10
THE HONGKONG
TELEGRAPH. THURSDAY,
JULY 15,
+
1937.
3
BRITAIN and the BEAST
LL over Britain little men with nasty,
vari-
clous minds are turning the beauty of our coun- tryside into a horrid mess.
There is still much loveliness left. But they do not despair. Give them a few more years and they will have destroyed the lot.
They are insatiable. And they are allowed, with the minimum of let and hindrance, to do what they please. If we do not applaud them we do not deter them.
Because, you see, they rape in the name of commerce good busl- ness and development; the men and women of Britain who never, have glaven, never nhall be accepted a slavery to the greedy gods of money-making.
Thus before the Incantations of those whon! It pays to scar deeply the face of beauty we are all help- 1c53.
We are all nine people in this year of 1937. We know things that our ancestors did not dream of. We have conquered the sea and the air and turned the elements to our purpose.
Very excellent, knowing and elvilised peoples are we all, but under our hands is being destroyed a heritage of loveliness.
* *
Land that has been gracious and beautiful for more years than can easily be counted is being daily the speculative desecrated by
bullder, who leaves behind him as the nasty record of his debauch a mass of pimply growths upon the face of England.
Houses that were built without hurry in a perfect marriage of material and environment, and have, with the passing of the years, become a fiving part of the country in which they were built, are torn down. In place rise the flimsy, shoddy constructions of men who have gone into land de- velopment because, one presumes, they had neither, the brains nor the morala to nt them for any- thing else.
There la still a lot of grand coun- try left in Britain, But it grows jcu. Every year for the past fifteen years 31,000 acres have been taken for building. If it keeps on, there will be no more farming left in Surrey in a generation or
-To-day's Thought- TAKE from our hearts tha love of the beautiful, and you take away all the charm
of life.
-ROUSSEAU.
no.
In a few years London may stretch to Cambridge without break on the one side, and to Brighton without pause or relief on the other.
Build we must. Men and women have a right to escape if they want to from the con- But gestion of the towns. need we abdicate all our re- aponalbilities?
turn to
Must what 19 still beautiful and beyond compare in Britain have, to charity as the only hope of escape from spoilation as it doca now? And appeal, more- over, to a charity fantastically ill-stocked for dealing with the magnitude of the problem.'
View over the weald of Surroy-and a growing outskirt of London.
REVIEW
By
FRANCIS
WILLIAMS
It is a question we all require to ask ourselves. There is published to-day a book which should help in is It answer. deciding the called "Britain and The Beast." It and is published by Dent's. costs ten shillings and sixpence. which is a pity, though perhaps an unavoidable one, since thirty-nine exquisite illustrations of a Britain so lovely that there comes an un- bidden entch to the throat ns we Turn the pages, and five of the horrid confusion and squalor that unbridled private enterprise can produce, are a necessary and in- tegral part of it.
Mr. Clough Williams-Ellis, who has a reputation as an architect of distinction and as one who has shown in his own building deve- lopment on a stretch of the Welsh coast that good taste and com- mercial success need not always cut each other's throats, is the Editor.
He has gathered around him, in an effort to bestir the social cón- selence of Britain, a team of con- tributors who write with authority -and with, what is more rare, wit and charm-on every aspect of the countryside problem.
*
Morcover, believing that in this case it is not true that good wine needs no bush, he has secured as sponsors ten gentlemen of repute and some public fame, whose views an many things are various.
For they range from Mr. Lloyd George. through Bir Kingsley Wood, Mr. George Lansbury, Loril Baden-Powell, Bir Stafford Cripps, Julian Huxley, and J. B. Priestley. to the Earl of Derby and the Mar- quess of Zetland. But on this -that if we do not bestir ourselves
are all agreed
soon to save the beauty of Britain it will be destroyed.
Mr. Keynes, that admirable economist who is so much more. opens with a just appraisal of the place of order and beauty in the pre-occupations of a State which would be civilised.
