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Hong Kong, Thursday, Dec. 1, 1938.
THE RIGHT TO "HOLIDAYS --
EB 171998.
Flying and the Public
•
#
The Secretary for Air has just set up a committee on the on- trol of flying, and the om- mittee is instructed to devote its attention to public safety. and amenities. Its duty is to examine the exist- ing regulations governing flight, especially over populous districts, the means for their enforcement, and further mea- sures which might be taken to promote the safety and the amenities of the public. Lord Gorell, the chairman, knows something about aviation and has a good deal of sympathy with the suffering public. It it interesting to notice that the committee includes Sir Lawrence Chubb, secretary of the Commons Open Spaces, and Footpaths Preservation Society and of the
Scopa... Society.
The noise of aircraft flying low over houses is intolerable, and nothing so completely shatters the charm of moorland and the gentler countryside. Britain cannot in a small island build a large Air Force without some unpleasantness, but can by acting with foresight reduce the nuisance to a minimum.
E*
The movement in Britain towards holidays with pay, which has now grown to a point where it can claim and justify legisla tive sanction, represents no more than an attempt to do för modern industry what was done in a more haphazard way for workers and labourers be fore the Industrial Revolution. In an address to the Royal |-
Society of Arts the other day, Labour's Prescription Lord Amulree traced some-
thing of the history of legisla In a manifesto running to great tive and customary holidays which existed in the British Isles from the Middle Ages un til the eighteenth century.
It is easy to feel more sentimen- tally attached to the old holi- days, each based on some A Popular festival or saint's day,
which invested them with. Sam character quite different from that which a simple statutory week in the summer can claim; but it is not certain how thor- oughly they were observed in practice or how considerable was the slackening of work which they meant for most people.
Lord Amulree quoted, for in- stance, a law of 1552 which prescribed certain days dur ing which all kinds of secular labour should cease. but on which the people were exhort- ed to occupy themselves with works of religion; and a law enacted in Scotland later in the same century clearly in- tended that "days of rest" should be as fully occupied as any other.
In times when many, either in the e country or in the towns, were their own masters it would be difficult to lay down general rules about when and to what extent they should cease work.
Church festivals were the coun- terparts of excursion trains, and holidays were the same strenuous affairs that they are to-day..
But when the working popula
tion had been dragooned into cities neither the Church nor the seasons nor their own in- dependence could afford them holidays.
It is only in quite recent years that every man's right to a holiday, and one that, as Lord Amulree insisted, provides the worker with "not only the leisure but also the means to go away or to do interesting and healthful things,” has been generally accepted.
length the Labour party, through its National Execu- tive, has expressed its view of the present situation and of the policy which the situation demands.
very depressing but, unfortun- ately, not inaccurate picture is drawn of the state to which the country has been reduced by seventeen years of Conser- vative government.
This state, says the manifesto, is
not a result of democracy but of the betrayal of democracy. The need for rearmament is strongly enforced, and other measures advocated are a Min- ̈istry of Defence and a Minis- try of Supply, the organisation of manpower without compul- sion, prevention of profiteer- ing, heavier taxation on large incomes, increased home food production, and large-scale
food storage. The national plan must be the
manifesto insists, based on Socialist principles; the Labour party's proposals for national control and orgamsation finance, food productión, for- eign trade, coal and power, of transport, and of arms manu- facture have become necessary measures of national strength and defence.
Finally, the imperative demand is for a new and firm. Govern- ment which “will renew the strength of our democracy, restore the self-respect and influence with our neighbours which we have lost, and work towards the rebuilding of the League of Nations and of a real collective security against aggression."
The Executive's efforts to be constructive-if this is held to be constructive-stop short at this stage however. When there is opportunity for prafft- able linking of prorressive forces, prejudice is reasserted and the idea of harm working with other parties and groups rejected.