POINTING THE WAY .sx TO-DAY the Liberal Summer School opens at Cambridge .sx Every successive year reveals the value of this gathering of Liberals , whose enthusiasm is an inspiration to thousands throughout the country .sx The discussions give enlightenment on many points of party policy .sx Indeed , it would not be too much to say that the School has done a great deal towards the shaping of that policy .sx The School keeps its virility because it steers clear of orthodoxy or rigidity in its programme .sx A free agent , it welcomes the party critics as well as its most satisfied adherents .sx If Liberalism is to play its part in world progress it must remain sensitive to new ideas , ever ready to combine the best of the past with the promise of the future .sx The Men of Tomorrow meet at the Liberal Summer School .sx They take as their one guiding principle " The greatest good of the greatest number .sx " Liberals who bewail the dark days through which the party is passing should study well the speeches at Cambridge these next few days .sx They will find there the material from which Liberalism can renew its appeal to the reason and intelligence of the electors .sx Politicians of other parties will watch its proceedings with the closest interest .sx In this way the influence of Liberal thought on current and prospective legislation will be maintained .sx Besides pointing out the path of true and virile Liberalism the School is a corrective to Tory blundering and the follies of the wilder sections of Labour .sx " RITA , " the Popular Novelist , Says .sx IT'S GOOD-BYE to " SENTIMENTAL SLUSH " .sx The Modern Miss and No Risks in Her Engagement .sx WHAT better thing can befall a girl than the definite prospect of a good marriage ?sx Possible nothing , yet the led horse shies involuntarily at the first obstacle .sx At first it may have seemed a vague show , but a nearer approach creates uneasiness .sx The shadow has a substance , reality .sx It is associated with duty ; it wants to make life serious .sx It prevents indulgence in the vagaries and coquetteries that are second nature to a certain sex psychology .sx It asks one to forgo a thousand fantastic , delightful intimacies in order to concentrate on one .sx " Oh , " says mademoiselle , the fiancee , " if this is being engaged what on earth can I expect when actually married ?sx I must amuse myself .sx I must dance with whom I please and go where I choose .sx I'm fond of A , but when I marry him why should I cease amusing myself with B or C or any other alphabetical interest ?sx CAPRICE , THEN A TIFF .sx This gives her furiously to think .sx The first careless rapture of " engagement " disappears from life's programme of events .sx She indulges in a few caprices as trial .sx The young man is patient at first , but , if he really cares , he begins to ask himself whether this sort of thing is likely to be conducive to happiness .sx The affair drifts along until the current is stirred by stormy passages ; the pleasant sense of " belonging " shows an alarming tendency to rebel against asserted rights .sx A tiff , a scene , a quarrel and then - the engagement is off .sx With a sudden sense of elation the fiancee of yesterday announces herself as the free lance of to-day .sx She seeks no sympathy ; she offers no excuse .sx THE MERRY WAY OF THE JILT .sx Nothing to-day but is subject to change - neither engagements , nor marriage , nor divorce .sx If the modern girl changes her mind as often as her dress - that is only to say she is modern .sx So the jilt goes merrily on her way .sx No one thinks any the worse of her .sx She will have plenty of other offers since she has shown herself wise enough not to consider the first as anything more than a casual contract , lightly entered into , easily broken .sx Her grandmother or her mother , poor dears !sx are horrified at such unprincipled discarding of her obligations , but possibly , had they had the chance of freeing themselves from an unwise decision , they would have done so , too , and been all the better for it - grandpapa , being a stern and selfish martinet , and father a weak and dissolute spendthrift who started out as a fortune-hunter and has made mother's life a variegated " movie " of scenes and trial .sx ENGAGEMENT WITHOUT MEANING .sx This wise daughter has taken notes of it all .sx She is not going to run any risks .sx That first " affair " with A promised well enough , but after consideration and a new , excited intimacy with B she deemed it better to end it .sx B may turn out no better than A , but at least she is free to risk the chance - or take others .sx It is very nice to be adored , but at best the adoration doesn't seem weather-proof in the sort of weather her modern life threatens .sx Once upon a time an engagement was considered as important as marriage .sx It is so no longer .sx It may be a prelude ; again , it may not .sx Even society is not now the cut-and-dried thing it was in Victorian days .sx " An engagement is announced " has as little meaning as an engagement .sx A PASSWORD TO NEW ADVENTURE .sx Miss Modern has an abhorrence of " sentimental slush " - her description of anything so foolish as love-making .sx Love to her is just an attraction of the senses , some casual propinquity that has afforded excitement .sx She will accept the giver and his gifts in the sense of " engagement , " but does not intend to tie herself to the prosaic further result of home and domesticity .sx If the partner of the engagement holds a different opinion , she merely tells him it's " off .sx " In Victorian days a broken engagement was discreditable enough to hamper a girl's future .sx Now it is merely a password to another territory where she may explore new possibilities .sx Miss Modern can " jilt " her way to marriage over a pathway of broken engagements and be none the worse for them .sx She is merely showing how wise she has become .sx " After all , " she will tell you , " four broken engagements are better than three divorces !sx " NO HALF-WAY FOR MR. SHAW .sx MR. SHAW has gone only on