21 MARCH 1947, Page 5

When our Parliamentary Correspondent wrote a week or two ago

that if the Colonial Secretary had been a gladiator in the Roman arena the assembled spectators would have turned their thumbs up and left him to his fate it was assumed by several readers that the writer had made a slip, and meant " thumbs down." That, of course, was not so. "Thumbs down" meant drop the sword and spare the victim ; " thumbs up " meant drive the sword up into his throat. What it would be interesting to know is when and how the current misinterpretation arose.

* * * *