He attacks and how badly it needs attacking, for it is at the root between not, only of the war Britain and the Beast of ugliness but very much else besides the dreadful heresy which became orthodox State policy in the nine- teenth century and has remained so until to-day.
**
That heresy is "the view that the utilitarian and economic-one might almost say financial-ideal is the sole respectable purpose of the community as a whole."
That heresy sits so firmly in the seats of Government now that wo have
persuaded ourselves or allowed ourselves to be persuaded, that it is positively wicked for the State to spend a halfpenny on non-economic
Even purposes. education and public health only creep In under an economic ajins on the ground that they "pay."
When," writes Mr. Keynes, "a stretch of cla, a reach of the Thames, a slope of down is sche- duled for destruction, it does not occur to the Prime Minister that the obvious remedy is for the State to prohibit the outrage and pay Just compensation, if any; that would be uneconomic."
Instead, "he helps to administer a private charity fund nobly pro- vided by a foreigner to make such donations as may be required from time to time to prevent such things as Shakespeare's Cliff being converted into cement.
Stories of Children's Parties
I was Jean's birthday party, and
little
friends Inquired, "What time
"Give
us 402!" One little
have I to call to fetch Jean home, "What hymn is it, Johnnie?" he
needn't bother was asked.
Jean?" "Oh, you calling." said Jean brightly. "My
"Bo low have we fallen to- day in our conception of the duty and purpose and honour and glory of the Btate."
That Is not to decry the tho organisations, private National Trust. the Pilgrim Trust, the Council for the Preservation of Rural Eng- land. They do what they can to save us all from shame.
To leave to voluntary offort what is the proper business of the State is sometimes re- garded as an attractive part of the British character. But to leave to private charity the safeguarding of a heritage of natural beauty is not a pleas- ant eccentricity, but lunacy-- and a particularly regrettable and unpleasant lunacy at that.
Nor la the preservation of the countryside by
the any means whole of the matter.
What is at stake is not only that ease and beauty and peace of the countryside of whose healing value to the tired, jangled nerves of the townsman Lord Horder writes as n physician in this book-but that nice balance between the country and the town upon which depends not only the happiness but the economic security of nations,
Here is a matter not merely of a threat to a beautiful view, but of the jeopardising of a whole mode of life. There is more in the countryside of Britain than rolling hills and wide views, cliffs and trees and streams and coloured counties-there is a philosophy of living.
Moreover, "preservation" aug- gests something statle. We cannot stand still here any more than elsewhere. An ancient thatched cottage may be beautiful, but it
may also be--and very often is- unsanitary.
We want na Thomas Sharp writes here, a national plan, under which a central baard will plan and control not only housing and roads, but agriculture, industrial location, and every type of land utilisation. And in order to make the wo require that possible nationalisation of the land,
We want and Professor Stapledon shows how it could be done and made not only socially sensible, but even economically so an increase in our rural population and greater facilities for rural holidays to the urban worker through the provision of national parks.
These parks must not simply be open spaces, but places where urban workers can come into contact with country people and country pursuits, to the general good and the general happi-
11055.
I am glad this book has been pub listed. I congratulate all who have had a hand in it. But the publication of one book, however excellent, is a lttlo thing. We have all of us to think Berlously about this fight between Britain and the Beast anything really fundamental is to be achieved.
**
The safeguarding of what re- mains and the proper use of the land of Britain for the people of Britain is a matter of urgency.
That is why it has been included in the Immediate Programme of the Labour Party as a question which falis rightly into the short list of things to which a Government with a real social conscience will give priority.
That, too, is why it is the business of all of us in whatever way we can to use what weapons are already at hand ta fight a vandalism which would ruin the face and spirit of our countryside.
Here is a cause not merely for the countryman, but for the townaman also. Let both be vigilant.
