hibbaxd, who represented the Royal Canadian Navy at the ceremony, revealed that Canadian-built corvettes bad already scored successes against German U-boats. Even of greater importance was his statement that an average of one corvette "every four days had been launched from Canadian shipyards since Great Lakes navigation opened this year. This is an impressive achievement especially for a country which had few facilities for shipbuilding prior to the war.

Corvettes apparently are a part of the answer to the convoy-protection worry. Earlier in the war numerous fighting ships of the British Navy had to be kept from active service in the actual war zones to act as convoy escorts. At one time more than one-half Britain's effective destroyer force was so engaged. Canadian-built corvettes are taking the place of the badly needed destroyers and their success at this job has impressed naval authorities. Clearing Up in Ethiopia.

For many weeks Ethiopia has taken' up tittle space in the news columns. A few thousand of Italian and native troops still hold out at but their elimination shortly is. certain and they, have nothing but a small nuisance value to the -enemy. Meanwhile Ethiopia is being organized for a renewal of its independence. A despatch to the London Timet from Addis Ababa says that capital is a curious place.

The outward facade of the Italian regime remains, streets and buildings bearing their Italian names. Fascist slogans not yet removed, Italians still working in shops and cafes, while British and Ethiopian troops fill the streets. There art, says this report, Italians still in the country, exclusive of prisoners of war, but they will be removed to Italy as soon as arrangements can be made, Ethiopians will replace them in business and industry, i supplemented by Greeks, Armenjans and East Indians. Emperor Hailk Sclamii, says the Times, is determined to rid the country of every last vestige of Italian Influence. The Emperor's own position is somewhat unsatisfactory.

He is now, in the words of the Addis Ababa writer, "a monarch in more than name, though without formal The 'responsibility for the government of the country rests on the British officials, but inside this framework the Emperor is in process of setting up his' own administration, which is beginning to function, sometimes with, sometimes independently of, British This dual control has obvious difficulties, but it will come to ah end with the conclusion of an agreement in" which Britain will clearly recognize Emperor's sovereignty, but -which will include guarantees "that the assistance which Great Britain is ready to give the Em peror in establishing order and good govern ment in his realm will be used to the best Meanwhile the Italians, who will be cleared out bag and baggage, have lost the results of five years' occupation and the expenditure of vast sums of money. Ethiopia was to have been the brightest, star in the new Roman empire. Instead it marks an. ignominous defeat for Italian, arms, a reverse which dealt a body blow to. Mussolini's ambitions.

Japan's Wars With Ease'. Speaking in Washington last week Col. Frank Knox, Secretary of the Navy, said this: in the Far East is extremely Vft are satisfied in our own Japanese have no intention their plans for expansion. If that course a collision there is read now in conjunction with the' in Tokyo of General Tojo, premier. Japan, said Premier oti and develop in ever-expanding there is no Difficulties are seeing and maintain, -these had passed might arise, but bard, perilous "The situation strained.

minds -that, the of giving up they pursue That can be speech on Sunday the' new Japanese go progress be solved. (. "If japan's nothing preparedness an easy wjth ease. It is clear, government which, in the States those' two statement' of To with when after Jipan country for years, arrogance when that inevitable and The stoutly by the doubt Russia as so formidable an for the Japanese Japan's the Japanese. of war and her reserves a major war.

nothing from Chinese the hard test of Her armies of Chinese and poorly could meet their even footing quality. Her doubt, but out bases and the oil be taken Japan is and Italian allies whatever. These facts been advanced will bring certain outcome, Powers In preference by the Chinese. btjf it might be clique of Japan for Despite; what with ease, but it the Far East have been Notes No compromise, Premier, is Japan's is the spirit in The German have been As a sparrow hawk. Nova Scotia The indecisive is not likely to C.C.F.

is running Liberals and Until recently British Broadcasting to the chief they have dropped word "Hitler" -ugliness. Italian spokesmen people that Russia helping because their the 'Italian with unity all problems could 100,000,000 merge and go forward can stop us. If this state of is completed diplomacy becomes affair. Wan can be fought therefore, that the new Japanese proposes to follow, the course words of the head of the United makes inevitable a collision between powers. The extraordinary jo that "wars can be fought China is still far from sub-dued has done her worst, to that shows a state of mind of incredible "and ignorance.

