THE following was taken from the editorial column of the West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser, for the 9th of July.

"The caustic criticisms which Corn- wall Police Authority have lately made about flag days may have been a true expression of the public's irritation at being accosted as they go about the streets, but those who undertake the not very congenial task of organising these collections must have taken them in a pardonably bitter mood. There is much to be said—and members of the Police Authority said it—against flag days, yet there is a want of logicality in decrying them at a time when it is the vogue, in other contexts, to deplore the wilting and decay of voluntary service. It is hardly con- sistent to wax indignant or scornful about the State as an all-provider, and then to suggest closing one of the channels through which voluntary help can make itself effective. To organise a flag day is an opportunity, not with- out its difficulties, for those in whom the desire to be of use is not quenched to help the causes they have at heart, and through their efforts people who can afford but little can give their mite.

The public are getting ever more disposed to regard the multitude of State-provided services as something for which nobody in particular pays.

"This attitude of mind is exempli- fied in the County Council's difficulty in convincing people that the ambu- lance service is not theirs to command as a sort of free taxi service to and from hospitals. Whether flag days are intrinsically good or bad, it would be a pity to destroy them as a vestige of the voluntary spirit which was once so strong and now becomes enfeebled.

There are still many -good works, whose worth to the country cannot be exaggerated, which struggle on without a penny of revenue beyond what the goodwill of their friends provides, such as Dr. Barnardo's Homes, the Royal National Life-boat Institution, and others. It would be grievous indeed if a popular antipathy to flag days should injure them at a time when a constantly rising cost of living threat- ens more and more to dry up the springs of private generosity.".