Aberdeen As She Is Spoke
"I've tint a shee," replied the man, Scotsman can generally ex- press hiraselt pretty forcibly in and it took me some time to under- his native tongue, no matter what stand that he bad lost a shoe off his part of the country he belongs to. horse,
This probably is accounted for by When the smith was putting on Ahe many locally-used expressions
the shocagala the man began to adopted in heated conversations, and complain about the shoe coming off. whether be the smoothly-modulated
it
fan, the relort dis-
Chrlatmos
speech of the true Highlander or the "Weel, it's yer ala wyte," retoried "Ye ga'ed thae sheen for snappy, whining dialect of the Gins the smith.
football
present, an ye didna can be both virile and tell me ye wintit them till gyon ah
- next year!"* different
Row courteous cutting.
At a hiring fair ut Longside, near
between two plough-
far
Amongst the numerous dinjects none can vic with that of the Aberdeenshire native (especially the country-bred one) for local "broad- Pelerhead, I overheard the following ness" and directness of expression, conversation
are 'e the 'ear, The writer resided in various parts men:-"An
one. "Oh, I'm at of the county for many years, and Jock?" asked
brought as his business
him into Cairnbrogie," replied the other. "An contact with all classes. he had a fit kin' o' place is Cairnbrogie?" pur- good opportunity of hearing their sued the first speaker. "Oh, weel. it's nae bad. The meat's some roch, expressions without any
but, man, there alla clytes o'd!"
boy for blowing out the enndles on the Everyday she was beamingly receiving the shouted, but.no one could find such cake. The Ave-years-old had just frilis.
blown out his first candle, when he Being in the hardware line, I call- By this he meant that if the meat guests. The father of one of her n number in the hymn book.
suddenly stopped, and confronted ed on a country blacksmith shortly was rough, it was also plentiful.
after I landed in the county, and ns his aunt,
At the same fuir a couple of young "We'd better not have candles on we were in conversation. a man came
discussing food a beer tent. The "I don't know." he answered your birthday cake, auntic. We'd up to the smithy door with a horse. ploughmen were
Fit are ye wintin'?" asked the matters within
older was describing a conversation A. W. smith.
he had had with his employer some time before.
he said to me, "At's "Robert," Wrong that ye winna take your por- ridge?"
daddy said he would take all the blandly. "It's the number on our be all night blowing them nut." cheaper than giving all their daddles door at home."
children home himself.
a whisky and soda."
You see, it's
It was at a Sunday school party" also that two boys so far
forgot
At a children's Christmas party it themselves as to have a regular set- was decided to give a Nativity play; to. And for weeks before the great occasion the preparations occupled every minute,
"I thought," repronched a teacher as he separated them, "that, you two were friends,”
"Oh, no!" they both assured him "How are you getting on with re- hearsals now?" one mother asked in one breath. "We're brothers."
had The services of a conjurer been secured for a certain Christmas
her little girl.
were
"We are in a fix," came the doleful party, and the little ones reply. The Angel next to me has breathlessly watching his wonderful scarlet fever, and the Lamb has got tricks. A shilling had just vanished Into thin air, and then he turned to could
the renales."
At another Christmas party, which the audience and asked if anyone
obligo with a pound
note.
was given for slum children, there There was no response, and the man was a magnificent illuminated tree, of mystery remarked, "Well, if no and when Santa Claus walked on the one can oblige, then, of course, 1 children shouted themselves hoarse can't show you the trick." "But, with exeltement.
mister" a little boy hopefully sug- "That isn't Santa Claus," one five- gested, "you can get one from behind years-old confided in a loud whisper your car."
to her six-years-old sister. "He' only a Scout. I saw him changing."
In a similar vein is the tale of the little boy of five who had been press- "Shut up!" exhorted Miss Six- ́ed into service as the conjurer's
Fils "and don't you go and assistant.
handkerchief had years-old, muck it all up for the kids.”
been magically waved in the air by the conjurer, with the result that
beneath placed mysteriously vanished.