Because collision occurs Great Britain Netherlands East Indies will stand side of the United States, and no well. Japan against China and array of allies Is not something people to cheer about vulnerability is obvious to all except Already she is deprived of supplies materials from the outside world, would be used up quickly in Japanese aircraft have had to encounter but the slightest of opposition 'planes, have not come through warfare as have British machines. have slaughtered vast numbers when the latter were badly armed equipped but when- the Chinese enemies on anything like an the Japanese showed no great navy' is large and powerful, no of home waters it is short, of of the Dutch East Indies cannot before Singapore is reduced. Moreover, isolated from her German and Hitler can give her no aid seem so clear that the theory has seriously that Japan deliberately on a war knowing defeat is the choosing defeat by the Great to the ignominy of a beat-in This may sound fantastic, true. Meanwhile the military talk war, preach war, prepare presently they will have their war.

Tojo says few wars are won seems there can be no peace in until these military adventurers exterminated. and Comment. no retreat This, says Japan's unalterable policy and that which wars are made. and Italian economic' systems practically merged, so it is announced. is merged with the devouring today is electing a new Legislature.

result of British Columbia be duplicated, however, as -the only six candidates while Conservatives have full slates. the urbane announcers of the Company always referred as Herr Hitler. Latterly the and the hateful stands out in all its unadorned are busy assuring the Italian not many of their troops are in the Germans. If that is true it is German masters just do not think soldiers are good enough for that campaign. THE OTTAWA JOURNAL Side Lights The Wrong Bus.

Birmingham Post A bus pulled up a few nights ago outside a coffee shop and the conductress jumped off with a jug to fetch something hot. This is a favorite calling place for transport people, and another bus drew up in front of the first and a conductress got out of that and also made for the shop. The first girl returned and made straight for the front bus, gave the necessary signal on the bell and away they went It was not until a passenger asked for a ticket to that she realized that she had taken charge of another girl's bus. After a few minutes' wait, the second vehicle came up (luckily their respective routes had not yet diverged), explanations followed and. all was well.

Misuse of English. Letter in Yorkshire Post i Sir We read in the official report recently that "Lady Halifax christened a Halifax There is widespread misuse of the word christen, even in BBC bulletins, which are reckoned. to be standard English; and as a result we hear such phrases as: "Lord So-and-So christened a tank- or again: "A certain Continental street has been rechristened (sic) after the Fuehrer." If we darken anything, we make it dark, or soften, make it soft; so it should, logically, be analogous to say. if we christ-en anything, we make of, or. like, Christ which, applied to anything but the human being, is absurd.

Yours, VER. DICT, Bradford. Steps to Coy entry. London Evening Standard. Women touring the ruins of Coventry Cathedral are making a ritual of climbing the 185 wind ing steps of the tower to get view of ruined central Coventry from the battlements more than 100 feet up: Since April 12,000 tower tickets have been sold.

The steps are dark and winding, worn by thousands of The only light is from narrow slits in the walls. The women enjoy standing in the gusty breezes at the top, but they don like the long, steep descent and the many turns. The cathedral clock still chimes the hours. Among the broken masonry on the floor of the cathedral is to be seen a stone' with the letters "G.R.", to mark where the King stood on November 15. In the sanctuary a rude altar of shattered stones has been built and furnished with a comprising two charred beams from the Cathedral roof.

It is symbolic Of the spirit of Coventry. One of the walls is covered with a square piece of tar-felting. It preserves a picture, on plaster, of the Madonna and Child. It had lain hidden for 400 years until recently. It was revealed to view when one of the arches collapsed.

