CHANGES IN LONDON.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 January 1922, Page 10

CHANGES IN LONDON.

IMPRESSIONS pF VISITOR. WOMEN LOSING EMPLOYMENT. Some interesting impressions of pre-sent-day conditions in London were given at Auckland the other day in the course of an interview by Miss Eleanor Gunson, who recently returned to Auckland after an 18-months trip, the great-* er part of which was devoted to art study in England under a leading artist. One of the features of life in London that impressed Miss Gunson was the way in which women seemed to have vanished from the many avenues of employment they (undertook during the war. On a previous visit she had found them doing men’s work everywhere, on the trams and omnibuses, at the railwaystations, in the post office and other Government departments. It was thought they had cojpe to stay, so far as many of the positions were concerned* and that there would be plenty of work for women as well as men in the postwar life of London, lyut time bad proved this impression to be wrong. There were a good many women running lifts, and, of course, large staffs in offices and similar positions, but they were do longer doing the work of men. DOMESTIC PROBLEM STILL ACUTE. Unemployment, indeed, was the chief subject of discussion during Miss Gunson’s visit. In may quarters it was held that the unemployment dole had aggravated rather than relieved the position. In one case, for instance, which came under the personal attention of the speaker, a young married man objected to his wife’s desire to go to work, as he was earning quite sufficient to keep them both. She, however, decided that a position in a dairy suited her better than staying at home. After a while, she lost her position, ahd immediately applied for the unemployment dole, although her husband was still in work. This was only one of scores of similar instances. Questioned as to whether the freeing of so much female labor had relieved, the domestic position, Miss Gtunson said that, so far as she could see, it had made no appreciable difference; help was just as hard to get as ever, and although greatly increased wages were offered, girls did not seem inclined to take up housework any more than in the past. “1 noticed an extraordinary change in the spirit of the people, as I remember them on my last trip,” remarked Miss Gunson. “In spite of unemployment and hardship, people seemed quite insatiable in their craze for diversion and excitement. The same spirit seemed to be reflected in their style of dressing. I do not think it was merely the change in the fashions. Women dressed freakishly, in strange clothes that impelled attention; it was not merely ‘loud' dressing, but absolutely freakish, neither attractive nor beautiful.” INTENSELY HOT WEATHER. The intensely hot weather of the pastsummer had driven the people of London to all kinds of expedients for keeping cool, continued Miss Gunson. One of the most interesting sights she had seen was the crowds of men and little boys bathing in the Serpentine, in Hyde Park, every day. Scores of ragged urchins would race into the park from the hot streets, fling off their scant garments behind the nearest tree and dash into the water, where they played about for hours in an abandonment of joy. Sports and recreation of all kinds seemed to play a much more important part in the lives of the people than formerly. “London was ‘tennis-mad’ last summer,” said Miss Gunson. “The public courts in every park and garden were crowded from dawn to dark. No matter in what direction you turned there were girls and men playing tennis, and so great was the increase in the number of play.ers that at one period it was impossible to buy ’balls.”