As the Silver Jubilee of George V was about to get under way last week (see p. 20) many an eye turned to Canada to see what expressions of proud imperialism might come from His Majesty's mightiest dominion. Observers found Canadians less deeply engrossed in the King's 25th milestone than in the question of whether they might be obliged to go to war again. Student pacifists, leagues against war were as profuse in Canada as in the U. S. Few weeks ago a seasoned old Quebec M. P. named Henri Bourassa pushed a measure through Commons sustaining the Kellogg Anti-War pact. Leading the anti-war campaign was Canada's largest newspaper, the rich, radical Toronto Star.
Timed to reach a climax with the open ing of the Jubilee, a series of full page layouts of war pictures appeared in the Star every day for three weeks. They showed soldiers dying horribly of gas; soldiers of many nations fighting or drilling with the same make of machine gun (Maxim); preparations in Paris, Berlin and Tokyo to protect civilians against gas attacks.
There was nothing startlingly new about the Star's war pictures. A far more gruesome series was published last year. Up-&-coming, the Star had also printed the story of Edith Cavell, executed by the Germans as a British spy, and Dickens' Life of Christ. The latest Star exploit prompted irreverent newshawks in Toronto to revive a verse privately circulated last year to poke fun at the Star's Publisher Joseph Edward Atkinson, his son-in-law and vice president Harry Hindmarsh, his one-armed Editor Vernon Knowles. Composed by two members of Toronto's Writers Club, the verse is called "Ad Astra," sung by beery newsmen to the tune of "The Campbells Are Coming." Excerpts :
To Hindmarsh and Knowles Mr. Atkinson
spoke: If we don't sell more papers the Star will go
broke. I've three supersalesmen who say they can
sell.
They're Jesus and Dickens and Edith Cavell, Chorus:
Come fill up our columns with sob stuff and
sex, Shed tears by the gallons and slush by the
pecks. Let the presses revolve like the mill-tails of
hell For Jesus and Dickens and Edith Cavell . . .
As a lover this Dickens is really the bunk, His letters are long and his technique is punk, But he looks kind of sexy, his whiskers arc
swell; And besides, we've got Jesus and Edith Cavell.
Edith Cavell is the best of the lot.
It's always hot news when a woman is shot.
Get plenty of pictures for those who can't
spell,
Of Jesus and Dickens and Edith Cavell. Chorus:
Then hey for the paper that strives for the
best. (If Jesus makes good we'll put over Mae
West)
With cuties and comics and corpses and smell, And Jesus and Dickens and Edith Cavell.