LONDON’S LURE.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3412, 17 February 1920, Page 7

LONDON’S LURE.

_.___o_____ \.nA'l' lb 111 E FASCINATION? Hn..xL in it. about London that exer--.~i.~,.;s raucll n fascinaition no-t only over us 1..-sideiits but also over visitors f:UIl1 all quarters of the globe? (asks a writer in the London “Daily Mail”) It cannot be beauty, for there are many other cities more beautiful, greener, and architecturally superior; besides‘ such things aittract only the curious or interested minority. It cannot be its There size, for that in itself would not fascinate. It cannot be its luxury and wealth, for I know people to whom such things are but hearsay who confess to this mysterious longing for London. It cannot be its lights and life, for there are thousands of its residents who have clung T 0 London from choice when the moon was a danger and London life was Very sad.

It eannolt be its rnuseums, for the Londoner leaves them to tourists; nor its educational facilities», for they are no more than those of any other city in pl'opol't.ion to its size. It certainly eannclt be for its lle*.-“xltlriness, for that is a. minus quality. It is not even its business -opportun'ltie.s, for by far the greatest. proportion" of London's residents arethose who can just manage to “rub along” and 1177 more. Yet I know Scotsmen without number, and some Irishmen, who-. having gl'avi't!ated to London, now say they never feel happy away from it. 1 know many Anlel‘le.alls who declare that after a taste of London they could never settle in any other coun~try, and others who, while they c'3_nnotrt reside here permanently, find annual exeuses for trips to London merely “to be here again.”

I know of Australasians whose fighting fitness brought them to England who either have succumbed to the lure of London and are (taking up busi ness interest-_t,~ here or have. declared that they will never rest in their native land until they have come back to visit London agaili. One Anzac," referring to his Gallipoli experiences, told me “it was worth’ it all to see London.” ‘ Then I know couuutry folk, women born in London and settled through marriage in distant villages, who would give all they have to be back within sound of Bow Bells. VVhat, then, is. the fascination that keeps Londoners faithful to their city love, that drags the exile ever back and transforms visitors from other countries into devoted admirers‘? Is it that Lonflon is one vast pano—rama of constant change, and that within ‘it lies an inexhaustible store of ir.u'rel‘est, exei*l:exnent, and appeal, vary- ‘ ing with every moment of the dayl and night. and Satisfying all‘? B'ut that might equallv he said ofl Paris or of New York. What, then, i; the particular lure of London‘?