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Press, Volume LIII, Issue 15871, 10 April 1917, Page 6

It is urged in many influential quarters that in connexion with the movement to promote British, trade after tho war we should adopt a decimal system of coinage, and substitute the motric plan of weights and measures in place of our present archaic and complicated system! As a minor reform, easy of adoption, wo might bring our definition of a, billion into line with, the practice in France and the United States. In tho two latter countries it means a thousand millions; with us it is taken to indicate a million millions. Tho question has hardly been of much practical importance previously, but the war is now compelling us to think in billions—at any rate, in the French, and American meaning of the term.

As to our weights and measures it i 8 really amazing, considering their complexity and abstruseness, compared with tho simplicity of tho motric system, that we have even been able to do any business at all i n foreign countries. Hitherto the British Parliament has approachcd tho subject with th« caution and deliberation usually characteristic of its methods. Mr Allan Granger points out in a little pamphlet entitled "Our Weights and Measures," that till 1824 three separate gallons had for centuries been in use in England; the Winchester com gallon, tho wino galSan, and the alo gallon. The Act of 1524 established tho Imperial gallon of 277.274 cubio inches, and rendered tho iiso of the three ancient gallons illegal. Wo fancy that threo sets of weights and measures —avoirdupois, troy, and apothecaries' weights—are still preserved in table books, but tho troy pound of 5760 grains disappeared as a legal weight with the introduction of tho Weights and Mansures Act, 1878, although the troy ounce of 480 grains and its decimal parts aro retained. As to apothecaries' weight, it is something like. Mahomet's coffin. In the latest edition of tho British Pharmacopoeia tho metric system has been employed for the specification of doses, and as a transitional process the quantities

have also been expressed, in terms of the Imperial system. In 1904 a Bill to render compulsory the use in the United Kingdom of the weights and measures of the metric system was passed by the Houso of Lords. In 1907 practically the same Bill was rejected by tho House of Commons. This is on« of the questions, like Imperial Preference, which, we think, will be approached in an entirely different spirit after the war.

Tho promptitude -with, -which Cuba has decided to declare -war with Germany, in sympathy with the action taken by the United States, is tangible evidence of her gratitude to the latter for the disinterested manner in which she helped Cuba to gain her independence after being continuously in Spanish possession from the time of the discovery of the island. Cuba received its independence under the Treaty of Paris 'which ended the Spanish and American "War in IS9B. On February 21st, 1901, a Constitution, which had been framed by a Convention, was adopted, under which the island has a Republican form of government with a President, a Vice-President, a Senate, and a House of Representatives. Tho United States Legislature passed a law authorising the President of 'the United States to make over the government of the island to the Cuban people ag soon as Cuba should undertake to make no treaty with any foreign Power endangering its independence, to contract no debts for which the current revenue would not suffice, to concede ! to the United States Government a I right of intervention, and also to grant to it tho us© of naval stations. On Juno 12th, 1901, these conditions wero accepted by Cuba. In August, 190G, an insurrection broke out, and a United States Commission assumed tho Provisional Government. This lasted until January 24th, 1909, when the new President assumed office. General Mario G. Menocal was inaugurated in 1913, and his term erpires on the 20th of next month. The military and naval resources of Cuba: are practically negligible, but her formal entry into the '

■war renders possible the seizure of German vessels sheltering in her ports.

Th® most notable messages relating to the war which appear in our columns this morning are thos© describing tb« terrific air fights which hav© been taking place, as a, preliminary, it is thought, to further great military movements. Both sides are in possession of new machines which completely put in the shad© tli© achievements of tho older types. We read of planes dropping from the clouds, making a dive of IG,OOO feet (over three miles) to bomb a train or fir© a balloon, and then soaring out of range again before the enemy can even get rifles to bear upon. them. It is very reassuring to learn that in this new phase of tho war the British are more than holding their own.