Thursday, April 26th.—­Major BAIRD made a modest and candid defence of the Air Board against its many critics.  He did not pretend that they were yet satisfied—­in the case of so new a service there could be no finality—­ but he claimed that the departments had worked much more harmoniously since they were all housed under the hospitable roof of the Hotel Cecil, a statement which Lord HUGH of that ilk subsequently endorsed.  Major BAIRD, despite the general mildness of his voice and demeanour, can deliver a good hard knock on occasion.  He warned the House against indulging in a certain class of criticism, on the ground that there was no surer way of killing an airman than to destroy his confidence in the machine he was flying; and he asserted that the “mastery of the air” was a meaningless phrase impossible of realization.  I think Mr. PEMBERTON-HICKS and Mr. JOYNSON-BILLING took the rebuke to heart, for they were much less aggressive than usual.

* * * * *

[Illustration:  “BE A GOOD BOY AND STOP YOUR ’OLLERIN, AND I’LL LET YER SEE THE OLD GENT FALL ORF THE BUS.”]

* * * * *

SICK.

  Dear MR. PUNCH,—­Excuse this tosh,
  But I’ve succumbed to measles (Bosch),
  And all my dreary hours are spent
  Inside a vast and gloomy tent. 
  So, as I’m feeling rather blue,
  I thought I’d better write to you. 
  All known diseases here you’ll find
  (This letter’s steamed, you needn’t mind);
  But in my tent there’s only one,
  I’m glad to say, viz., measles (Hun). 
  The Nurses all are Scotch and stout,
  So are the drinks I do without;
  I don’t complain of lack of fruit—­
  At least we don’t get arrowroot—­
  Nor have I even ever seen a
  Single plate of semolina. 
  So life is not so bad, you see,
  Except for chlorine in the tea. 
  I think that’s all, so now will end,
  Hoping this finds you, dearest friend,
  Just as it leaves me, in the pink
  (My rash is not quite gone, I think).

* * * * *

    “Now those precious divisions have to be hurled into the furnace to
    avert a veritable landslide.”—­Sunday Paper.

The shortage of men in the German Army has evidently been exaggerated.  This confirms the evidence from other sources that they have troops to burn.

* * * * *

AT THE PLAY.

“HAMLET.”

To prepare a very own version of Hamlet and play it with credit—­that is still the blue riband of the Stage.  Mr. H.B.  IRVING has fairly won it.  The version seemed to me apt.  He tells us that his main purpose was to bring out the story as if for those who had never seen the play before.  It is a rational point of view, and certainly it seemed a distinct improvement not to lose sight of Hamlet’s adventure to England, as is commonly the case, and to keep the essential sequence of events and the personality of the Prince constantly before the audience.  The justification of the heroic cuts and adaptations was that the action did move faster towards the tragic end, instead of seeming to drag rather tiresomely as (be it confessed) it sometimes does.