LONDON SUPREME AGAIN.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 July 1920, Page 4

LONDON SUPREME AGAIN.

WHY ALL 'HiK WORLD is GtilNG 1 THERE. | LONDON, May 14. j There is a bigger rush of new poulntion to London at the .present time than in the known history of the world. Many of the newcomers mean to settle down and stay. We hear much of the American invasion. It bids fair to be rivalled by the Oriental invasion, the Dominions’ invasion, and the coining of the Continentals. , I The reasons for this rush are many. London has, since the war, become the focus of the world. It is hero that the fate of nations is now settled." If you have a new crusade to launch, a new religion to preach, an ancient nation to save from tyranny, or a reform to advocate, London is the starting place. New York city Thought a year ago that she had wrested our financial and commercial supremacy from us; New York has since learned her mistake. Paris retains her charm ; but men believe that the clouds are gathering there and the storm may hurst. In London the social barometer marks “ set fair.” Easiness men from over-seas are pouring in because they realise that London to-day is the world’s “ boom ” city. There is, for example, more land speculation going on here at present than in the wildest Western city at the height ol the wildest Western boom. One man, only a few days ago, was offered £230,1)00 profit on a single real estate deal in West London, and refused it. Fortunes are being made here over-

night. The rises in value are not ail illusory, either. If the present rush means anything, it means that within ten years Loudon will be a city of ten million people. That will automatically send central site values up by at least 50 par cent.

It is now possible for Asiatics to wane here in big numbers for the first time in their history. London has for two centuries been the Mecca ol the East, hut poverty made the Oriental view it from afar. Thanks t° the war, the economic position of Asia has been transformed. Eight hundred million people have found their wages and prices trebled almost in a day, and their products in overwhelming demand. This is one of the most vitally important events in recent history. One of its secondary results has been to enable, large numbers of Asiatics to come to their dream city, London. We shall have an Oriental Quarter here, as San Francisco and Victoria have; the poor Oriental who accompanies the rich will settle among us and the Chinese servant will be a familiar figure. The Americans are coming here for varied reasons, some for pleasure, some to escape prohibition, some to near the graves of their sons who fell in the war. American business men have discovered that almost the only way to tackle trade in Europe is to start by establishing an English branch with financial and administrative headquarters in London.

The holiday-makers are coming from te ends of the world by their scores of thousands, because the world has discovered that London to-day is the most delightful city on earth. Other cities charm on the surface but disappoint beneath. But men of East and W T est alike find that the more they know of London the better they love it. Nowhere can one find such varied interests to absorb

London is supreme again, Mistress of the World. TJie fanning of the great agmy of new settlers among us is going to make certain profound changes in our lives and great differences in the external aspect of London. What some of these changes will probably be must be a matter for separate description.