a short visit to Russia , but his stay there will be more than a nine-days' wonder - to the Russians .sx To begin with , he had some minor criticisms of Soviet methods .sx Take architecture , on which Mr. Shaw is a devastating authority .sx The Russians wanted a Five Years' Plan in the study of stheticism .sx And some more to the effect that the revolution had submerged the intellectual in the material .sx Now the " Talkie " Mr. Shaw has completed in Moscow reveals him as a full-blooded propagandist of Leninism .sx There could not , of course , be any half-measures with the High Priest of Omnipotence .sx We must adopt the Soviet model , it seems , or our modern civilisation must share the fate of so many civilisations of the past .sx Looking around a war-weary and struggling world , he can discern nowhere else any evidence of a plan big enough to give any hope of our ultimate salvation .sx Mr. Shaw may be sincere , and the Russians may take all his encouragement at its face value .sx As we know him rather better in Britain we do not always take him seriously .sx He has made a habit of saying things that shock as well as stimulate .sx Die-Hard Tories may lose some sleep over his latest display of Shavian unorthodoxy .sx The majority will shrug their shoulders and say " G. B. S. again !sx " and add a mild expression of wonder as to whether the publicity gain is greater to the Soviet or to G. B. S. .sx On his own showing Mr. Shaw could be so happy in Russia .sx It should be easy for M. Stalin to induce him to become an honoured citizen of the Soviet .sx Will he stay there ?sx Even with all his enthusiasm , we doubt it .sx And we don't want to lose him .sx MR. LLOYD GEORGE .sx TO-DAY'S news about Mr. Lloyd George is good .sx The operation which was suddenly decided upon has been successful .sx Happily , although Mr. Lloyd George is 68 - an age at which no operation can be regarded as a light matter - his general health has been so excellent that his doctors anticipate a steady recovery from the after-effects .sx A prolonged absence from the House of Commons will be inevitable in any event .sx He will be sadly missed , both by friends and critics in all parties .sx Mr. Lloyd George has continued to exercise his dominance in Parliament , even when the party he leads has shrunk in numbers .sx His personality , his vigour , his debating ability make him the greatest figure in the House .sx He is the " Father " of Westminster by virtue of years of service .sx He gives place to none else in the services he has rendered to the nation and the Empire .sx In these last few days fears have been expressed that the strain and tension of the war years were beginning to tell .sx There seems little immediate reason to think that the illness from which Mr. Lloyd George is now suffering means the early closing of a rich career of politics and statesmanship .sx CARRYING IT OFF .sx YORKSHIRE'S victory over Gloucester puts the county in a strong position .sx On their present form they seem likely to run away with the cricket championship .sx Considering the unfavourable conditions which marred the early games and cost Yorkshire probably a loss of about 30 points , the lead of 41 points is a marvellous performance .sx There has been only one defeat - and that was the memorable one-day game at Sheffield , for which Yorkshire exacted full revenge yesterday .sx Sutcliffe , Macaulay and Robinson are the heroes of the latest triumph .sx It was not a game where the " new " men gained the successes .sx Which all shows the all-round capabilities of the team and the reserve power which has caused the downfall of the county's opponents , big or small as they may be in the cricketing sense .sx MAGIC OF COWES .sx MECCA OF THE WORLD'S YACHTMEN .sx FESTIVAL THAT MADE THE EX-KAISER JEALOUS .sx THE most talked of place in the world this week is the little town of Cowes .sx Here the greatest yachting festival known has been held for a century , and while it is in progress the anchorage in the roads is swarmed with vessels from every nation .sx It is the Mecca of the yachting world , and during the week all Society goes there and lives afloat .sx The ex-Kaiser once tried to capture its secrets and founded a Kiel " Week , " but it died an early death .sx This little town in the Isle of Wight is the headquarters of one of the most famous sporting societies existing - the Royal Yacht Squadron - and it was about a century ago that another " Sailor King " ( William IV .sx ) presented it with the first King's Cup .sx Cowes , however , has been famous for yachts for much longer than 100 years because Queen Elizabeth had one built there .sx TIME OF THRILLS .sx For the yachtsman himself the week is a time of thrills and flying spray and to the onlookers an unsurpassed pageantry of white sails and graceful lines running before the breeze .sx At night the celebrated " Roads " are turned into a fairyland by a blaze of green , red and yellow lights , while by day gaily-coloured bunting of many hues flutters in the breeze .sx Not the least part of the fascination is exercised by the constant goings to and fro of a wonderful assortment of vessels .sx There are the towering yachts , slicing knifelike through the waters , heeling over at such amazing angles that to the landlubber it is a miracle how they ever recover ; gnat-like little naval vessels with their smart crews swarming everywhere ; puffing ferry-boats trying to look dignified ; and a little distance away majestic liners slipping off silently across the Solent bound on their Transatlantic voyages .sx Many famous races have been sailed on these historic waters and thrilling stories are legion .sx One of the incidents nearly ended in tragedy , for during the race for the King's Cup in 1912 the ex-Kaiser's schooner Meteor was driven down on her beam-ends by a fierce squall and , becoming nearly unmanageable , was a terrible danger to other vessels .sx FAMOUS RACES .sx On another occasion Lord Ailsa's famous yacht , the Bloodhound , was rammed and sunk by another noted flier , L'Esperance .sx