Commercial Activities.

Nor must reference be omitted to the extensive and important commercial branches of the Railway Publicity Department. The chain of railway bookstalls extends to all parts of the Union, and vast quantities of books, periodicals, and newspapers are handled annually by this large off-shoot of the departmental activities. As Manager of the Publicity organisation, Mr. Tatlow has, of course, controlled the operation of the bookstalls, and has been further responsible for the multifarious advertising undertaken page 23 by the Railway Administration. This advertising has a place in railway time-tables, telephone directories, and other publications, and is especially prominent on the widespread hoardings of the State-owned transportation system.

In connection with these commercial activities it is interesting to note, for example, that travellers approaching Capetown are enabled to purchase, while on the train, copies of newspapers, and this system has been put into operation throughout the Union. To illustrate the practice, due to the Railway Publicity Department's organisation, copies of papers are rushed out of the latter city by the earliest available train in the morning or evening, and so greet railway passengers travelling seaward, while they are still many miles distant from Capetown.

As regards the poster and show-case advertising. South Africans can take a particular pride in what the Publicity Department has done for them in these directions, and widely-travelled persons often declare that the advertising on Capetown station is, in attractiveness, equal to any to be found in far older countries. The Publicity Department likewise controls the large number of sweetmeat and other automatic machines on railway stations throughout the Union, so that there, too, Mr. Tatlow has been called on to give an ever-watchful eye.

About the end of May, Mr. and Mrs. Tatlow sailed for England and the Continent, and will be away from South Africa for about six months. It is their intention to settle in Capetown, and Mr. Tatlow has already been elected to the executive of the Cape Peninsula Publicity Association, to which body his wise counsels and wide experience will be of great assistance.

A gathering in honour of Mr. and Mrs. Tatlaw, and organised by the committee of the S.A.R. and H. Magazine and the staff of the Railway Publicity Department, was held at Railway Headquarters, Johannesburg, on the evening of Monday, 12th May. The function was very largely attended, and opportunity was then taken of making presentations, as mementoes of esteem, to the retiring Publicity Manager, and Mrs. Tatlow.

In concluding this appreciation, it is appropriate to remark on the very happy relationships which have always existed between Mr. Tatlow and the large staff of his Department, and it is certain that none will more keenly regret the Publicity Manager's retirement from official life than will the personnel of the Railway Publicity Department.