In London.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1366, 17 February 1912, Page 17

In London.

Ail Australian's Impression. ©— ®

When you -get to know the London people you find them just as pleasant, just as sociable, and just ns sympathetic as Australians. At first they are not easy to approach, for tho operntiou of tho caste system makes thera fearful of strangers. "With my cousins and relatives I had no trouble, in scouring their interest and their friendliness; with everybody else I have met in London there must be a formal exhibition of your pasaport, followed by the birth of personal liking, You see it in a Londoner's eyes the instant you aro introduced to him. He mentally measures you to find the fit of your caste suit, and weighs you on his mind's balance to learn your social weight, and whether it be above or below his own. '

In the city this matter of presenting credentials is an important preliminary to doing business. The trade of registering the status and the credit of everybody who goes into I/indon 'to do business is conducted on gigantic lines under what .is really a widespread system of.espionage. Without this' method of personal and private.inquiry the expansion of.London s finance? and ..commerco wotfld . not have been possible. -'Much time is wasted and many delays aro invented while ths merchant or the financier is finding out all he can about the stranger who offers him trade or business. Australians chafe under this procedure, and tho delays are exasperating. ~ "Why can't, he givo me his answer? In Adelaide, Sydney, or Brisbane my proposal would have been taken up or turned down by now. These Londoners 'are slow." This is a regular commentary on London, business methods, and the stranger does not suspect that very likely information about his career and character are being awaited from Australia, before the London man of affairs will give him an answer.' That system of inquiry is .applied to the private individual as strictly as it is used to test his business. It is the touch of nitric acid to find whether • you are dross or gold. All .London is split up. in cliques,'cartes, and classes. " 'Once.you find to which section you belong and are received within tho charmed circle you will have nb. trouble in making friends. The stand-offishness 6f_- tho - Londoner arises f;rom respect for - hi?., caste, engendered by, a constant contemplation of the aristocrht'y. at the'.top. ', ;Tho,'aloofness of the rea}"aristoci'at. or nobleihan lias been bred' i&to hi 9 bones by generations of training. Human .'pride is used when the young aristocrat's mind is receptive and plastic to implant in his mind that pride of caste he carries to his grave. And insensibly' the other Londoners imbibe the spirit of caste.' By other peoples it is mistaken for snobbishness, whilo by the vulgar it is called "Side" or "swank." In ■reality it is part of the Londoner's suit of armour worn by overy member of his particula* caste. Nobody ever tnlks about ■ it, and uie stranger, from the, periphery of civilisation' frequently fails to observe the noiseless-.operation of 4110-caste, system. 'Yet it is'working the whole time. Do nflt; expect'ton Imich hospitality or attention'or warm,. expressions of feeling from a. dweller ;ih London, the terrible Dinosaur among cities. Or at least, do not expect as much aa you would receive in an Australian town, simply because "it is not the custom, and it is repugnant to traditions to enthuse about a stranger. In fact,,, the Londoner is precisely the fame kind o{ ; tmmajv as an Australian, with the ,differehc« that he is 'controlled by convention.. . EyeTything , is.'done. by him according, to"-ritual learnt at his mother's' knee.' He does all things exactly as his great grandfather did them, and his litany of life is the same, yesterday, :.to-day ; .-.nnd,ito-morrow..:.;-.To the freer-minded'i > tfit'ralian' it , 'ls ; hiird to jinderstanc(fiithis attitude oft slavish imitation of 'all old habits, manners and customs. It' tuay be it is part of the sturdiness of 'the r,ace, that steadfastness to its standards of life, which has enabled our race to go 'So'far..'•■lts basis is the old Latin verb sto—stare, to stand fast, And the warning seems naturally to" fall in here. Don't judge the capacity of a Londoner entirely by his peculiarities o£ speech, or of dress, or of manner. Bohind his caste mask, which ho never doffs entirely, he is alert, thoughtful, and intelligent... That man with tho monocle and the

affected manner of speech, dressed like a dandy and. supercilious as a Czar, may all tho time be scoring points in his business duel with you. His friends wcro bequeathed to him by his parents,-and ho does not seek new ones, lie does not even bother, to male© acquaintances. The Londoner stacks to the people his family has always i. known, and tho'attachment is quite reciprocal. AVhat the people in the casto above or the set below him aro doing, saying, or thinking is no concern of the true 'Londoner. lie doesn't even

want to kn'ow their names, and has no curiosity about their incomes, Ho observes the rules of his casto' and that suffices.

