5 AUGUST 1955, Page 7

MEANWHILE IT must be owned that the Silly Season this

year has got off to a really promising start. After all the cries of 'Wolfl ' (or 'Bug-eyed-monster!' rather) from people con- vinced that other worlds are watching us from flying saucers, it took some effort to grasp the fact that the headlines about man-made satellites were rooted in something more sub- stantial than a journalist's imagination (or liver). And then there was the story about the bull which, not content with wrecking the red glider which had the temerity to land under its horns, severely gored the trailer which was brought up to remove the offending machine. Thus Nature, sharp of horn, asserted herself. But human nature also came to the fore for the start of the Silly Season. The children, later assisted by adults, who dug a mighty trench to keep motor-cars off the beach at Porthcothan in Cornwall struck a blow for civilisa- tion which would not have got into print had there been other news about. So did the elderly lady who stoutly refused to get off the bus in Daventry which had been steered to a police station by its driver, outraged because the passengers had filled it up while it was standing twenty yards away from the usual boarding place. There is a limit to the bossing-about people can endure, even during the silliest of Silly Seasons.