ENGLISH LETTER

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 104, 29 October 1912, Page 2

ENGLISH LETTER

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES THE NAUGHTY AIRSHIP. j (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, 21st September It ,is a deadly offence to a Mohammedan to allow an infidel shadow to fall across his food. And in these new times it has come to be regarded' as an insult for on© man's aeroplane or airship to hover over another man's frontier or warship. Before leaving Hamburg, Count Zeppelin entered into some sort of compact that his airship fiansa; on her visit to Copenhagen, would not pass over thfl forts or the British Fleet, or the Royal yachts; and in pursuance of this promise the Hansa steered a careful course ove.r the harbour to 'her berth at the aerodrome. There were .two Danish officers 'on boayd to see that ■ she did right, and the Hanea left Copenhagen after a few hours' entertainment without giving any. offence at all. All th» same some GeTman newspapers are jubilant that a German airship has flaunted herself over the heads of a British squadron, and they point out how much easier it would be,"" for meteorological reasons, to fly to England and back to Hamburg. MILITARY SECRETS. Some time ago Mr. Aequith forecast a scheme under which the War Office would exercise a proper censorship over war correspondents in time of war. The Press here welcomed the statement with a naturally modified enthusiasm. All admitted the necessity for a censorship of a very stringent nature over news which might be of any service to the enemy ; but none could conceive a scheme which would place all, papers on an ab66lufc© equality. No scheme has yet been announced, but during the manoeuvres which have just come to a conclusibn the Press correspondents were under a bond regarding the 'disclosures of the plans of the opposing generals. Consequently their letters for the last few days of the campaign consisted of laudable little pen pictures of incidents, without geography or cohesion. There has been no complaint j but then manoeuvres are only manoeuvres, and the chief umpire, Sir, John French, has not even announced whether London has been captured by the, enemy. General R. H. Davie&'s field work has again been praised by the authorities. The air scouts, by the way, , were only baulked at one point; they could not distinguish the units and badges of the different regiments. Even this may be important. One correspondent points out that at one time in the Boer War the men removed their badges and - numbers to deceive the enemy. , „ ■ FOOTING THE BILL. The British Olympic Council is not at all abashed in the report which it ' makes of the games at Stockholm. And it really has no reason to be... As the report says : "The fact that two nations stand in front of us "seems to have been given far more importance than the fact that behind us stand Germany, France, Austria, Italy, Russia, Finland, and many others." The most interesting symptom of the games at Stockholm was the wonderful advance made | by foreign countries "towards our own , ideals, not merely in technique but also \ in that sririt of sport which we are still somewhat too apt to take for granted as a peculiar possession of these islands, .Thev; .weapons .are now equal. The men, iti'seems, rwrei>growing ■ more and more equal, and it will be difficult to believe that all competed at Stockholm will ever accept .their , performances. in Sweden as the fiiral test ' of what . they can do r under ,the best • , circumstances. ,The most brilliant ma* ! terial successes can • never compensate for the -abandonment of our tradition in these mattera v for there is a duty higher than any winning of gold medals. We need not imagine, .either, that the true 'amateur spirit is not known in this country alone, or that the difficulties connected with professionalism are felt only by ourselves. We must not forget that we, too, have faults which should bo eradicated, and that the care wo must give to the upholding of our aanafceur status may well be even greater than that given by other na-. tions. But it is incredible that we should refuse to assist the rest of the world in perfecting the international code of rules which we first laid down, and .in moving towards an ideal of sportsmanship which we seem to have been the first to understand." THE OVERSEAS CLUB. Mr. Evelyn Wrench, the organiser of the Overseas Club, the most rapidly growing patriotic society in the British Empire, expects to .reach New Zealand before Christmas, and will visit each of the organised branches of tho society in the Dominion. , The membership of the society throughout the Empire is now 98.000. Tho president of the Overseas Club in New Zealand is Lord Islington,' and communications regarding the visit should be addressed to Captain A. Waters, Riverside, Clevedon, Auckland, who is the honorary organiser for the Dominion. Mr. Wrench . lias just returned from an extended visit to all the branches of the Overseas Club in Canada.^ where it is very firmly established. During his visit he < was received by the Duke of Connaught, who warmly sympathises with the movement. FOUR LORD MAYORS DIE. Within a period of six weeks no less than four ex-Lord Mayors of the city of London have died, the first being Sir, Joseph Dimadale and the last Sir J. Whittaker Ellis, who was Lord Mayor in 1881. The deaths of 'two ex-Lord Mayors, Sir Horatio Davies and Sir James T. Ritchie, were announced on one day. THE FINAL TRIUMPH. What hope still remained for the success of imprisonment in the punishment of Suffragettes is dashed to the- ground by the news of the release of Mrs. Leigh, tne Dublin misdemeanant, after serving ! a strenuous six weeks of her sentence of five years' penal servitude. This offence having been committed in Ireland, the discretion as to' treating the j prisoners as political offenders rested with the Lord-Lieutenant, and he firmly refused to grant them this consideration. ' Then the public awaited with interest the result. Wiseacres shook their heads and said that Mr. . M'Kenna would be shown how he ought to treat Suffragettes. Apparently tho result is the same as before. , Mrß. Leigh and her comrades went into the hunger strike movement," and now she is released, a wreck, after forty-four days of resistance. Mr. Bernard Shaw s plea that women's desire to commit suicide ought to be respected has evidently failed. And with it ie signalised the complete failure of imprisonment as a punishment for Suffragette violence.