. A signal illustration of how not to talk of
Americans was provided by Brigadier-General Critchley, Director-General of British Over- seas Airways, at a discussion arranged by the Royal Aeronautical Society last Saturday. The vain-glorious declaration that "we shall beat the American in the air without the slightest doubt, because we know how to look after out customers better .than does, and we have the men to do it ; there is not that particular class in the American make-up—they all want to be President after selling newspapers," may be left to be judged as a mere matter of taste. The assertion that " in America service meant servility, and they had no real idea of service to the passenger as we understood
it," is fantastically untrue as well as being offensive, and I am glad to see that Sir Roy Fedden, on behalf of the Royal Aeronautical Society, has dissociated himself and_ his society publicly from such strictures.
* * * *
Reference was made in The Spectator last week to a Football Association committee's new denunciation of football 'pools. At the same time, and quite independently, the question of the legality of the pools, or certain forms of them, is on the way to being tested in the courts. A King's Bench Court on Tuesday ordered Sir Bertrand Watson, the Chief Magistrate at Bow Street, who had dis- missed an information relating to the legality of a pool advertisement, to state a case for the opinion of the High Court. An authoritative ruling, therefore, is likely to 'be forthcoming. What the Football Association, of course: is asking for is not an interpretation of the existing law, but new legislation prohibiting football pools of all
kinds as contrary to public policy.
* '* * * Our bus-conductors do their share in keeping life cheerful. The .„" hold tight " exhortation is getting a little trite. A variation heard the other day, " adhere tenaciously," is proportionately welcome.
* * * *
Erratum. I said last week that Lord Lang preached at Dr. Temple's funeral. He did not ; he read the lesson. Sackcloth duly
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