SPECTABILIA
A FEw weeks ago I referred to the litter problem and the various steps which should be taken continuously to impress on the mind of the man in the street the duty of each holiday maker to take home his own rubbish. The British Broadcasting Company draws my attention to the fact that the B.B.C. is now making frequent appeals to prevent the scattering of litter. One of its regular lecturers deals with the subject constantly during holiday times. I was also glad to learn that many Boy Scouts are taking a hand in the anti-litter campaign. Certainly there is plenty of work waiting for us in this direction. I cannot help feeling, however, that the authorities are partly responsible. Cannot they follow the example of those responsible for the upkeep of Kew Gardens and provide larger receptacles for waste paper and refuse ? The authorities have been most successful in their anti- litter crusade at KeN'i, which is one of the best kept public places that I know.
The Cork Examiner has had an article on the con. tinned migration from Ireland of much of its best human material. The majority of those that emigrate to the United States are between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five, and most of the male emigrants—at least five-sixths—are drawn from the countryside : "They arc young men in the very prime a life, capable of roughing it' if they only made up their minds to do so. Would it not be worth while trying to persuade them to rough it' in their own country for a time? It should be as easy to do so on their fathers' farms or as labourers on their neighbours,' as on the streets or quaysides of American cities." Of the female emigrants the majority are also between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five, and almost two-thirds of them are certified-for " domestic, hotel, &c., service." The Cork Examiner continues "Every farmer all over the country complains of the difficulty of obtaining suitable labour, and there is even a dearth of satisfactory domestic servants. Possibly, the unwillingness of -young people to work at home is due in great measure to the false sense of pride and the useless vanity for which Ireland is notorious. Again, this failing may be traced to the unsatisfactory system of education. In every school in the country, and in almost every home, children are brought up to look on manual labour as some. thing beneath the dignity of clerical labour."
Opposition to the Government's postmark advertising scheme appears to be increasing and I am doubtful whether the scheme will last long, though, presumably, the existing contracts will have to be fulfilled. The advertising value of the postmarks on our correspondence should be reserved for national enterprises and announcements. In common with most people, I suppose, I have no objection to receiving on my breakfast-table exhortations through the post "To buy British goods," "To see England first," "To scatter no litter," "To smoke Imperially," "To help the Safety-First campaign," "To buy National Savings Certificates," and soon; but I have a very decided objection to being told I must drink Blank's whisky Or use Blank's cosmetics.. Public opinion must put a stop to this prostitution of the Post Office. If the Government thinks it cannot use all its postmarks for its own advertising let it give one day's or one week's postmarks to some of our hospitals and philanthropic institutions. * * I observe that the Toronto Globe supports the suggestion which was made by Mr. J. H. Thomas in the House of Commons recently and also in the Spectator some years ago that the leaders of the Oppositions in the Dominion Parliaments should attend the Imperial Conferences. But, according to the Canadian corre- spondent of the Times, public opinion in the Dominion is against the proposal. It is felt that the result "would be inaction rather than action, a weak diffusion of responsibility for Imperial policy." Surely this is a faulty argument. The first essential at these Imperial gatherings is to preserve continuity. If only the leaders of the existing Governments meet together much duplica- tion of effort is entailed and much old ground has to be gone over. Could not the Opposition leaders be invited to the general gatherings ? It should be quite possible to devise a scheme by which only the Prime Ministers would meet together to take decisions in important matters.
I was at the London Aeroplane Club's grounds at Stag Lane, Hendon, this week, and was much impressed by the great interest in flying being taken by young and old. The training course is astonishingly cheap, working out at under £20, and the fees for flying, once one is a flying member, are only £1 an hour. There is a large waiting list and Captain Sparks and Mr. St. Barbe, the two pilots who have the onerous task of training, are working overtime seven days a week.
It is good that amateur aviation is at last being taken seriously in England, for there is no better or more patriotic pastime. The de Havilland Moths, on which all the flying at the Club is done, have flown over 600,000 miles this year and have only had two mishaps (neither of them serious) both of which occurred while racing. There have been no accidents during instruction or private flying : neither the railways nor the roads could show such an average of safety. Flying is not for fools, of course, but it is a sport with a good margin of safety that provides more instruction in character, gives more freedom, and not less health than any other amusement. It is, moreover, a sport peculiarily adapted to Englishmen.
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