EUROPEAN IMPRESSIONS,

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1558, 30 September 1912, Page 6

EUROPEAN IMPRESSIONS,

ADDRESS BY JUDGE COOPER. At the meeting of the Wellington City Men's Brotherhood, held in tho Kew Tlieatre yesterday afternoon, Mr. E. Arnold, J.P., occupied the chuir, and the opening exercises were concluded by tho Rev. li. O. Bla'niires. Tho speaker of the day was Judge ■Cooper, who described some of his impressions in a recent visit to England, and the .Continent ot Jiurope. At the outset he mentioned that he had attended one Brotherhood meeting in the Old Country. There were between 1300 and 1400 men present, and ho received a shock when he was asked to speak, within ten minutes, upon his ideas oi the strike then in progress. These working men, Judge Cooper remarked, showed a very reverential spirit, and one could not help sympathising with them in their trouble. A stranger visiting England could not help being depressed at seeing the tremendous crowds of the poorer classes .in the East End of London. Seeing these people one could not avoid saying that the times were out of- joint. ■ The most depressing feature of all was that the poorer pco'plo seemed to have no hope. One was not surprised at tho revolt of the people against the conditions in which they were, living. , In passing, Judgo Cooper commented upon the aggregation of people in cities. The population of London was sevetn times that of New Zealand. The city held one-sixth of the' population of the United Kingdom, and, excluding India, one-tenth of the population of the British Empire. While ho "was in London, Judge Cooper mentioned, there was a strike of 4000 girls employed in a .jam factory. The highest wage received- by any of them was 10s. a week. It was fortunate that the strike lasted for only three,days-, since, if all the girls had been discharged, there were 4000 others ready to take theii places. There were from nine to twelve applicants for every vacancy as soon as it was known to exist. . ''! There was much cause for thankfulness, Judge Cooper remarked, in the fact that the heart of' the British people was sound. There was a tendency in some cases to go 'too far, but such tendencies were largely due to men not English, who were J in tho lead. In visiting tho manufacturing towns he had been much impressed by the education and intelligence of targe numbers of working class men. These men studied earnestly the problems arising out of their own social life. These problems would have to be worked out by the majority, and-because the people were sound at heart they could be trusted to settle their own problems eventually and never go far. wrong I .' England 'was' going through a transition period similar to those which had occurred in past history, which had assisted in' the uplifting of humanity. Judge Cooper said that he was very pleased in his journeyings in Germany to find that'the German people themselves were very' kindly disposed towards the English people, although they were to a certain extent antagonistic to the British Government and the British press. The war scare was largely a newspaper scaTe got up by editors. There was an antiGerman feeling in England, and the modified anti-English feeling that he had mentioned in Germany, but the feeling in both countries was largely due to newspaper work. A frientl of his had suggested as a remedy, that would put an end to the talk of war, that all the editors in both countries should be hung. -' In France, Judge Cooper continued, the feeling, was that the hatchet was buried between the French and English. In both ' England and Germany there was a feeling that England could not fight. Germany, and that Germany could not fight England. In France there was a feelinsr that Germany could not go to war with Franco because of the financial inter-dependence of the two countries. He did not necessarily subscribe to this opinion. The heart of France, said Judge Cconer, v.--as in the country. The peasants and small farmers were a most. frugal people, and many cf them were creditors of the Government. At the same .time there were signs of decay in France which were not visible in Germany. ■ Mr. Ena Ward sang a solo—"The Green Hills'f—<vnd was encored. Miss Pees recited. 1