In our opinion, there seems an opportunity for a reason-
able compromise here, and compromise is essential. There is something extremely unedifying in seeing the nation forget the war in order to indulge in fierce polemics over "racing or no racing." For ourselves, we should be willing to give up our own instinctive predilection for abandoning racing altogether this year if by giving it up we could obtain a general agreement for the total abandonment during the war of the luxurious and orgiastic side of racing. We suggest, then, the following lines of compromise. Let the chief races — i.e., those at which the superiority of the bloodstook of the year is tested and decided—take place, but let them take place under stria limitations. To begin with, let it be decreed that no intoxicants of any sort shall be sold on the racecourse, or within four or five miles thereof, and in the ease of the Epsom meeting letthe public-houses beclosed on Derby Day throughout the county of Surrey and also throughout the Metropolitan area, so that the night of the meeting shall not be disgraced by excesses. Also, let no betting be allowed on the course in any shape or form—i.e., either winked at in puhlio places, as now, or allowed in thew, public places which are technically private enclosures.
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