24 OCTOBER 1931, Page 13

: OR THE FUTURE OF SILENCE.

In the next column we publish a comment on Oxford's campaign against noise. We fear that the battle is lost before it is joined. An age whose password is the shrilling of a tele- phone, which conducts its love affairs to the pagan aceompani- ment of clashing brass, and would probably expect even its lea trump to be blared by the latest mechanical devices, is unlikely to pay any attention to such a gesture. We are reminded of the ass complaining of the statement that " poetry is self-expression " : "I pour my very soul into my braying— Why does the world laugh ? "

Faintly, through the strident vociferation of the, by this judgement, most poetical of ages, we can discern the cynical thunder of Martian chuckles. CARD.