The Lord Warden. London Listener. The office of Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, to which the Kins appointed Mr. Winston Churchill last week, dates back to the Norman Conquest and is the oldest office associated with the defence of the realm. The original Cinque Ports.

whose duty up to the 16th century was to furnish most of. the ships and men required for the king's service, were Hastings, Romney, Hythe, Dover and Sandwick. Rye and Winchelsea were added later, and many other places were aU tached as limbs and members' until the jurisdiction extended from Seaford in Sussex to Shore Beacon in Essex. In return the Cinque Ports enjoyed special rights and privileges including exemp tion from taxation, the right to make their own bylaws, salvage. fisheries, etc.

The jurisdiction of the Lord Warden was greatly restricted a hundred years ago, and the number of members sent to Parliament by the Cinque Ports was reduced from 16 to 3. Now the Lord Warden's most Important duties are the chairmanship of the Dover Harbor board, the appointment of certain officials, and the governorship of Dover Castle. He also presides in the Court of Shipway and appoints the Justices of the Peace within the jurisdiction of the Cinque Ports. Name-changing. Brockville Recorder and Times.

We have" referred before to the' absurdity of a little group ot men sitting down in. Ottawa and solemnly deciding upon wholesale alteration of long established place-names to which no one pays the slightest attention and never will pay attention. The classic example ot this is the decision of the Geographic Board of Canada, made as. long ago as the year 1907, that a well known village in the township of Wolford should be thereafter known as "Easton" instead ot Easton's as it had been called from the time of its settlement about 100 years previously. The map-makers dutifully followed suit, and today the' com munity is so designated on' official maps.

But no one else ever thinks of' referring to and the Geographic Board has yet to convince the Post Office Department that that is the correct name of the place. It may be "Easton" to the Geographic Board and the map-makers, but it is "Easterns Corners (minus the apostrophe) to the poet office and to the general public as it always has-been. It seems to us that' the Post Office Department, which has refused to change the names of its offices at the whim of these officials, shows a great deal more sense than they do. It is 1mpos-sibl by official decree to wipe out familiar names of- very; long standing, because these persist and always will persist From a Window In Fleet Street Wrlttta la Tbt Jmrasl't laaaaa Baraaa. LONDON, October, 1941.

fyflR. BEVIN has been referring to the work of the shipyards. This is to me by the manager of one of our greatest yards as a miracle of the 'war I use his own description. He says that there was "nothing in the last war like the output which the British shipbuilding industry is now producing, this in spite of the wholesale and shortsighted closing down of establishments in the The explanation lies in new methods, machinery, and forms or organization. But above it is put down to the spirit ot the workers.

This is imbued not only with the determination to win. as in 1914-18, but with the motive of a Holy Crusade, although our Puritans would not always associate Holiness with the men's language when things go wrong. Hours- are personal physique is nothing, in the face of the job in hand, whether it be repairing' a Bocne-handled tramp or pushing ahead with a new battleship. Such is' the attitude of the yard workers as described by' this shipbuilder. Many months ago the Government sent out a frantic appeal to shipbuilding artisans and craftsmen who had been dispossessed in the great debacle of the past 12 years to return to their old work.

This appeal is' said to have1 been answered by re-enrolment up-to-date of something like 80 percent a remarkable figure in the circumstances. So our shipyard workers are indeed doing well, as both Englishmen or Scotsmen or Ulstermen and craftsmen. Buried Treasure. chief officer one of our A.R.P. areas, who has seen more of the horrors and humors of rescue work than most of us, told me today it was amazing the amount of money people took with them, into their cellars and dug-outs, and even into the public shelters.

Women especially stuff into their handbags all the notes and loose, change they possess, under the impression that so lung us it is in their personal possession it is safer than it left behind in flat or dwelling house. He told mc that in the case of one bombed dwelling the rescue squad happened upon a slightly charred 5 note. Further excavation led to the discovery of a whole bundle 'which, when counted, amounted to the sum. of 3,000. The money, of course; was returned to the owners-i-two young men sharing rooms together.

