14 APRIL 1917, Page 3

This avowal is the most cold-blooded piece of cynicism which

we have ever read. In plain terms, it comes to this. The Star thinks it wrong to print betting odds in time of war. It feels, however, that if it ceased doing wrong, other people might make a hit out of its virtue. Therefore, with a great air of conscious rectitude, it abandons the effort to be virtuous—unless the Govern- ment will step in and make everybody equally holy ! The Star giyos this precious lesson in morality the sub-heading " What the Government. Could Do." It should have added another : " What the Star Could Not Do "—i.e., do what it know to be right unless its rivals were also compelled to do right.