IN A FEW WORDS

"Austria, 7947" rOUNT Montgelas, who reviews books for us and writes regularly in People and Freedom (that excellent little Christian Democratic monthly) has sent me the following verse which he picked up from a Swiss paper. He mentions, too, that the writer of the article on conditions in Austria, from which the verse is taken. relates how a Viennese " cockney," seeing a man faint in front of him in a bus queue, exclaimed with a shrug of the shoulders, "There goes another one who has over-eatenl"
In good Francis Joseph's dabs We eat goose on holidays; Under the Republic's care
Joints were still our Sunday fare; Even under Hitler—Goering. We had spuds to eat and herring; Under Allied occupation— The Gazettes print our ration."
More Experiments with Time
LAST week this paper perpetrated
a peculiarly original scoop. It beatified a servant of God a week too soon—and with every circumstantial detail! This was not due to our staff dreaming the kind of dreams which Dunne writes about and which proves, according to him. that time is a bit of an illusion: it was rather what the B.B.C. likes to call a " technical hitch." .fhe wrong date was sent out in an agency report, and rather than be caught napping, we decided to imitate the early bird and change future tenses into past ones. By the time doubts were aroused (and your humble servant was woken up very early in the morning to discuss them) it was too late to do much about it. We recommend this little incident to the attention of the Royal Commission on the Press.
P.S.-1 am now told (and by the person chiefly responsible for the above) that I also last week wrote of an about-to-be-given radio talk as if it had already taken place. I'm beginning to think that Dunne had a hand in it.
A Great Actor THE great success of Odd Man Out " will give many cinemagoers an eerie feeling when they watch the late F. J. McCormick's great performance as " Shell." On the whole, we have got used by now, I suppose, to seeing dead actors remain alive on the screen, though it's a queer business, but this particular performance is so vital and arresting that we shall hardly be able to forget that it is said to have killed the actor, And there was something really grand about his refusal to exploit his great talent for money. I remember meeting him behind the scenes at the Abbey, 1 have completely forgotten the play and every incident in it, but I haven't forgotten him. And the simple reason is that he struck me, after a no doubt fine performance, as the most charming and simple and humble actor I had ever met. In fact, he would only talk about this paper and try to persuade the company that I was the celebrity on view, not he. A most absurd situation!
Read This Letter
HERE are extracts from a charming letter which speaks for itself: " Dear Sir,—We, the German P's.O.W. in one of the districts recently been flooded want to express our gratitude towards all those who, inspired by kindness and good will, showed such a generous response to the flood appeal.
" Of course, there has been the desire to thank everyone individually, but seeing there is no legal way of doing so, let `Jotter do it this way. We don't know how many of your readers have had an opportunity to talk to a prisoner. and we are afraid of being strangers in a way to many readers who sent their gift. At least we believe that we have one thing in common—we are all sheep of she same flock, following the one Good Shepherd. His voice was during the past years for many of ws the only true guide. In our
position, being despised, degraded and caned by so different more or less evil voices to turn left or right, we experienced the value of Christian principles which must take the first place in our hearts without compromise,
" We all want to go back to our homes because we love our parents, brothers and sisters, wives and children io the same way as anybody does in this country. It was terrible for us to sec conditions at home grow worse front month to month. To-day the majority of us is living under better material conditions than its loved ones, and of course we want to help them as much as possible. I can hardly describe you the happiness of these lads now being able to take a parcel home for their "Whatever it was, each gift can be regarded as a little lesson for Us to keep in mind and take home with us. When the gift itself will be gone there will always remain the spirit
of this spontaneous action. The remembrance thereof will be stronger than the remembrance of all the phrases of • re-education.'
" Yours sincerely.
" German P.O.W. in the North."
Middleton Murry
HAD occasion last week to quote
in public some paragraphs from Mr. Middleton Murry's weekly commentary in Peace Nevi's. I wanted to show that a writer whose whole life has been devoted to peace and who has been amour, the most sympathetic to the good in Communism and Marxism was taking the same view in regard io Russia and the Wallace type of appeasement as we are taking in this paper. Now 1 see that he is resigning, apparently because of the pressure against him by the Peace Pledge Unien. Among other matters they are worried by the drop in Peace News' circulation. I think I can safely prophesy that Mr. Murry's retirement will cause a much more rapid drop, for there are many non-pacifists who have been reading the paper just because they
wanted to read one of the most acute and most honest of contemporary political commentators.
Another Way of Making Vice Pay