In another Instance 1,800 was recovered from a big tenement building. The sum was surprisingly large, since it was in a poor quarter of London, and the occupants were drawn entirely from the working classes. Knowledge Test JT seems rough luck that a youngster should be plucked in his ambition to secure a com mission by failure in a general knowledge test. I was told of an instance a few days ago, when ignorance of the fact that petroleum was the principal export of Trinidad put back the soaring ambitions of one young private. The questions were not unduly difficult to anyone fairly conversant with public affairs.

Apart from the question about Trinidad, the candidate was expected to know where the Bismarck was first sighted, who was the present Commander-in-Chief in India, and who was the Governor-General of Canada. I decided to put the questions to a Group Captain of my acquaint-ance, a man whose tunic is covered with well-earned ribbons, with a brilliant record behind him. and occupying today a high administrative post He hazarded the guess that cocoa and sugar were the principal exports from Trinidad, and he was not quite sure whether the Bismarck was first sighted off Iceland or hi one of the Norwegian fjords. But am far from suggesting that this gallant officer ought to be MOPSY- removed from the command where he is doing such magnificent work. Battlefield Souvenirs.

THE Polish Government now centred like so many others in London, is restoring its long suspended postal service. Some special stamps are being issued for this, and will, of course, be rec ognized by our postal' authorities. They will be unique philatelic examples. One' is an engraving of the ruined U.S.A. Embassy in 'Warsaw, occupied when the war broke out by Mr.

Drexel Biddle, and another shows the gallant Polish submarine, Orzel. A London firm is executing the order for these stamps, and one member of it, a former Russian cavalry soldier, was born in Leningrad and educated at Smolensk and He recalls in his schooldays a peasant showed him, near Smolensk, some buttons' recovered from a communal grave in which soldiers of the Napoleonic Grand Army were buried. There must be a litter of battlefield souvenirs round Smolensk now, and one wonders what may have happened, in the recent fighting and bombardment, to the memorial erected to the Russian victory of 1812. Saved. yjZST END clubs have been hard hit Only the service ones can still show -a satisfactory membership roll.

Even the Dev onshire, In St. James' street, with the finest view in London from its bow-windows, has been in Jeopardy. Happily it has now been arranged to carry on. It would have been indeed a tragic blow to clubland had the Devonshire gone under. It was formerly Crockford's, a notorious gambling resort, where the Iron Duke often went but never played.

Henry Irving, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Bret Harte. and a host of celebrities have Devonshire members. In its Crockford days one member was seized with a fit in the porch. Promptly heavy bets were made by fellow as to whether the seizure would or would not prove fatal. Then somebody brought a doctor along, but objection was raised to his ministrations.

Members who had backed a fatal result pointed out that to bring in a doctor was an unsporting gesture, prejudicing their very substantial wagers. TJiose Were The Days fnm tht ratarbaraaf EiMtatf. yHE OTTAWA JOURNAL prints a piece in the paper about the city purchasing a mechanical snow loader, and the price. is $8,465 The money comes out of ordinary revenue, and does not go down as a debenture. Wise.

The Journal explains there is not the great pool of "relief labor" to draw from now, as all the able-bodied men have gone to work. They will not be on hand this Winter to pitch the snow about so it seems better to have the new machine. Possibly we seldom stop to think how easily cities have fallen into the way of spending money. Not that they should not do it, but rising taxes has been a common enough topic for a number of years. We recall living in a village, where the corporation did not spend a red cent moving snow, and there was plenty of snow.

When it came down heavy in the night the first person out in the morning had to make the best of it and break a path. If his feet were large then it was easier for the next one. At that time we put on the fires in the village printing office so the place would be warm by seven in the morning. After that the job was to shovel off the sidewalk: The snow was just, piled in a heap along the edge and a sort of passage cut where one could come through from the road. No person bothered much because snow got heavy along Main street because that made good sleighing.

No matter how deep it By Gladys Parker IF YOU GOULD ONLY SEE ITJ Other Views ITALY'S PLIGHT. London Daily Telegraph. Wherever Italian arms have appeared in this war in Greece, in North and East Africa they have uniformly met with disaster. Italy 'has almost more to hope for from defeat than from victory, which her. people now releaize would merely confirm-' her in permanent vassaldom to Hitler: There can be little question that today, though by courtesy an ally of Germany, she is a rantiv ai discontented as any in Hitler's dominions.

