27 SEPTEMBER 1935, Page 6

But to return to Mr. Garvin's dog (over whose tomb

when his prophylactic activities are ended the legend extinctor extinclus will doubtless be inscribed),—certain questions inevitably obtrude themselves. He is, as a later reference indicates, an Aberdeen,—an attractive type but inconsiderable in stature. What happens when he is the object of unprovoked aggression by, say, an Alsatian ? Mr. Garvin cannot intervene, either in perscfn or by deputy, for that would be to extend the area of con- flict, or. to invoke the metaphor which makes the extinction of cigarette ends so apt, of conflagration. The approved policy, the only conceivable policy -in a sane world. I learn, is to isolate the conflict. I accept that dogma with regret—for I like Aberdeens. Indeed, I have much sympathy with the sentence with which Mr. Garvin ends his third column and his article, " the Aberdeen who puts out the dropped cigarettes should have a vote." (Or 1 would add, any Aberdeen.) But what of the Aberdeen condemned to isolated conflict ? Dead men have no votes (except in Ireland). Nor have dead dogs.