30 SEPTEMBER 1938, Page 2

The overwhelming events of recent days have so monopo- lised

the attention of the Press and the public that relatively little interest has been evoked by the launch on Tuesday at Clydebank of the ' Queen Elizabeth,' sister ship to the ' Queen Mary.' Yet the launching of the world's largest ship is an item of some interest and should not pass un- recorded. Further interest was accorded to the occasion by the fact that the Queen whose name the ship bears, in performing the launching ceremony, delivered her first important public speech, which, it is generally agreed, she executed with clarity and apparent confidence. Incidentally she showed considerable presence of mind when the ship began, quite unexpectedly, to slip rapidly down towards the water, impatient to be afloat, in hurriedly performing the naming ceremony. To have been launched " unbaptised " would, to say the least, have been unpropitious. All, however, will wish the Queen Elizabeth,' which will not make her maiden trans-Atlantic voyage before 194o, success comparable to that already achieved by her sister ship, which still holds the Atlantic record. It is believed that certain changes in the new ship will enable her to attain even higher speed than the ' Queen Mary.'