In Australia, you may talk with the Chief Justice and shako hands with the postman. In London, you would not do those things if you could. It would be contrary to ritual, and it is not "playing the game" to do aught 'against custom. All of which is not said in dispraise of Londoners, among whom I number dozens of good friends and some intimate pals. London is supposed by all outsido its pale to be thp, centre of light and learning, and it is'credited with constant progression in thought and action. Truly one does not find it so. The people are certainly growjng more luxurious every year, because rnore of them aro growing richer. AVliile ,the city attracts the nouveaux riches from all the new countries, the country is becoming more and more the playground; of rich foreigners. This does not signify any, growth- in tlie corporate intellect, nor ally general advance in either educntibn or intelligence. Itather is it the other way. To. mo the London business man of 25 years ago was a better all round man than his successor of today. Hn was undoubtedly ■ more honest, because his standard of commercial morality had not been impaired by the modern struggle for monoy. London is filled with alien adventurers, and tho aforotirae tents of upright dealing, the most precious heritage -of tho merchant or the broker,, are .unintelligible to and unwanted-by the present-day leaders of commerce and finaricc."

The man in control of London's ftnanco lias been contaminated by contact with tho new capitalists from America and Africa, who have degenerated by association with inferior people. Slimness has supplanted honosty, and when you go into London to do business, put down your visor, couch your knee, and never forget to act on the defensive. . Yet while wealth has enormously increased of lato years, nothing of tho harshness of the struggle for life hus been mitigated. The middle class and tho poor are having a worse time than ever, and one mnch .more helpless and defenceless. Thera has been no instalment of the muchneeded and much-talked of social reform, and things'have gone from bad to worse with tho vast majority of the population, chiefly owing to tho diminishing food supply, 'he poor quality of their food, and the steady upriso; in its cost. Between three-fourths and four-fifths of the food eaten by the British is imported, and unless there bo n cataclysm and a complete regeneration of .the national policy, the whole of Great Britain's food supply will be brought from abroad. At present ,£>(1,MO,000 vvorth of wheat and (lour is imported annually. ft is a dreadful position to contemplate. Out of every 61b of 'flour consumed in Great Britain, onlv lib. is made of home-grown wheat. There is rarely more than live weeks' reserve supply ill the country. The rest of the wheat consumed is afloat, a week s supplv always, being about a week s distance'away. The Government should pay a bonus to local farmers, on home-grown wheat, and protcct them otherwise. Owing to the u=o of grain elevators in tho United States and Canada there _is always weevil present in transatlantic wheat which both flavours and colours the flour. , . Board of Trado figures prove that. GO per c«nt. of tho pork and bacon is unposted; much of it from foreign countries, where Hie pig is a scavenger anil lire's 'on offal'. Xwo-tliic<ls of the moat eafoft in London is imported. It coracs frozen'..or chilled," and. 'is- afloat trom 10 to i? 0 days, depending on whether »r •xunos from North Amcrica or has been carried on a tramp steamer which has

spent nearly three months lurching in and out of ports of Australasia fathering cargo. There is never more than a month's supply in London. Forty million pounds' worth of meat is imported every year. Frozen meat is the only meat the middle classes get to eat in London, labelled and sold lis home grown. It is dark ill colour, hard to cut, sickly to tho smell, and has an earthy taste, derived from tho dark, cold chamber. The fresh home-grown meat is bought by the rich, by the idubs, tho big holds, and expensive restaurant?. Vet the art-rage Londoner deludes himself with the idea that he is getting the roast beef of old England and Welsh and Scotch'mutton. A Government bonus un home-grown meat is urgently needed. \\ hat meat the ]0,u00,0110 poor pr-nple eat in the United Kingdom' makes one shudder to imagine, it is called "scrags," and looks it. A Chinese butcher's shop in Canton looks appetising'compared with a u'East End meat shop. The rats, mice, dogs, cats, and lizards the Chinese exposes fur sale look clean; the East London meat looks nauseous, and is. Fish is largely eaten, especially by the very poor. In 1911!) overooo,OOOcwt. of fish of the cheapest kinds was imported into Great Britain, in addition to the millions of hundredweight caught round tho .coast. The herring, a cheap common fish, is the staple breakfast dish in London, i'ou gel. it dried, smoked, salted and raw, but alwavs stale. Kippers, bloaters, sprats, smelts, haddocks help tho Britisher to begin his day's work. He starts out for his oflice or lactorv after having eaten a pound of salt fish, and then wonders why he is so thirsty as to need beer all (lay long. He never eats anything fresh for breakfast. Everything is stale from age or from it.s nature. Of eggs, 55' per cent, arc imported, even from Siberia, and most of thein are from seven to fourteen days travelling to don. Less than one-third of the Britishers butter is provided at home, the rest coming frozen from overseas, arid bein» ot' any ago from one month to twelve. The best home butter is never seen in the shops, for it goes straight to the homes and hotels of the rich, as also do the home-grown eggs and milk. \ ast quantities of milk pour into London from France, Denmark, and Holland, all frozen. When one comes to consider 'the groceries used by the Londoner, the case against food -grows stronger. Tea, sugar, coffee, and cocoa are naturally of en-, tirely foreign origin, and never entirely fresh. And there are no such pure food laws in Britain, as, thank goodness, we have in Victoria. Adulteration is rampant in every direct-'on, and is applied to every commodity tho people eat. One shudders to think of the vile compounds in tho form of tcroceries foisted upon the poor. No wonder the London working man and woman are thin, small, and weedy. Their food fails to nourish.

