POINTS FROM LETTERS SUNDAY OPENING OF CINEMAS. '
Whilst not in a position to express any view as to • the feelings of the Governors of this hospital on the question of Sunday performances- in cinemas, we shall much deplore the loss. of the substantial . income which has come to the hospital recently as donations from many cinema theatres in the metropolis. Owing to the serious industrial depression, and to other economic causes, the income of the hoSpital has during the past twelve months been much below that required to meet- our expenditure, and any withdrawal of . donations, particularly at the present time, may have serious effect upon the beneficent work which the hospital is able to
carry out.—K. A. WOLFE BARRY, Chairman, Westminster Hospital, Broadway Sanctuary, S.W. 1.
MAIL FOR CHINA.
In view of the efforts which are being made to improve British trade with China, perhaps you will permit me to make known to your readers the following anomaly. All mail matter for China, posted in Great Britain, is forwarded by the longest route unless marked " via Siberia," whereas all mail matter for Great Britain, posted in China, is for- warded via Siberia (the quickest route) unless otherwise directed.—RONALD MACDONALD, Shanghai.
AMERICAN TOURISTS.
Great Britain can have a vast influx of American tourists whenever it puts forth the necessary efforts. All that is required is extensive advertising : Americans cannot be reached in any other way. France, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain and Italy all advertise in America, but not Great Britain, though the latter has better opportunities than all these combined. Americans do not visit the British Isles because they think there is nothing to see. America has some periodicals of enormous circulation and eagerly read, advertisements included, so that, if anyone is desirous of getting a huge business at once, all that is necessary is to advertise in them. The idea is to get Mr. and Mrs. Everybody talking about making a trip to England and Scotland next summer. Business will follow. The advertising should be kept up continuously, however, and needless to say the advertisements should be very atractive. Here is a gigantic business going a-begging.—W. K. MORRISON, 462 Bay Blod, Chula Vista, California.
A NEW RECORD.
Nothing surprises anybody in these days when a record is broken every week. Let me, therefore, set down quite simply and without comment one which may have escaped you. Last year the French millers' subsidy (to which I have already drawn attention) enabled them to dump 1,184,097 cwts. of wheat meal flour on our dining room (or kitchen) tables. The previous highest figure since the War was 577,598 cwts. (1929). In 1920 we bought no flour from them at all.—A. C. N. DIXEY, House of Commons.
THE DATE OF THE CREATION.
Your readers may like to hear of an equivalent, nearly a century old, of the " very considerable accuracy " claimed by Bishop Barnes last week for the date of Creation as fixed by Science. Only it did not allow the comfortable margin of some two thousand million years kindly conceded by the learned Bishop. I heard it from an old Fellow in my college. S. C. R. Richard Greswcll (a former Fellow of Worcester, a double first in 1822) had a still more distinguished brother, Edward, at Corpus. His Harmonia Evangelica was long a standard work, and he wrote a number of other theological treatises. One day a friend met Richard, and remarked, " Someone told me the other day that your brother declares that the Creation began on April the 15th, 4004 n.c. ! I told the man I was sure he could not say anything so absurd." To which Richard replied, " Of course not, my dear fellow : you were quite right. Edward never said anything of the kind. For he knows it began on April the 4th ' !—C. H. COLES, M.A., Worcester College, Oxon, Harrowden Vicarage, Wellingborough, Northants.
RECOVERY.
Considerable attention has been given to the recent utter- ances of various experts upon the subject of our national finances. Mr. J. M. Keynes is reported as having declared that " Recovery will only come after the emergence of some definite new factor." This is exactly comparable with the pronouncement of that other eminent economist, Mr. Wilkins Micawber, on the occasion of a crisis in his affairs and the prospect of their improvement—" In short, if anything turns up."—F. V. 0. BErr, Lt.-Col. I.M.S. Retired, Little-. down, Streatley, Berks.
UNVEILING OF THE RUPERT BROOKE MEMORIAL.
The monument of the Rupert Brooke Memorial Committee, a noble work of the Athenian sculptor, Michel Tombros, which was cast in bronze in Belgium, has now arrived in the Greek Island of Skyros, and will be unveiled there on April 5th (Easter Sunday). The Committee take the opportunity of this ceremony, which will be an International Festival of Poetry, to organize a very interesting cruise in Greece for the Easter holidays. Poets from Great Britain, Greece, France, Belgium and other European, and Oriental countries, as well as American, will attend the ceremony .of inauguration, in which the people of the island will J0111. This is, we think, one of the most important tributes paid to English poetry, in a spirit of peace and international friendship. Any communication regarding details on this subject must be addressed to Mr. Paul Vanderborght, Founder and General Secretary of the International Rupert Brooke Memorial Committee, Chimay, Belgium.
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