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NOTES ON NEWS. NOTES O NEWS.I

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NOTES ON NEWS. NOTES O NEWS. I It has been announced that a Cabinet Com- mittee is considering the question of food I HIGH FOOD Piucns. supplies and the rise m prices. It is to be hoped that the Committee will not take too long to consider the question, and that, when it has considered it, it will not content itself with merely presenting a report. It is action that is needed, and prompt action. The General Federation of Trade Unions re- commends" the immediate purchase, at fair prices, of all internal grain stocks, together with State control and utilisation of such shipping as is necessary to ensure direct and unexploited food supplies from abroad and the transference of both internal and over- seas supplies to municipal or other public depots for sale at prices covering only cost t of carriage, transport, and distribution." Those who favour this drastic method of dealing with. the situation argue that if the (lovernment can buy up sugar for the benefit of the consumer, it can also buy up wheat, which is a much more important article of food. There would be no grumbling at the increase in the price of foodstuffs if people were convinced that it was an inevitable result of the war. We should simply accept the situation, and—tighten our belts. But there is a pretty strong conviction that the increase is much greater than there is any warrant for. There is a growing feeling that a few people are making fortunes out of the. situation, and that is what arouses anger and resentment. It is certainly time that the Government took the matter in hand. All classes of workers have been hard hit by the rise- in prices, but it must bear with THE FARM LABOURER. special weight upon the agri- cultural labourer. He is poorly paid at the best of times, and a 25 per cent. increase in the cost of living must be a very serious matter indeed in his household. During the last year or two the ca.se of the agricultural labourer has occupied public attention a good deal. Rival political parties were going to do great things for him. There was to be a. minimum wage standard. and every labourer was to receive a living wage. Well, his wage now must be consider- ably further below the subsistence line than it was in those days, but there does not seem I any general movement to pay him better. The argument used to be that farming profits were so small that the farmer could not afford the increase. Just now, however, farming profits are pretty considerable, and it does Feem only common fairness that the labourer should have his share of them. It was an excellent thing that M. Mil- lerand, the French War Minister, should visit I FRENCH MINISTER'S VISIT, this country and see for ) himself something of the I efforts we are making in the I common cause. Owing to the censorship our news- papers have rot been! able to give anything like an adequate account of those effcTL-s, though no attempt seems to have been made by the censors to prevent some journals from (loing their best to give our Allies the impres- sion that we were not doing anything like what we ought to ba doing. If the censors had objected to the publication of some articles which suggested that we were a nation of shirkers, they would have done the cause of the Allies good service. However, that is by the way, and the authorities have doaie wisely to let the people of France, through the War Minister, see something of clar military preparations. What he saw hero iiiadc- a deep impression upon M. Mil- lerand. He has been "simply astounded," and has gone back to France fully oonvinced that Great Britain is doing her share, and, indeed, that she is doing far more than couM have len expected of her. There are. of course, excellent reasons for not publishing details cf what we are doing in the way of military preparations. Such information would, he of the utmost value to the enemy. But it was highly desirable thai our Allies should know the truth, and M. Millerand's visit has already had excellent results in the tributes to Britain which have appeared in -¡ the French Press. Mr. Rudvard Kipling has been pleading eloquently for bands for the new armies. He BANDS FOR THE BOYS. has seen a good deal of the new armies, has watched the recruits being made into soldier, seen them at drill, in camp, and on the march, and he says they want music. Everybody knows how music helps marching. There is all the difference in the world between the marching of a regiment with and without a hand at the head of it. The recruits have done their best to meet the want; they have made their own music, and have enlivened their march by whistling and singing. But what they want is bands. A band. says Mr. Kipling, revives memories: it quickens asso- ciations; it opens and unites the hearts of men more surely than any other appeal. In that respect it assists recruiting perhaps moro than any other agency. The tunes that it employs and the words that go with them may seem very far removed from heroism or devotion but the magic and the compelling power are there to make men's souls realise certam truths which their minds might doubt." Mr. Kipling confesses that ho is not a musician, 1>11 he certainly knows more about music than many people who are. There was a case in the Courts the other day in which a firm of moneylenders, who MONET- LENDERS' CIRCULARS. had been fined for sending their circulars to a minor, sued the firm of addressing agents who had addressed the letter for breach cf contract and negligence. Mr. Justice Rowlatt characterised, the action as the most impu- dent ho had ever heard of. He added that if ever there was a curse—leading so often to ruin—which everybody wished suppressed, it was these moneylenders' circulars." It is really extraordinary that this particular nui- sance should he so hard to kill. From time to time, in one or other House of Parlia- ment, there are discussions, and restrictive legislation is proposed. Yet nothing seems to come of it, and. moneylenders go on send- ing out their circulars to all and sundry. Most people, no doubt, throw the circulars at once into the wastepaper-basket, but it is pretty certain that a good many inexpe- ( rienced people are tempted by the offer of loans" repnya ble by easy instalments," or "in one sum at the end of a fixed period, entirely suitable to their convenience." The public ought to be protected against the annoyance and the danger.

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ALLIES' "REAL AND LASTING…

ANTWERP FORTS. ..——o

BRITISH NAVY'S IRON GRIPI

BREAKING THE NEWS.I

PETROL ON A GAS STOVE.

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r DRESS OF THE DAY. I

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WORK OF THE NAVY. I

"MAGNIFICENT TROOPS."

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IMOTHER AND HOME.

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I THINGS THOUGHTFUL. !

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