THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING WORLD.

By EVELYN WRENCH.

THE results of the election, which have given Mr. Bonar Law a working majority, have been followed with the deepest interest across the Atlantic, and the new Government has had a very " good Press." American political writers believe that the Conservative regime will signify a period when " back to ' normalcy "—to borrow Mr. Harding's famous phrase—will be the order of the day. The Washington correspondent of the Times informs us that " not a few writers have been at pains to trace a resemblance" between the Prime Minister and the President. The curious analogy between the Unionist success at the polls and the Republican victory in the American Presidential election of 1920 has been much commented on.

From the spectacular standpoint the election result which perhaps caused the greatest astonishment was the victory of Mr. Edwin Scrymgeour over Mr. Winston Churchill in Dundee. The American public were much surprised that a Prohibitionist should have been able to head the poll in any British constituency, above all in an in- dustrial city. It is not only in the United States that Mr. Scrymgeour's success will be noted with interest ; both in Canada and New Zealand the " Dry " vote is strong, and the policy of " no licence " is a live issue, Here is Mr. Scrymgcour's election record :—

1908

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055 votes

1910

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1,512 votes

1917

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2,030 votes

1918

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10,423 votes

1922

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32,578 votes Surely a faith such as this, which persisted in its course after four successive defeats, deserved final victory.

The question of the comparatively small sale of British periodicals in Canada in view of increasing American competition is one which forms the theme of many letters to the Press, both in the Dominion and in this country. A correspondent in Quebec Province writes to the Spectator as follows : " I wish you would take up the question of why I should have to pay tenpence for Punch and one and fivepence-halfpenny for British shilling magazines at the Ottawa bookstalls. It is all a question of the middlemen, but meanwhile the country is getting more and more Americanized. You can buy a good fat American magazine for twenty or twenty-five cents, while an English one costs thirty-five cents." The fact that the Canadian reading public is well supplied with American literature, when it is of the right type, is all to the good, but it is at least equally important that Canada should receive plentiful supplies of the best magazines and weekly journals produced in the old country.

The problems of distribution in a vast and sparsely populated country such as Canada are very great, and when we consider the cost of ocean and railway freight, it is difficult to see how the Canadian retailer could afford to sell British publications at a .price to compete with their American rivals. There would appear to be only two methods of modifying the effects of the geographical propinquity of the United States. Either the British publishers must supply the Canadian market at a much lower rate than the home trade or they must • concentrate their attention on getting direct annual subscriptions as the American publishers do. The Canadian magazine postal rates have -un- doubtedly helped the dissemination of British literature in the Domiaion, but, alas ! very much remains to be done. Oxford University debating team, which has just returned from New- York, has participated in the first international debate ever held in the United States, Bates College, Lewiston, Maine, had the honour of making it possible for a debating team of the Oxford Union to visit America and debate with some of the leading American colleges. The visit of the Oxford team to the United States was the direct outcome of the visit of the Bates College students to England last year. On that occasion the visiting team was defeated, the majority of the Oxford audience voting in favour of the home team. This year, however, the American team was victorious and thus the defeat of Bates College in England last year was wiped out. The subject of the debate was " Should the United States join the League of Nations at once ?" and the voting of the audience was 1,301 in favour of the Bates College team and 115 in favour of Oxford. In a letter to a British friend, Dr. Clifton D. Gray, the President of Bates College, write : " I wish it might be possible for other British Universities to follow the example of Oxford in sending over, from time to time, debating teams to meet similar teams from our own colleges in the discussion of topics in which Britain and America are mutually concerned." The suggestion is an admit.- able one.

Mrs. Caroline Grosvenor, who -has done such splendid work in connexion with the migration of women to the Dominions, and especially to Canada, refers in last week's Spectator to a paragraph which appeared on this page advocating the sending of " tens of thousands of British youths to our Dominions." Mrs. Grosvenor is quite right to insist on the vital necessity of sending a corre- sponding number of girls, for whom, as she says, " ade- quate and proper provision must be made." The migra- tion of women on a large scale is, of course, beset with many difficulties, but it is important to provide home- makers for the rapidly developing territories of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. There are homes and husbands across the seas awaiting many spinsters of the old country if it were only possible to transplant them there. How to do it is the problem. Overseas, the monthly magazine of the Overseas League, has during the past two years contained much corre- spondence on the subject. If Mrs. Grosvenor can devise some scheme by which all the young women in Great Britain who quite naturally desire to be wives and mothers, and who by reason of our excess of female population are denied the privileges of parenthood, or again who cannot find work in England or would prefer in any case to be employed overseas, can settle in the Dominions, she will have done well.

All who desire that the British Empire Exhibition to be held at Wembley in 1924 should receive the whole- hearted support of the Dominions will be glad to learn that the Exhibition authorities have decided to give the representatives of the Dominions an active share in the administration. The High Commissioners of the Dominions in London have been invited to serve both on the Executive Council and on the Management Com- mittee. A sub-committee, consisting of three repre- sentatives of the Executive Council, two members nominated by the High Commissioners of the Dominions and one representing the Colonies and Protectorates, will be appointed to report upon the best method of assuring that the materials and supplies required for the service of the Exhibition shall be those produced within ithe Empire.