POINTS FROM =LETTERS THE OXFORD BILL.
If Mr. Barwell will refer to his letter in your issue of May 18 and to my reply of June 1, he will see that what I denied was his statement, first, that "under it (the Oxford Bill) citizens could only exercise their option one way, that is in decreasing- the number of licences." This is obviously incorrect, seeing that the Bill allows people to vote in their own area for (a) Continuance Of the present system ; (b) abolition of all retail licences ; (c) reorganization of the trade under a system of public control ; (d) renewal of the sale of drink where this sale had been stopped under (b). [Clauses (3) and (4) of the Bill 18 & 19 Geo. V.] Secondly, Mr. Barwell stated that the only other option open to the people was for " cTecreasing probably the hours during which the public houses might be open." There is no justification for this suggestion. The Bill does not go into the question of extending or curtailing the daily hours during which intoxicants can be sold.—CICELY WILMOT, 416 Abbey. House, Westminster, S.W.1.
GREAT BRITAIN AND RUSSIA.
I read your Waterford correspondent's letter with a good deal of sympathy and yet disagreement. I also, abhor the revolutionary's way of gaining his end, and believe persecution to be the sword of the devil. At the same time we do not base our diplomatic relations on our concurrence with Govern- mental domestic legislation. Otherwise, long ago, surely, we should have severed our connexion with the Tsarist regime. Let us treat the Soviet Government with the same justice as we should any other, and, if their nationals persist in treasonable activities, they will, I take it, be subject to the law of our land.—K. M. WALKER, 19 Woburn Square, London, W.C.
THE INSPIRATION OF DEATH.
The older we get, the more "shattered by the noises of life," the more anxious we are to think of death as being a state of eternal rest. It is only while we are still young, before the" shades of the prison house " have closed upon us, while we are still free from the fear of death because it has not yet come to loom gigantically before us, that we can regard it as an adventure and as a doorway to new life, new hope and new enterprise, which I, personally, believe it to be.—MARY LUTYENS, 13 Mansfield Street, W.1.
"RELIGION WITHOUT THE CREEDS."
In criticizing the Bishop of Birmingham's address Dr. Noyes complains that he lacks "historical sense." Mr. Noyes himself seems strangely ignorant of the early history of Christianity in England. He speaks of Augustine coming with the first Christian Mission to Britain. There was a fally organized British Church in existence long before the coming of the Italian Mission, and as we learn from Bede (that delightful historian whom Dr. Noyes has missed) the Church did not always sec eye to eye with the newcomers.—L. M. TURNER, Purley, Surrey.
THE TOTALIZATOR.
The vital point is the principle now introduced of giving the racing company a percentage on each bet and, pro tanto, an incentive to promote betting. The Board should restrict city courses to the number of races they held in 1927. Inferior animals provide cheap gambling counters, and attempts to make undue use of them near cities should be anathema. In horse-racing countries pony meetings near cities in con- junction with the totalizator have, wherever allowed, proved the bane of everyone except their promoters.—MODERATION.
THE SOCIALIST Mv.rir.
The Socialists have been returned to power ; whether by -the large body of sane and sensible progressive opinion," or by the "flapper vote" doesn't now very much matter : the point is they are there. In other words, as far as representative institutions are any guide, John Bull has trusted them—for the time being. But the difference between this country and Russia is that here Socialism is not allowed to fake entire charge as it did in Russia, but is under tutelage of that " large body of sane and sensible progressive opinion" that shrewd old John has returned to the House along with them in the massif of the Conservative and Liberal parties, whose tradition has ever been to make haste slowly. So all may yet be well.— T. C. SKINNER, Reigate.
CRUELTY TO ANIMALS.
(a) Your suggestion as to fur-farms is admirable, but I should like to draw your attention to the Furtex fabrics made by the Bradford Manufacturing Co., Bradford, York- shire. I believe that these materials are made from wool. Ultimately, of course, the sheep are killed not always by humane methods, but on balance less suffering is caused thus than by trapping. (b) I have drawn the attention of our local R.S.P.C.A. to the problem of dogs and eats which are turned adrift at holiday times. I shall welcome any help in checking this practice.—C. W. LINCOLN HARDY, 45 Redland Road, Bristol.
KING'S COLLEGE HOSPITAL.
Correspondence is now reaching King's College Hospital from all parts of the Empire in connexion with the Supplement published to your issue of March 30th. Subscriptions have been received from places so far apart as East Africa, West Africa, and China. Interest seems to have been particularly aroused by the arrangements which are made for the treatment of middle-class patients, and I shall be very glad to supply a copy of the Supplement to anyone who cares to have it.— GOBELL, Chairman, King's College Hospital, Denmark Hill, S.E.
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