Timely Topics

Northern Advocate, 5 September 1939, Page 4

Timely Topics

Paris has two free dispensaries devoted exclusively to the needs' cf suffering animals belonging to people

HOSPITALS FOE INDIGFNTS.

who cannot afR ford to pay for treatment for them. Pets reauir-

UICIU. JTCIO lt4UUing hospitalisation are taken from the city by ambulance to a thoroughly up-to-date animal hospital at Bievres housied in an impressive modern building, the Wilbur foundation. Its purpose, as the French phrase it, is the treatment of “indigent animals.” In helping patients, its motto is “No matter what. No matter where. No matter when.” One poor woman senta plea to the director that she herself was going to a Paris hospital, that she could not take her cat with her, and that she would have to abandon it unless the hospital would care for it in her absence. The ambulance was promptly dispatched for the cat, which was returned to its home when its misti'ess was cured.

One type of request, however, is always refused. The foundation will not accept as boarders animals whose masters do not care to be bothered with them during a vacation. People who enjoy tlte companionship and affection of dogs and cats all year long should be willing to take the extra trouble required to provide for their care when the family leaves town for the seashore or the mountains.

“Practised as a system and continued year after year, Press control destroys the weapon it is using and, in the eyes

FAILURE OF PRESS CONTROL.

of other people, . turns it first into

an imposture and finally into a laughing stock,” says Mr J. A. Spender. “I contend that the use of the controlled Press in other countries to influence opinion abroad has been a complete failure. The British Government has recently set up machinery for wfiat is called propaganda, and this, if discreetly used, may be useful and necessary. But let it always be remembered that the permanent propaganda of the free countries is through their Press, the Press which reports the proceedings of Parliament and the speeches of public men, which reflects the varieties of opinion in its leading and other articles, which presents a daily picture of the life of the country. It is the total impression made by the reporting of these activities which is the great propaganda, and nothing else can compete with it. To keep clear of the suggestion that it is an officially manufactured product is of the .first importance.”