THE EDITOR TO HIS READERS

AGAIN, with very great satisfaction, we are able to put before our readers a new  Volume-another in the long series which, year after year, has been eagerly looked for by British boys in these home islands and in those "Britains beyond the Seas" which have been drawn so much nearer to us during these last four critical years.

The Volume is leaner than its peace-time predecessors. That was inevitable, for  the simple reason that the full supply of paper had become unobtainable, and what was available could only be got at an almost prohibitive price. The wonder is, not that our Annual this year should be of reduced size, but that it should have been possible to produce it at all.

When once that fact has been realised, we think our readers will have nothing but praise for the treasure-store of good reading and beautiful illustrations which our contributors have enabled us to bring together. Some of the latter-drawings by Stanley L. Wood, Algernon Black, John Campbell, etc., picturing various features of the War-are exceptionally striking.

In our last year's introductory words we expressed the hope that before another Volume was completed the end of the present tremendous conflict would be in sight. That hope has not yet been fulfilled. At the time we write (the early summer of 1918) great issues seem impending, but fleets and armies are still arrayed against one another, and the great objects for which Britain went to war have not yet been attained.

 Our readers, therefore, will not expect aught but a war-time Volume: one that will properly reflect what is going on in the various spheres of fighting. In this they will not be disappointed. Sometimes in story form and sometimes in ably written articles, and occasionally in graphic pictures by specialists, they will find much of intense interest concerning our glorious Navy and navy- men, the sturdy courage of our mercantile marine refusing to be daunted by the new terrors which strew the seas today, the intrepid patrol men and mine-sweepers, and the watchers of our coasts whose obscure services call for such endurance and patience. They will learn of the things accomplished by our Naval Pigeon Post, and the help it has rendered in saving lives in peril; of the wonderful deeds of our airmen, who have achieved the same superiority in sky fighting and scouting as our sailors attained a century ago on the seas. They will read, too, of the truly wonderful daring-never surpassed even in the old Peninsular and Waterloo days-displayed by officers and men in the huge armies which Britain has put into the field, and the equally valuable stubborness of defense and resistance which they have opposed to the enemy, even when he has attacked with overwhelming numbers.

Along with these stories will be found others concerning the splendid men who have come across the seas in thousands from Australia and New Zealand and Canada and South Africa and many a far-off island and settlement. Right valiantly have they assisted us, making an immortal name for themselves as first-class fighting men, and proving to all the world that the home islands and the widely separated Dominions stand or fall together.

 But our readers will find in this Volume much that is independent of the War. Stories of adventures romantic tales from History, scenes of travel, Nature studies, indoor hobbies-all are represented here And so with the great games, too. Lord Hawke, President of the M.C.C., talks of boys' chances of getting into "big cricket"; footfall is dealt with by two or three prominent exponents, who give most useful advice. One of these Talks is by a front-rank player who has since given his life for the Empire in naval operations in the North Sea.

And so we commend this, our Thirty-ninth Annual Volume, with its record and suggestion of glorious hardihood and fidelity and devotion, to those who will be the men of tomorrow; and largely for whose safety and well-being their fathers and elder brothers are making so tremendous a sacrifice .

 THE EDITOR.