The Cambridge Senate will have a difficult decision to make
in its election of a Chancellor in succession to General Smuts, for there is no such ample company of papabili as Oxford at present enjoys. The objections to General Smuts on grounds of age in 1948 fell to the ground in face of the argument that the appointment of a Chancellor who by the nature of things could not hold office for more than five or six years might enable the University to tide over a lean period and provide it with a wider choice when a new election had to be made. But the five or six years have turned out to be only two years, and the position is much as it was. It is a matter of common knowledge that the names under popular discussion last time were those of the Duke of Gloucester (who, like the King, is a Cambridge man), the Duke of Devonshire and Lord Mount- batten. There are no outstanding additions to be made to this list now, though it is worth remembering that 'Viscount Bruce of Melbourne has, like General Smuts, been a Dominion Prime Minister ; that Lord Justice Birkett has, on grounds of both legal and cultural distinction claims that command respect ; and that Air Marshal Lord Tedder is a Cambridge graduate, who won the Prince Consort Prize in 1913. The extension of the evening period of cheap telephone calls from last Saturday-6 to 10.30, instead of 6.30 to 9.30—is a welcome reversion to something like the pre-war practice, and with it must be coupled the promise of the long-desired and long-denied late collection of letters in London and other large cities. The odd thing is that throughout the last Par- liament these reforms were constantly pressed on the Post- master-General, and always met with the explanation that shortage of labour made their adoption impossible. Can it be that, in spite of the lengthening of the period of conscription and the new demands of the armaments industries, the labour shortage has suddenly become less acute ? Or is it simply that a new Postmaster-General has insisted that the public shall have the services it deserves ? It seems fair to Mr. Ness Edwards to assume that the latter is the right explanation.
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