ENGLAND AS AN IDEAL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9602, 23 September 1909, Page 3

ENGLAND AS AN IDEAL.

I British influence in Turkey should j bo strengthened by the impressions made by English institutions, people and customs, on the Turkish Parliamentary delegates who recently visited England. One of them spoke of the "constant wonder of Englishlife " Dr Riza Tewfik Bey, a man of considerable note, delivered a remarkabla eulogy of British ways to a representative of the London "Standard." Before he came to England he had thought he knew the country and its people, but he found that what he had known was only part of the truth. "I knew, for instance, , before I came that many schools and instituti ns were supported and maintained by the personal donations of private i - dividuals, b it I had ro idea th ,1 the Erglish chu.itable instinct v.u so general. In Newcastle I was surprised to learn that the income of one of the hospitals there had boen increased by £12,000 a year solely by the contributions of the working men of that city. This fact gave me some idea of the deep and strong sentiment of charity even in lower classes of Er.glish society." London, with its 8,000,000 people, and not a disturbance to be seen, amazed him. Newcastle, Manchesttr, and Liver- ! pool struck him as being more than cities,— capitals of industry. The physique and morality of the people made a great impressiun on him. The frankness, freedom, ai d grace of the English children made him think that in the training of the young lay, to a great extent, the secret ot Eng land's success. "The English acter struck me as being very fins, indeed. It seems a combination of two great virlut-p, gentleness and thoroughness—a combination at once rare to find and difficult to produce." Dr Kiza is firmly of opinion that if the Young Turks are to succeed in their mission they must copy the ways of the English. "We consider them as our best friends in the world, and our masters in all matters j pertaining to modern civilisation." I This will piease Lord Curzon, who I delivered a homily the other day on , the prevalence of pessimism in England, pointing out that while the pessimist 3 th;)u ; *lit Eigland was going to the dogs, foreighers were constantly coming to England for ideas.