24 APRIL 1915, Page 14

PATRIOTISM.

Its 77M Emma or FM "t3recrrroo.n Stn,—With regard to your recent advocacy of the cessation of racing, may I say that this question may safely be left to the discretion of the Jockey Club P The case might be met by a compulsory cessation of all betting on races, both on the course and by the aid of the State through the telegraph offices, and of all bookmaking upon football matches. We can hardly expect patriotism from the working man when we read of such cases as a murder in a train among betting people returning from races and that of the man accused of inducing the female postal officials at an hotel in Manchester to become accomplices in the defrauding of bookmakers. At the present

time I believe that the publishers of newspapers who advertise very large sums in prizes for the guessing of the winners of football matches, and for the manufacture of sentences con- taining letters appearing in advertised sentences, would do well to withdraw these inducements, which absorb uselessly the spare time of thousands of the operative and other classes.—