The Cruise of the Branwen

INTRODUCTORY If, in far-off Athens, so large a total as 901 competitors was possible for the unofficial gather– ing of 1906, it was not too much to expect at least twice that number at the official Games in London in 1908. Two years ago, in Greece, I saw representatives of America, Australia, Greece, France, Bohemia, Sweden, Crete, Norway, Great Britain, Ireland, Smyrna, Canada, Cyprus, Austria, Constantinople, Thessalonica, Belgium, Italy, Denmark, Egypt, Germany, Finland, Samoa, Holland, Salonica, Switzerland, Russia, and Hun– gary. Apart from the babel of tongues, the con– fusion of habits, names, and characteristics which this list involves, it suggests one very definite difficulty, and that is the number of entries possible in London for every separate event. In Greece there were seventy-seven starters in the Marathon Race alone, and a very high average throughout the whole of the seventy-two com– petitions. As we shall have more than twenty separate nations competing here, and as many competitions as there were in Athens, it is perhaps just as well that our arena at Shepherd's Bush could hold the whole external breadth of the Athenian marble stadium upon the 100 yards of turf which is inside our running track, and that the 235 yards in length of this same turf is bigger than the external measurement of the Coliseum at Rome. But no building would be big enough unless the definition of " one country " were very strictly made, and unless the number of entries possible from " one country " in each event were very strictly limited. Some idea of this limitation may be gathered 9