SIR EDWARD GREY is to accompany the KING on his visit to Paris in April
next. Nobody will grudge the FOREIGN MINISTER this little treat, which
he has thoroughly well earned.
* * *
According to _The Express_ the South African police discovered an
elaborate plot for kidnapping all the Ministers as a preliminary to
declaring a Labour Republic. In Labour circles, however, it is declared
that the scheme was drawn up for a joke. To this the South African
Government will no doubt retort that the kidnapping of the Labour
leaders was also a joke--and so the whole matter will end in genial
laughter.
* * *
Speaking at Toronto, ex-President TAFT stated that the world would have
been much worse off without England. We believe that this is so. Without
England there might have been no American nation to speak of.
* * *
Sir EDWARD GREY remarked at Manchester that at "the time when we built
the first _Dreadnoughts Dreadnoughts_ were in the air." So our
backwardness in naval aviation is no new thing.
* * *
An attempt is to be made to raise thirteen French warships which were
sunk when the English and Dutch fleets routed the French off Cape La
Hogue. It is feared in nervous quarters that this may be used by the
Germans as an excuse for further increasing their fleet.
* * *
Although it is frequently stated that our army is fit to cope with the
army of any Foreign Power it is evident that the War Office itself is
not quite satisfied, and reforms are instituted from time to time. For
instance last week it was officially announced that the title of
Deputy-Adjutant-General, Royal Marines, had been altered to
Adjutant-General, Royal Marines.
* * *
"Arising out of" KID LEWIS'S victory last week over PAUL TIL, it is the
opinion among a good many Germans that the French Government, being
determined that the Entente should not be imperilled, decided to send
over a French boxer whom an Englishman could defeat.
* * *
Letchworth Garden City is now considered large enough to possess its own
police court, and the Herts County Council has sanctioned its erection.
Four Letchworth residents have been made J.P.'s, and it is now up to the
residue to supply sufficient criminals to make the venture a success.
* * *
Last week, in the City of London Court, a man was ordered to pay £15
damages and costs for pouring a basin of thick ox-tail soup over another
man. We are glad that this action has been held to be illegal, as thick
ox-tail is such nasty sticky stuff.
Meanwhile what the law is as to clear soup is a point which still
remains to be tested.
* * *
According to figures published in our bright little contemporary,
_Fire_, property amounting to £359,875 was destroyed by fire in Great
Britain during the past year. This seems to us more than enough, but it
is not easy to satisfy a militant suffragette.
* * *
Mr. "MARK ALLERTON" has suggested that London ought to have a special
golf course for beginners. If it could be arranged for spectators to be
admitted at a moderate charge we believe this might become one of the
most successful places of amusement in the Metropolis.
* * *
A suggestion that school children shall be taken to museums, as a reward
for good school work, has been made by Lord SUDELEY. This is scarcely a
new idea. We remember that when we were at school there was a feeling
that the very good boys ought to be in a museum.
* * *
We have been favoured with the sight of a letter from a money-lender, in
which the following remarkable passage occurs:--"The above terms are for
short periods, _to be repaid_ as mutually agreed upon _before the
advance is made_." The italics are ours, but the proleptic idea is a
happy invention of the author himself.
* * *
"SPRING IN THE AIR."
_Daily Mail_.
We are sorry not to oblige our contemporary, but advancing years have
taken something from our resiliency.
* * *