THE CONTROVERSY about the merits of M. Liithy's book on
France, reviewed in our columns recently, reminds me of a problem : Why is it that the British admire above all other heroes those who scale the highest peaks, whereas the French reserve their admiration for those who descend to caverns measureless to man? The Paris newspapers were even more than usually full of the activities of the speleologues when I was there a few weeks ago; some record had been broken. It happened to be at the time when a continental team had just inflicted a humiliating defeat on the British at football in Belfast. A cartoonist hastened to draw a group of explorers reaching a depth that they believed to be hitherto unplumbed, only to find, to their discomfiture, a plaque set in the cavern wall consisting of a Union Jack and an inscription, 'British Football, 1955.'
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