No wonder some devout Fascists are beginning to think aloud about the errors of their party and regime. AID TO RUSSIA. Edinburgh Scotsman. Why we have not been able to intervene on land in the west is probably not so much because we have to be prepared to face invasion as because our production of the necessary arms has not yet reached the scale rmuirMi because our commitments in the Miaaie East make such a Reavy drain on our shipping and supplies. Yet we are told that it is only by inflicting a decisive defeat on the German Army that we cap win the war.

The real reason why we are unable to take the offensive In the West is that we are not ready. The opportunity is there, but we are not apparently in a position to take advantage of The moral to be drawn is that it is vain to talk of the military defeat of Germany until our production machine is working "all Cot we all knew it umnlH in Spring or some of it might leave ounng me January thaw. Possibly Ottawa is doing the wise thing in spending $8,465 for a mechanical snow loader. It will probably SCOOD UO ercat han nf snow and is reported as being able to do the work of 5(1 min Rut still it's quite a jump from the days in xne village wnere they never spent a cent on snow and went through the Winter cheerfully so that a good time was had by all. Ottawa in 1916 Praai Tha Jmraal OaUaar Ul.

THE presidential campaign in the United States was bitter as it reached its final stage Wilson and Hughes were the candidates. For President WHson great play was being made of the fact that "He kept us out of war." Flour was $10.10 a barrel. The Journal said a farmer had to pay $40 a month and board for a good hired man. Senator N. was reelected president of the Connaught Park Jockey Club.

The French Remount Commission wanted to buy 500 artillery horses at Lansdowne Park. The Women's Auxiliary of the Perley Home announced an "Allies' Bazar" at St. Andrew's Sunday School hall. AVIATOR. Harold Vinal, in the New York Times.

Upon the plateaus of immeasurable space He soars like Icarus in fiery air, And -on the blazing vizor of his face Light scrawls its name, so by some lunar stair He climbs the stairs to Virgo, Aquarius, The Water-Bearer and the Scorpion Are in his spreading orbit, luminous, His stellar chart the burning lexicon. There, in the pale blue Indies of the sky, He warms his hands- at the immortal flame, Mounting the spirals of infinity. Hereafter, he will never be the same, Star-laureled he will wear, as he wears now, The alphabet of space against his brow. 'Organs Of TUESDAY, OCTOBER -8, 1941. lafa Naw lUUimi aaS Kallaa.

CONFRONTED with the necessity of drastically curtailing our consumption of paper, this journal has the additional embarrassment ot a circulation that expands with unprecedented rapidity. Thlsjjncrease has been most remarkable during the. last few months; our last published figure. (Jan. -June, -imi) was we now have to record a sale of 45,000.

The paper is calculated on the basis of pre-war requirements and therefore makes no allowance for increased circulation. It now stands at 22 percent of pre-war consumption, plus a small supplementary allowance in sortie cases. It follows that we must either greatly reduce the size ot our paper or greatly reduce our present sales. We unhesitatingly prefer the first course. The increase in sales of this paper is "not due to any artificial encouragement on our part, indeed we have cut production so fine that-the paper is difficult to obtain after Friday morning.

Our intention is to continue to supply this demand to the utmost, of our ability. One. restriction, however, we must now make absolute. Everyone who wishes to obtain a copy of this journal must place a regulai order with his newsagent or must subscribe directly to this office. In reducing the size of our patter, we must retain its essen- tiel characteristics.

We are un-willina to shorten the political notes and articles, or the reviews which are acknowledged to be a good a guide as now exists to the readers of British books both in this country and abroad. Nor are Letters To the Editor Of The Journal ROCKCLDTE'S WATER. Sir: I think many citizens of Rockcliffe Park must feel humiliated by its Council's protracted negotiations with Ottawa over a water supply. That rich and fortunate suburb. -born with a gold spoon In its mouth, never has hiri perience with the harsher side of municipal an airs, never knew a relief problem.

