The death of Sir Percy Bates cast an inevitable gloom
over the sailing of the ' Queen Elizabeth.' News of it was received with special regret by the large number of Members of both Houses of Parliament who went to Southampton on Saturday to spend some four hours at the invitation of the Cunard and White Star Company viewing the Queen Elizabeth before she went into regular service, after her war achievements, five days later. Sir Percy Bates, on behalf of the company, replied most capably to the toast of its health moved by the Lord Chancellor. Lord jowitt's speech, indeed, was, apart from the incomparable ship herself, the feature of the day's events. It may be going too far to say that it was incapable of improvement—few speeches attain ideal perfection—but at any rate it was singularly hard to see what room for improvement there was. The observation that " Like the Queen of Sheba I can say ' the half had not been told me,' but after the hospitality extended to us since we came on board I cannot go on to add ' there is no spirit in me ' " was only one of a dozen like it. As for the vessel herself a Very cursory acquaintance with her is enough to drive home the conviction that even at equal cost sea-travel will hold its own easily enough with air-travel, except with a certain number of uncomfortable people
who are never not in a hurry. * * *
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