A WET Sunday afternoon sends young people of Bolton in their scores out of town to such places as Manchester and Bury, where there are Sunday cinemas. Buses and trains going to Manchester carry crowds of them, all making for the same destination - "the pictures". This youthful section of the community has not yet given up hope that one day Bolton will have its own cinemas on a Sunday, but meantime the feeling is that there is an increasing urgent need of something corresponding to the American drug store.

The advocates of the "Anglicized drug store" point out that while you can sit and drink beer at any number of places in town on any night of the week, including Sunday, it is almost impossible to get tea, coffee, or other non-alcoholic drinks.

A report published by the Youth Advisory Council several months ago came out strongly in favour of non-commercial cafes where young people could meet, dance, and get food and soft drinks, and described the provision of suitable buildings as an urgent duty.

Now that the war is over, the "teen-age" boys and girls are asking rather impatiently when that duty will be fulfilled.

THE news we publish this morning cannot fail to have a most important influence upon the future of France. The capitulation of Metz, with 150,000 prisoners, not only gives the Prussians direct and uninterrupted communication with Germany and a vast increase of armaments of all kinds, but it releases the army of Prince Frederick Charles, and the troops needed to keep his communications open, for an advance upon Paris and the South. Should the French Government refuse to entertain the terms of peace offered by the Prussians, we may expect to hear of the attack upon Paris being actually made very shortly, and about the issue there can be little room for doubt. Will the foolhardy men who seized the reins of Government in France not proclaim the misfortunes of the country at once, and sacrifice themselves as they must do ultimately, in making peace for the salvation of the people so cruelly betrayed?

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.