It has no sewers, no fire department a tiny police force, none of-the problems of administration that come with commercial expansion. Rockcliffe buvs water from Ottawa an4 ull. it at a profit, pays so much a call io uiiawa tor putung out its rare fires, gets indirect protection from Ottawa 'a nolire fnrre Now RrwV- cliffe through its council is kick ing line a sieer oecause Ottawa proposes to raise the water rate by some 10 oerrent ha inineH up with some of her neighbors to ngn mis io xne last ditch to fc spend a considerable sum of money on lawyers and experts. I doubt that the majority of the Rockcliffe DeoDle can annmve thi policy. They must appreciate the assistance they have from Ottawa in many ways, must realize that it would cost Rockcliffe a great deal of money to provide for itself the services it buys from Ottawa for a very small sum ef money.

You quote Rockcliffe as having been Willing to pay Ottawa the higher rate provided other municipalities paid the same. I suppose ordinarily that condition would be considered "good busi- nessV. But I submit that rich Rockcliffe need not be. concerned about the rates poor Easteiew Days. I fancy the e-reat miinnl.

of Rockcliffe residents would think 1 small potatoes for them to take advantage of a situation created by a less prosperous neighbor. Rockcliffe quite plainly has much more in common with Ottawa than with Eastview, Nepean and Gloucester, and it is surprising to find our rich friends ganging up with the other ties to resist a water rate which takes account of rising costs and of expenditures for the extension of the plant which will be necessary if we continue to supply these outsiders. x. X. Wellington street Ottawa, Oct 27.

1941. 8TATION NAMES. Sir: As one who is over from "the other I see so much here to admire, and for which to be that I would like to make it plain at the outseV that this is not criticism in the sense lhat I think everything in Britain is so much better done than it is here, rand all that because you win at many points. However, one thing I never -can understand and Canadians and Americans with whom I have spoken also recognize this is why your railways do not have station names more boldly displayed, and at other places than just on the side or front of the station building. I travel a lot on your railroads, and am nearly always compelled to ask someone where we are, by day; so do others.

I notice! At night without exaggeration. conditions are such that identification is more difficult than it is in England, in the blackout because no one here calls out the name of the station, as has to be done at night in England these days. Having no lighting restrictions here, I do not quite follow why you do not have name boards as in England, with a light playing on the name. On an avers ee-lenffth platform one would find at least four such, in addition to the place name on the actual buildings. Alternatively, metal name plates hanging under lamps are equally effective.

CHRISTOPHER BELL. Ottawa. Oct 27. 1941.. Lighter Vein Judge: "Why have you brought' that cudgel into court?" Prisoner: "Well, they said I had to provide my own defence, Discussion' we willing to sacrifice other tea- tures of cultural interest or to.

omit theorrespondenee columns which allow our readers to voice -their views and their difficulties -A in days when many of the usual channels- of public opinion are no longer available. We hive decided therefore to preserve the characteristics of the paper and its circulation at the cost ot the advertisements, i This week and for this week only we have totally suspended advertising in the paper. We have in' view a restricted form otad- 1 vertising that 'we hope to introduce Into the paper next week. Further typographic changes should make this possible on a small but equitable basis. i On Wednesday of this week the Times published an important let- ter from Mr Stanley Unwin, who pointed out that the present-paper rationing seemed oblivious of the "vital part played by books in influencing world opinion and maintaining morale at It is easy for authorities whose minds are set on the urgent necessities of industrial production to forget that thought and culture are also essential.

All that Mr. Unwin says of books is true also of weekly reviews. The influence 1 and importance of these journals, ot opinion is out of all proportion to their size; the paper they use is an even less significant item than that used for books in the -total of national paper consump- tion. They must maintain their character as. organs of discussion, t-as an essential medium through -r which literary and cultural values are upheld, and as a proof -to for- eign countries that free thought and the right of unfettered com- ment are still alive in Britain during the war..