A walk through the crowded East End thoroughfares stirs tip one's pity for these unfortunates, for even when they have money, to buy food, it is of the poorest quality and "in the meanest, -quantity. Vegetables and fruit : are sold - : to them stale and bad. I have seen, a small cabbage cut into four pieces anil sold at one penny a quarter. A decent Australian pig would turn in disgust from the apples and bananas exposed for sale. No wonder consumption, the Great White Plague, plays havoc amongst the . population. .There are said to be 10,500 deaths annually from consumption in Greater London, with a population of ten millions. Our Commonwealth death rate from consumption is exactly half that of Britain. After learning by evidence the kind of food the vast majority cf the people eat, one readily understands why consumption and _ many infantile maladies duo to mal-nutrition are so rife.

, Food, and especially the food'oonsumed by the poor, is largely sold in street markets, the barrows and carts being backed into the kerb. There is no covering from the dust and London black grime, and no protection from the sun or wind. Meat, fish, fruit, and vegetables are exposed for sale in a dirty environment. The gratings <jf the gutters' leading to the sewers lie under the trucks of meat or fish. These are merely the markets of the small hucksters and costers.

One might expect modern sanitary conditions in the great markets which act as distributing .ocntrps-Smithfield for meat, for fruit, flowers, and vegetables, and Lcadqiiliall in the centre"'of 1 the city for meat and fish. AY hat do you actually find? Ancient buildings, earthen floors", dark and damp stalls, .old fittings with rusty hooks, and nothing shining, bright, ..or clean. All the London markets need pulling down and rebuilding on hygienic lines. In any case they ! are too small and obsolete for mighty London. All the stuff is handled by hand many times before it reaches the consumer. There are no electric or hydraulic appliances for conveying these perishable goods, which suffer every time they are touched. Owing to the widespread existence of sweating,.. tlie Londoner's clothes are cheap, though:thi talk, of the'wearing apparel is shoddy and poor',in finish. The majority of the middle' class buy their clothes from the big . stores readymade, while the whole of the working class and the poor never buy new clothes, everything they wear being second-hand. The rich men and women buy only tho best clothes made of the best materials, made up by sweated alien tailors of both sexes. These underpaid workers can be seen all day long travelling in the buses and trams with bundles of garments in all stages of growth towards the basements of the West End tailors' shops, down which they slink furtively with their unwholesome burdens.

The chief markets for second-hand clothes is found near the end of Leadenhall Street, which begins as Cornliill at the Royal Exchange and Mansion House, and runs half a mile full tilt into the old clothes slums. Petticoat Lane is a street market for sec-ond-hand clothing an<l street after street radiates from Middlesex Street, the official name of Petticoat Lane, holding shops kept by aliens whose Asiatic anoestors learnt when the world was young how to buy worn-out clothcs cheap and sell them dear.

The houses of the Londoner are either too old to be cosy or too young to be comfortable. Volt either live in a motheaten old-fashioned building or .. in a modern jerry-built structure. Iu the one case ventilation and lighting are absent or imperfect, and in the other tho high price of land leads to rooms as big as boxes, low ccilings and tiny windows. All tho old-fashioned houses in tho districts between llolborn Viaduct and Shepherd's Bush have basements, where th© domestics are kept. They lack bathrooms, and present tho retiring rooms in tho most favourable position, n;ar the dining or sitting-room. Tho Londoner is not a bather. Tho average height of the houses is five storys, also a basement or dungeon, crammed with unknown horrors, where tho domestics survive. Perhaps thrco or four of tho rooms aro of decent size,' with fairly high ccilings, and the rest aro cubicles, with low roofs and paltry win- j dows. Routs and taxes within tho inner circle are about twice what they aro for I similar housoa in Melbourne. The houses in the ne'v suburbs are small and poky, and built to tho same scale in the same way. Tho larg&t fortunes of the last twenty-five years have been mado by 'contractors and building speculators, because it was nearly impossible to make mistakes, for as fast as tho villas and cottages wcro completed they were occupied. Everything about these run-'em-up buildings is cheap right through, from the embossed name-plate on tho front gato to tho cheap lock on the cheap door in tho cheap back feucc. And tney aro filled as fast as they aro finished. Of the dwellings of the poor ono prefers not to write. It is merely deplornblo human beings should bo crushed into such fetid hovels. It is claimed that Glasgow is worse than London in the crime of forcing tho poor to live in vile dens in filthy surroundings. No Australian imagination is elastic enough to form a conception of the homo 3of the i>oor in London! In London, the magnificent, the glorious, the home of all the great and little Britons of tho past, the greatest city earth has held, yet always, London the City of Dreadful Day".—From tho Melbourne "Age."