IMPRESSIONS OF LONDON

Hokitika Guardian, 19 March 1926, Page 4

IMPRESSIONS OF LONDON

OUTWARD SIGNS OF PROSPERITY

WELLINGTON, March 17. ■Sir Frederick Chapman, who has been absent from the Dominion for fifteen months on a visit, to the Old Country ami the Continent, arrived in Wellington yesterday 'by the s.s. Maungauui. and gave some interesting impressions he gained of the greatest eitv of the world, London. Being on a pleasure trip he did not make a close investigation of the social and industrial conditions, nevertheless he could not fail to observe the show ol prosperity which was apparent to tiie most casual observer. I'rum residence in the great city one would suppose that the whole population were rolling in money. Expenditure was extravagant, at every turn; the most obvious facts being indulgence in dress, motor-cars, and all kinds of entertainment. On the other

hand, people who lived in London were constantly receiving appeals from clergyman and others connected with charitable relief who described the appalling distress that exists in tile East End and South London. He did not have much occasion to go into those districts, but tho contrast between. ( what the colonial visitor to London saw and what he heard about, from those parts which iie did not see was most striking. The visitor could only he impressed with the, fact that there were two Londons. Judging by appearances in the country districts through which he passed. Sir Frederick said one would suppose there was prosperity in the mining towns and the villages. He found the principal seaside places in England swarming with holidaymakers. All accommodation was booked up ahead, and he was unable to secure quarters. No doubt that was due purely to the intense heat prevailing and the rush to the- seaside from London and other closely-populated centres. At the same period it was very difficult to find accommodation at the French watering places. The apparent prosperity prevailing in London was also noticeable in Paris, and. in the main, in Italy and other parts of the Continent that he visited. In France there was something like general prosperity throughout the country. He heard there exactly the same complaints that lie had heard in England, about the difficulty of securing” labour for unskilled work which

was done formerly. His relative had declared his intention of destroying half the garden and orchard attached to his house because he could not get people to attend to the property. Another man in England whom He found taking weeds out of his lawn had told hint that formerly such jobs were done by village people who were glad to he employed and receive pay for their work, it was not that they now had better jobs to go to. 1 hey simply did not want work. “I don't say that the dole is responsible lor that,” Sir Frederick hastened to add, “nor do I think that is the solution o! the trouble.” But that incident was typical of what lie had been told in various parts in England and trance. While on the Continent Sir I 1 rodcrick paid a visit to Alsace to see how the Alsatians were taking to their restoration to France alter halt a century under German admimsti ation. .Memories of former acquaintance with Home, Venice, Verona, .Milan, and Florence, which Sir Frederick kneit more than fifty years ago. were recalled by visits to those towns, which he found greatly changed.