NO SANCTUARY FOR PLOTTERS .sx A TRADITIONAL British policy , and on the whole a good one , is to give sanctuary to the victims and even at times to the unsuccessful authors of revolutions abroad .sx That policy , however , ought not to hold good in the case of the two Spanish Air Force officers who are now detained at Liverpool .sx They are not ordinary refugees for whom any feelings of compassion can be invoked .sx They are foiled rebels anxious to use British soil to conspire against the people and sovereign of a country bound to us by ties of peculiar affection .sx One of them stated in yesterday's " Daily Express " that , while three attempted revolutions had failed , the fourth would succeed and that he fully expected to see a republic in Spain this spring .sx In other words , they are plotters against a friendly State .sx Neither our people nor our Government have any use for such unwelcome guests or any sympathy with their aims .sx They should be promptly deported whence they came .sx To-day , as the remains of Marshal Joffre are laid to rest , we salute both the memory of that strong , stubborn , imperturbable soldier and the nation he so greatly helped to save .sx Above all the estimates of him that students of tactics and strategy have formed or may still form , there towers that central attribute of his which no criticism can either assess or impair he had the heart for victory .sx That is his epitaph , and he needs no other .sx We publish on another page an interesting letter from a well-known firm of advertising agents .sx Their letter tells how the directors of Bemax decided to meet the difficult period of the last three months of 1930 by increasing their advertising .sx What was the result ?sx Each of the three months showed an increase in sales of 50 per cent .sx over any of the preceding six months .sx The tribute that is paid to the " Daily Express " and " Sunday Express " for their share in that accomplishment is a tribute to publicity generally .sx These are days of hard fighting with advertising as the ammunition and victory still rests with the .sx heaviest batteries .sx There opens to-day at Burlington House a unique exhibition of the arts of Persia .sx The profound thanks of the British people are due to the Shah , to the thirty other Governments , to the museums , galleries , and private collectors all over the world , and to our own experts and scholars who have combined to make this feast of unfamiliar beauty possible .sx The best way of showing gratitude is to fall to .sx The happiest and healthiest people to be met with at this time of year are those who choose to go about minus an overcoat .sx Having to walk fast to keep warm , they are brisk and alive when their coated contemporaries seem numbed with the cold .sx This bears out the attack made to-day by Dr. Stella Churchill on the general excess of clothing .sx From the health standpoint the best clothes are always those that allow the greatest freedom of movement and do nothing to hinder the action of the skin as a third lung .sx But the day when men and women will dress in conformity with the laws of hygiene is still immeasurably remote .sx THE American Secretary of State , Mr. Stimson , will carry world-opinion with him in the demand he has made on the Liberian authorities to end slavery .sx Enough is known already to justify the statement that this negro Republic on the west coast of Africa , which was originally founded as a colony for freed American slaves , has itself reverted to the worst excesses of the slave traffic .sx How completely a humane purpose has thus been defeated will be still more apparent when the League of Nations' report on Liberian conditions is published .sx Mr. Stimson has merely anticipated by a few days the judgment of all civilised countries when the ghastly facts are set forth in all their repulsiveness .sx The new Road Traffic Act produced yesterday the first case of its kind , when a youth was charged at the Hampstead Police Court with joy-riding without an insurance policy .sx He was fined 2 for taking the car without the owner's consent and 1 for driving without an insurance policy - the second conviction automatically preventing him from driving for twelve months .sx No one will quarrel with that sentence .sx In fact , as the car was involved in a collision , the whole case brings out very strongly the justice of requiring all motorists to insure against third-party risks .sx Whatever other provisions of the new Act may need to be altered , this one will certainly stand .sx Lord Ullswater , to judge by his speech of yesterday , has no very clear idea of the purposes of education .sx He was complaining that he had found children of fourteen writing essays on the Persian and Babylonian dynasties instead of learning things which would matter in after-life .sx That is surely a very trite and superficial form of criticism .sx Boys and girls go to school to have their minds trained , their powers of absorption and comprehension developed , and their general faculties and interests quickened .sx If they get used to exercising their brains that is about as good an equipment for after-life as any school can give them ; and writing essays on the Babylonian dynasties may be just as effective a way as any other of inducting them to think and to concentrate .sx Lord Ullswater will find that the line of attack he chose yesterday will not get him very far .sx Skating is in full force in many parts of the country .sx What an adaptable people we are , or are made to be , by our incomparable climate !sx The moment there is a snowstorm , or the good news goes forth that the ice bears , out come forgotten sleighs and toboggans , skates are rummaged for and polished , and we become a nation of Arctic sportsmen .sx Were there to be a flood a week would transform us into a race of gondoliers .sx