TOPICS OF THE TIMES

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXI, Issue 4961, 27 February 1937, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE TIMES

Foodstuffs in War. "It would be folly," says the Birmingham Post, "to rely for protection upon the international law which, even in 1914, declared essential foodstuffs non-contraband (and therefore freely to be carried by neutral shipping) unless destined for military use or consigned to fortified places. That principle will never be accepted again in our time. It would be no less folly to rely upon any international agreement providing for the humanisation of submarine warfare. No agreement of this type can possibly be regarded as conferring real security—and even if this particular agreement were more likely to be respected, the new peril of the bomber seaplane would remain. Hostile aircraft in their present state of development must operate under fairly severe restrictions. They can have no such, range as hostile cruisers or submarines. But a cargo sunk is a cargo lost, whether it go to the bottom of the narrow seas or of the ocean wilds a thousand miles from port."

Rheumatism. "Rheumatism heads the list of industrial diseases as causing the greatest loss in efficiency and time among workers, and is responsible for an enormous drain on industry—and consequently upon insurance funds," writes Mr. Oscar Parkes, 0.8. E., M. 8., Ch.B., in his book, "Our Rheumatism." "But, as it is not a 'fatal' disease like cancer or tuberculosis, it lacks that 'publicity value' which might make it the subject of national campaigns and other financial drives wherewith funds may be collected for the establishment of treatment clinics and endowment of research work as to the cause of its various manifestations. Nevertheless, it is responsible for 25,000 deaths annually in England and Wales, through the heart disease which it brings about, and which represents some 40 per cent, of the deaths from this cause. There would seem to be ample grounds for regarding rheumatism as a Public Enemy No. 1 against which our biggest battalions should be mustered in order to provide for investigation and relief."