16 JANUARY 1932, Page 3

Signs in the Heavens The volume of protest evoked by

the proposal to use the night-sky as a screen for the new luminous advertise- ments devised by Major Savage is remarkable, as the correspondence columns of The Times testify. Major Savage has put up a plausible defence, mentioning that the Air Council has withdrawn its original objection to his project and regards his invention as a useful instru- ment of defence against aircraft. But that, of course, is entirely irrelevant. The Air Council is not an authority on aesthetics, and if a certain amount of experiment is necessary to perfect the luminous grid which is to locate raiding aeroplanes automatically no one is likely to raise the smallest objection. But that the sky should be called into service to proclaim the virtues of beverages and liniments and other medicaments of diverse orders would be an outrage which even the tolerant inhabitants of these islands would refuse to tolerate. Professor Tre- velyan and Mr. Curtis urge that Parliament should take cognizance of sky-writing in time to prohibit it definitely if that should be the decision of the House of Commons. That is clearly the right course.

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