And always somewhere throughout the British winter multitudinous games are being played , whatever the weather is .sx Let us never lose this knack of making the best of things , and especially of the out-of-doors .sx MR. BALDWIN'S BARGAIN .sx THERE are two coincident items in to-day's news .sx One is a statement by Mr. Albert H. Wiggin , the chairman of the Chase National Bank of the City of New York the largest bank in the United States to the effect that it would be " good business " on the part of the United States Government " to initiate a reduction of the inter-Allied war debts .sx " The other item , oddly enough , deals with the same subject from a very different angle .sx It is a communication issued by the Conservative Central Office in answer to " the misunderstandings which , apparently , exist in some quarters relative to the part played by Mr. Baldwin in the settlement of the American Debt .sx " This communication has , of course , been inspired and authorised by Mr. Baldwin himself .sx It is his personal rejoinder to the criticisms that the " Daily Ex-press " has levelled against the disastrous bargain he concluded in 1923 .sx The case is as skilfully argued as any such case can be .sx But it collapses at the first contact with realities .sx What was our debt to the United States ?sx It consisted of credits advanced to ourselves , or to the Allies on our guarantee , to enable us to hold the line while America's young and untrained armies were getting ready to protect her honour , her interests , and her investment .sx When the loans were incurred America's cause , Great Britain's cause , the Allied cause , were one and the same .sx That is a fact that ought never to have been forgotten or permitted to disappear into the background .sx Mr. Baldwin buried it out of sight .sx He now tries to persuade the country that he made a better settlement than could possibly have been expected .sx But is that true ?sx If it is , why were France and Italy treated with so much more leniency in regard to interest payments ?sx Why was the common front forsaken ?sx Why was Great Britain , a far greater creditor than she was a debtor , manoeuvred by Mr. Baldwin into the position of paying every- thing when it was highly problematical whether she would receive anything ?sx Why did he make it his business to convince the astonished Americans that if only they asked more from us they would get more .sx It was the most tragic , and the most bungled transaction ever concluded by a British statesman .sx Bonar Law was mercilessly right when he said that a one-sided settlement with America which was precisely the settlement Mr. Baldwin negotiated " would reduce the standard of living in this country for a generation , and would be a burden upon us which no one who talks of it now has any conception of .sx " The Surrey police must be wondering why a malignant Fate has chosen them to be the PIayboys of the Detective World .sx There was the case of the famous explorer whose car was held up , there was the well-known woman novelist who disappeared , and now they have been set digging up a royal park to find the murdered body of a young woman who proved to be quite alive in " another place .sx " It is small compensation to a particularly fine body of men to know that duty is its own law and in these cases its own and only reward .sx Every one will be thorougly pleased that Miss Amy Johnson has had the good sense not to attempt the icy perils that lie between Moscow and Peking at this time of the year .sx She is not the first conqueror to decide that Moscow is far enough , but , unlike Napoleon , she need have no fear about the warmth of her reception at home .sx THE PRINCE'S FINE EXAMPLE .sx THE Prince of Wales leaves England this week on his South American tour , the latest of his many great services to British trade .sx For the purposes of this visit the Prince has been at the trouble to learn Spanish .sx Here , again , he sets an example that the heads of our great merchant houses ought not to be , but too often are , content to admire or envy from a distance .sx No-one imagines that the Prince is enamoured of the grind involved in learning another language , or that a tour of this kind is anything but 1 per cent .sx fun and 99 per cent .sx hard work .sx But he has never yet shirked any duty that he felt to be owing to his country , least of all the duty of equipping himself at all points for the office of national ambassador .sx The suspension of Hugh Gallacher for two months from yesterday is very rough luck on the Chelsea Football Club , who paid a transfer fee of 10,000 to secure the famous centre forward .sx But the offence of which the Football Association have found him guilty is one that all players and spectators of Soccer must unite in stamping out .sx Professional football as it is played to-day is so fine , skilful , exciting and popular a game that all who take part in it should observe the highest standards .sx Abusing the referee is incompatible with any standard of sportsmanship whatever , and all clubs should school their players to accept a decision that goes against them , even if it is a wrong one , as part of the luck of the game .sx On the strength of new orders , and in the expectation of a general trade improvement , .sx the Barrow Steel Company are reopening their works next week after months of idleness during which they have thoroughly overhauled their plant .sx That takes , or will shortly take , 1,500 men off the dole .sx But it does more than that .sx It sends another message of encouragement throughout the length and breadth of the country .sx If a great firm in our hard-hit heavy industries can find it worth while to start up again , other trades will not be long in following suit .sx A correspondent this morning lays a charming bouquet at the feet of the girls of London .sx