20 JANUARY 1939, Page 6

One other picture of the visit to Rome raises a

question worth considering. After twenty years might not the con- ventional wreath-laying by Ministers of any country visit- ing any other be quietly dropped now ? It has nothing in common with a national service at the national war- memorial, like our own at the Cenotaph, for it has become by this time as much a matter of formal routine as the leav- ing of cards. And when the virtue has gone out of a cere- mony it becomes almost a vice. * * * *