5 APRIL 1940, Page 16

Assuredly it is a sorry thing that we in England

should celebrate the turn of the year by so puny and jocose a festival. Why should we disfigure that happy day by send- ing people on false errands, by providing them with false information, or by practising upon them senseless jokes? Did some obscure Churchman, some second-century icono- clast, hope by such sportiveness to make men forget the tears which they had shed for Adonis, the smiles with which they had greeted Persephone? Or is it a fact that we owe this foolish anniversary to France?

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