Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



651 



operators and an apprentice in each ship, so that mes- 

 sages can always be taken and sent. By means of 

 wireless, information as to the movement of icebergs 

 might be communicated, without rigidly fixing the 

 lanes of trafTic. In dangerous waters the look-out 

 should be doubled, and one out of two might use 

 glasses. An apprentice system for seamen would secure 

 more competent sailors. No seaman in sole authority 

 would go twenty or twent\-two knots in hazy weather 

 at night in a misty area strewn with icebergs. But 

 seamanship has been dominated by finance. If some 

 new tj-pe of engine, such as the Diesel motor, proved 

 its superiority o\er the turbine, it might easily lead to 

 a recasting of designs facilitating sub-division into 

 watertight compartments. This would be better than 

 the somewhat doubtful pro\nsion of boats and rafts. 



WANTED — ..\ BOARD OF TR.\NSPORT. 



The writer thinks that it is time the Board of Trade 

 ceased to control transport arrangements. He suggests 

 a Board of Transport, of three or four experts, to watch 

 and control transport questions on the large scale, even 

 as the Road Board established by Mr. I.loyd George 

 does on the small scale with the roads of the United 

 Kingdom. 



his book, he gave names to three mountains discovered by him 

 and marked thereon. One was Mount Asquith, a second 

 Mount llarcoun (after the Colonial Secretary), the third Mount 

 Henry Lucy. 



ABOUT SIR ERNEST SHACKLETON. 



Sir Henry Lucy, continuing his " Sixty Years in 

 the Wilderness " in Cornhill for June, tells some inte- 

 resting incidents about H. M. Stanley, Nansen, Sir 

 Harry Johnston, Dr. Sven Hedin, and Sir lamest 

 Shackleton. Of the last he says : — 



Shackleton told a pretty story illustrative of the daily life of 

 the expedition, and of the sort of men who composed ii. One 

 day he and his three officers, having finishe<l their scanty meal, 

 were hungrier than ever. As they trudged along through the 

 soft snow, dr.agging their sledge, they agreed with each' other 

 that if they lived h> nach home, and ever saw a hungry man or 

 child flattening his nose against the window of a cook-shop, 

 they would take care that straightway he had a good square 

 meal. 



Sir Henry then describes how he found that the 

 Antarctic expedition had been financed by members 

 of Sir Ernest's own and his wife's family raising a loan 

 of £20,000 : and the proceeds of his book, which was 

 translated into nine languages, and was promising to 

 beat the record of British books on the Continent, and 

 the proceeds also of his lecturing tour, went to defray 

 this debt. The Australian Legislature voted jf.S.ooo, 

 New Zealand /[t,ooo, and Shackleton w;is fared with a 

 deficit of £14,000. Knowing the facts, Sir Henry 

 published them in one of the London papers : — 



It happened that the brief article hail attracted the attention 

 of the Prime Minister. On reading it he sent for Shackleton, 

 and the result of the conversation was that the explorer rcceiveil 

 ^ T'-isury grant of £20,000, which hand'.omcly covered the 

 in the cost of the expedition, Ic-iving its leader in 

 ion of the private earning^) he h.id .set asitie for thai 

 I'urposc. 



Sh.acklclon m.ide rare acknowledgmi-nl of Ihii small service. 

 Preparing the chart of his Antarctic loule which accompanic<l 



WHY WOiMEN FIRST? 



Lilian E. Tottenham writes to the Englishcoman 

 for June, asking whether it is right for tlic majority of 

 women on occasions of common danger like the Ic-s 

 of the Titanic to forbear the choice of dejath in 

 obedience to authority : — 



The law of the sea, that the weak should be saved first, is a 

 beautiful survival of chivalry that calls forth our reverence and 

 gratitude ; we cannot wish that any alteration regarding it 

 should originate with men. On the other hand, in these days 

 when women are so busy fighting for their "rights," is it not 

 incumbent upon us to show that, among other privileges, we also 

 claim with men the right of dying for the common good ? Would 

 it not indeed do more for the advancement of women than even 

 a claim to the suflrage if men were made to realise that women 

 are ready so to die, and if women were to expect such action 

 from one another ? One has only to consider the manv valuable 

 male lives sacrificed, the numerous homes left fatherless, the 

 already preponderating number of women among the general 

 population in comparison with that of men, to come to the 

 decision that it is at least permissible to doubt whether any 

 woman who has not young children depending upon her for 

 support, or young children in her charge and with her at the 

 lime of the dis.isier, should accept any chance of life in prefer- 

 ence to men. The existing condition of things is one that 

 honour forbids men to alter. 



SUMMER— IN THE SLTMS. 



JUNic, glorious June ! is here, with all its wealth of 

 roses and leaf and flower, and the meadows are 

 daisy-pied, and the buttercups, " the little children's 

 flower," flood the land with gold. .And the child of 

 the cott.iger is gay and jocund, just because Mother 

 Nature is so prodigal and gracious. But the child of 

 the city is drooping and panting, his playground the 

 dusty street, his touch of Nature the "grotto" at the 

 street-corner, a pitiful little abdrtive attempt at a 

 garden, a still mure pitiful attempt at begging. He 

 has no chance of free, healthy play in lane and 

 meadow. I>en the innocent game of cricket is 

 |)layed with the added excitement of dodging the 

 policeman. And what of the girl-( hild } If siie seeks 

 the far-dislanl park, she must toillully drag the baby 

 with her, the cares of motherhood upon her all too 

 soon. The summer, even with its w.altli of sunshine, 

 is to tlie city child, whitefaced and drooping, almost 

 a har<ler time than the winter. Will you help to give 

 somi- hundreds of these little mortals a taste of their 

 birthright, of the free air and the wide spaces and the 

 glad life of the countryside for one foriniglu in the 

 year? Ten shillings will buy a whole fourteen days 

 of happiness for a child. One pound will do the 

 saniv for an adult. All help to this end will be gl.idly 

 and gratefully received by the Wanlen of Hrowning 

 Setileineni, I'. IIkkukkt .S| kah, Itniwning Hall, \ ork 

 Street, Walworth, London, .S.E. 



