5 APRIL 1940, Page 22

" CONFUCIUS, HE SAY . . ."

SIR,—The " Confucius, he say . . ." advertisements mer:- boned in " A Spectator's Notebook " seem to me to raise a point of taste. One is left wondering whether people would consider it desirable if a Chinese merchant were to insert In the newspapers a picture of a fat bearded Jew with the caption " Jesus Christ Would Have Enjoyed This Tea."

" Janus's " account of the origin of the idea might almost have been guessed. We can learn a lot from America. But it is to be hoped that we are proof against that peculiar American infection which can make a craze out of pok- squatting or the infantile bubblings of nit-wit columnists.—