OCCASIONAL NOTE

In connection with the general reconstruction of the educational system at Home the rival claims of classical and of modern languages are once more being carefully considered by the authorities. In order to furnish useful information for guidance, Mr. Clarke, the Lecturer on Education in the University of Aberdeen, has published the results of a census he has taken of language teaching in the secondary and higher-grade schools in Scotland. It appears that Latin and French are strongly represented in all the schools. Several of the schools report a recent discontinuance of German, but it is not probable that this will be permanent. Greek comes fourth, but fewer pupils are now studying it than formerly. In recent years Spanish and Russian have been added to the list. Spanish especially has come to be recognised as a much commercial value, and it is now being taught in 11 of the 56 secondary schools from which the returns have been compiled. The importance of Russian, which is taught in only two or three schools, seems to be less appreciated than it ought to be. Of Italian there are no more than traces. As a rule, two languages are studied, but in many cases three, and in a few cases four, simultaneously. This is considered to be as large a proportion of the time as can be spared without neglecting other subjects, but the question is being considered whether the best use is being made of the time.

BOMBAY MILL STRIKE

BOMBAY, JAN 3

Latest news regarding the strike is that about 40,000 operatives of 25 mills are out, and also 5,000 workmen of the G.I.P. Railway workshops. The earlier strikers brought out others by threatening them, and the European officials of the Sassoon Mill were stoned. The military has tonight been called out as a precautionary measure, in view of the lessons of the last strike when the presence of a large number of troops in the streets before the strike had reached dangerous proportions reassured the shopkeepers and non-strikers, and demonstrated to the strikers that so long as they were law-abiding the presence of the military meant no harm to them. The causes of the mill-workers’ discontent remain nebulous, the only definite demand being that a month’s bonus. Outside mischief-makers are blamed for creating the trouble.

CHILDREN’S PLAYGROUND

H.E. the Governor will open the Calcutta Children’s Playground on Monday, the 12th instant, at 5-45 P.M., and arrangements are being made to have about 250 children between the ages of 5 and 10 years present. They will be entertained to tea at 4 o’clock, and afterwards will receive presents from a Christmas Tree. It is, naturally, very difficult to select which, out of the hundreds of children in Calcutta, to invite, so the Committee decided to write to a number of schools and ask the principals for their assistance. Special tram-cars will leave Esplanade Corner at times to be notified later, and children having tickets will be accommodated therein, or else conveyed to the Playground by motor-cars and lorries which it is hoped will be kindly lent for the occasion by well-wishers.

SLUMP IN RAW JUTE

The Financial Times states that the jute market is in a serious position at the present moment. While the demand for jute goods from all parts of the world is still increasing and prices are rising the demand for raw jute has almost entirely ceased during the past few weeks, and prices are dropping. It would seem that there is far more jute available than the trade is able to digest at the present price. The supply is beyond the demand, and therefore the price must come down. When in the middle of the summer the Indian Government issued its estimate of the jute crops of some eight or nine millions of bales, experts here calculated that there would be a shortage of the raw material. They estimated that the Continent, which meant chiefly Germany and Austria, would require 560,000 bales or 50 per cent of their prior consumption.

BURMA S NEED OF RAILWAYS

A correspondent of the Railway Gazette makes a strong plea for better railway facilities in Burma. Now that war is over he writes it is to be hoped that the Government of India will recognise its obligations to its outlying province of Burma and not sink again into the apathy and neglect of its communications which has characterised it for close upon a century. There will no longer be the stimulus which the demand for wolfram caused in the last few years, and which caused more to be done for the communication of the Tavoy district between 1914 and 1918 than in the 90 years which elapsed between 1824, when it first came into our possession, and the opening years of the great war. Wolfram mining, which employed over 13,000 hands in Burma last year, and their production might be increased if a railway were opened.