CROWDED LONDON

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 129, 2 June 1937, Page 20

CROWDED LONDON

A PATIENT PEOPLE

APPROACH OF CORONATION

THE ABSENT BUSES

■ > (By Nelle M. Scanlan.) , •;"'■ LONDON, May 5.H We are on the last lap. Today week is. Coronation Day,, and if the sun shines* as warmly there will be general

rejoicing.: Events are so crowded,•'. in

fact, the whole day is stiff, with festivities of some kind, and even a tough

and courageous colonial cannot stand up to the pace. To add to.our difficulties, all the London, buses are, on strike. It is queer to see the busy streets without those large, lumbering red buses which daily carry tlieir millions to 'pleasure and'to work. Yet life goes on. In. any other capital city there would be an accompaniment of riots and disorders, and a brew of bad temper and discontent, working up. to some spectacular climax, London is a marvellous city, and the people the most patient in the world, and .their- good humour; under the most trying circumstances is a thing to awaken admiration. ' ' v The underground', trains are paqked to capacity, and. at rusii hour so great is the crowding that very often people are carried past their stations, as they simply cannot ,get out. And, if they could, the platform is so jammed that there is not even foothold. Many

workers have to walk several miles

night . and morning. • All sorts of vehicles have been brought from obscurity to carry people, and bicycles and tandems are weaving their way through the traffic congestion of the West End. &

Never before have I seen so many private cars in town. For the present parking regulations have been relaxed,

and cars are packed into every side street and corner, and. you are not chivvied about by the police.

On Monday morning I went to town to do some necessary shopping, and left my car for three hours in one spot without a rebuke. On my way in I saw a well-dressed old lady walking tern derly on her tired feet, and when she came to a bus stop she stopped and looked up, whether to the bus stop or to heaven I cannot say, but if ever there was a prayer in pathetic eyes: "Please heaven, by some miracle send me a bus," it was there. I opened the door and she climbed in, and was grateful for the lift to town.

Coming back later, I picked up another elderly woman and took her to her destination, and then it occurred to me that there must be many others glad of a lift, so I spent the rest of the day "running a taxi." I specialised in old ladies with bunions, and, believe me, Hampstead was ; full of them, though I did collect a varied group before evening. A warm spring day became swelteringly hot, and a heavy thunder shower added to the discomfort. I picked up a perspiring, fat old nannie with her small charge and took them home, and;she panted her gratitude at the gate. My next iwas a pathetic old charwoman, limping along in someone's discarded high-heeled shoes, which she had worn to the bone, and the, crooked heels must have been torture.' She had a large bag filled iwith her-apron and odds and ends, but. it-was not until I got my next fare, a German girl with a.'heajjy/ suitdase, which she'earned a few yards and rested a few minutes, that I disciiveredj the- old_.char^.had left; .some of Her peirquisites on my running board; four large and juicy half-peaches ; out of; a tin". Her loot must -have slipped out of. the bag. A lame girl walking with a stick, several women with heavy parcels,.' arid a 'mixed bag of general passengers,•filled my.afternoon. One grand old' veteran, who told me that her family had- served the -Duke of Norfolkjls-family for generatipriS, kept saying,: ; " Yes, my'■ lady. , No, my'lady," from force of habit, no doubt..';.'./

Ai PIANOFORTE ;RECITAL,

I retired from the' ranks of taxidriver 'in:'time to reach Esther Fisher's pianoforte recital' at the Wigmore Hall that evening. In spite of no'buses running, she had . a x'emarkably good house,: and; a most distinguished audience, which included Lady•■• Snowden, in a rose-pink' velvet cloak arid a diamond band across her hair, who was with, the Hon:.:J: A.>Hanan,arid^Mrs:' Hanan, of New Zealand. I also saw Mrs. Knox Gilmer and her daughter Jean," and Mrs. Dorothy Ashfprd rand her daughter. ;■ ' ■':■"■

Esther Fisher, who is one of the finest pianists New Zealand has turned out, wore a lovely gown of ivory georgette and silver lame, with one; of those new touches, a chiffon swathe in .two colours round the waist and falling in long ends at the side. Her colours were jade green and pale mauve. She played: a varied programme of Brahms/Mozart, Chopin; and a group of moderns, was over-ivhelmed;-'wfth the loveliest flowers, and was accorded quite an ovation at the end, and in next morning's papers she received excellent notices for her playing. ''■>.■■ . ;'■■' ~;

,Next;morriing, Tuesday, the star item was the;arrival of the Prime Minister, MrV Savage, at Waterloo at 11 a,m. Fortunately there is a good ~ underground service to Waterloo, and the absence of buses did not keep New Zealanders away. They were in great force to welcome him. At night I went to. the P.E.N. Swinburne Centenary dinner. ( Mr. Lawrence. Binyon spoke on-the life and work-of the.poet, but, apart from the mutual interchange between guests, the most interesting item was the reading of some of Swinburne's poems by Marie Ney.

LITERARY LUNCHEON.

Today, Wednesday/l have just been to a literary luncheon, at which Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, was chairman. Married to Queen Mary's brother, she is, of course, an aunt of the King, and it was an unusual distinction to have a member of the Royal Family in the chair. The theme of the speeches at this Coronation luncheon was the new reign. Sir Francis Younghusband, who has half the alphabet after his name, spoke of "Religion'in the New Reign." He is one of the most distinguished writers and authorities on Tibet and India, and he expressed the hope that as the Archbishop, of Canterbury played so prominent a part in the Coronation at Westminster Abbey, showing the spiritual importance of the crowning of the King, the heads of religion in India should have a similar importance in the Durbar when the King is crowned in India.

Miss Clara Andrew spoke of Service in the New Reign," and as head of an adoption society, of which Princess Alice is patron, her subject was "babies."

Mr. Eric Gill had much to say on "Art and the New Reign." One of our most famous sculptors, he may have designed, the sombre black robes which he wore, though his outlook was distinctly "red." The "decaying capitalistic system" was dealt a blow or two. He had an amusing jeer at portrait painters—lap-dog artists he called them —who flattered for a fee. Landscape painters did not fare much better, as he declared they, too, so flattered the scene that we all knew it .didn't look like that when we saw it last summer. Whether he really favoured the pictorial representation of the harrowed soul I cannot say, but he foretold that

such paintings would increase in the •new reign, because, I gathered, this was the only subject not contaminated by. capitalism. And the marriage .of art and industry he deemed-, a misalliance which degraded ■'■ art; for the purpose of making dividends.,: ':.,

! Sir Arthur Willert switched us from art to economics when he spoke of j"The Empire in the New Reign," But it was not really of the Empire he spoke. As one who has spent his life mixed up in foreign affairs, he is not an advocate of Empire free trade. He pinned his faith to Washington's bud- | ding idea for economic co-operation between the "free" countries, that is the British Empire, the United States, the Latin American countries, and;' such European nations,as are fre^e to 'assist. Canada, he assured us, ' has,valready given special preferences to Amfricah goods, and though he admitted.that the British farmer ahd many,of the" Dominions would not welcome the freer competition of American "products in British markets, he seemed converted to the idea that it would be all for the best. . '•,'••.•■'.