·
At another Christmas party the everything.
children were fold that Lady X. Arrived home from the parly, he would distribute the gifts, and just was being put to bed, and his mother before the speaker made her appear placed his handkerchief beneath his
A
HO
OLULL
BY EMPRES
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Air-conditioned equipment carried on Trans-Continental Trains, Frequent Canadian Pacific Atlantio sailings from Montrest and Queben,
ance this gem of conversation was pillow as usual. "Oh, no, mother," down the smooth St. Lawrence Seaway, to Europe, overheard between two tiny tots: he protested. "You mustn't do that,
"Is your mother a "Lady'?"
or the bed will disappear, with me in 1."
Was
overheard
* "Well," said the other, struggling "I know who that girl 1s," a new- between loyalty and truthfulness, comer at a party Who is not quite a lady, but very whispering to ber sister. nearly one."
"Who is she?"
She lives noxt door to a dog that
At a Sunday school party the I know."
minister asked one of the children... It is always' a great moment at a
to suggest a' finishing hymn.
birthday party when the time arrives
Telephone 20182,
Canadian Pacific
"Well," I says to him, "ye surely
tak
ak me for a most unhealthy man. Porridge once a day is ah richt, but when ye get it three times, I feel my stomach gettin' poulticed as if I had a festered inside."
An old wife was standing in front of me at a railway booking ofce
olding her grandchild's hand, "Well?" asked the clerk. "Gle's twah tuckets," she said. "Where to?" asked the clerk. The old woman looked surprised.
Turrn, Then she snapped:"" Turra; far sorry, ther!" (Turriff and howhere else.).
man,
A crofter's young son had been staying in London for a couple of years assisting his uncle in his shop, and on coming back for a holiday, he A younger was full of English."
his lingo brother was describing down in the village one evening
"Oo'r Bob speaks like a craw, noe,"
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1
1 She takes you down, while absorbed in a part song here. Went over and was thwarted. 10 Reminds one of what French
water can do for an artist.
x horse. 11 Letter 12 One result of Joining up. 13 In this place put about after the alart, but not in this pince, 14 What the kleptomaniac round the neck of a priest. 10 Gat leg (anog.).
did
18 Pertaining to milk, with a sug- gestion that credit is not given. 20 What the broncho did, and
maybe
Was
on grugs. 22 A pleasant accompaniment to
good wishes. 24 Dines (anog.).
27 Put out, but not at all sulky. 29 If you concur, I ought to hide It in a style that will make unneccssary paren)
opening
30 A piece of furniture.
he said. "Ah he can say Is Yah, 31 Goes for a journey in anger?
yah!" AL small country hotel, where I used to put up for a night occasion- baker's vanman used to call ally, with brend, and, incidentally, get his dram. He was getting his usual" one evening, when he remarked to the landlady:Mrs. Spittal, this 1 my
birth Wool.
Willie, is that so? I'l
hac lao gle ye something for yer birthday. And she handed him a packet of cigarettes.
Disappointedly. Wille picked up he gift, and as he walked to the door, he exclaimed:~~"Good, it's hardly worth while tellin' lees, nool"
Jay-enn.
On the contrary,
32 Reasons why coffee should not
bo treated like a cocktal.
science
33 The rustic pen la all that'a
needed for the curing.
DOWN
2 Overmuch bell-sound in Greater
London.
7 Choose again from the reel, etc.
B What a man is when the vulgar
call him sniffy.
@ Tokes
Д
coples these.
screen outat and
14 Despatches the object inside. 15 Hidden in Clue 29,
17-Garden fish.
10 When you got one you put up
for the club?
21 How to make a snake stop on
the footpath.
23 Permanent, but not so to the
vulgar!
25
The
cause of this affiction may be its end.
26 Hang! It's no good in the
valley. 28. The Continental city that is equally suitable for overlord or subject.
29 The kind
of rag that- no ́one
enjoys on the head.
Yesterday's Bolution -
HANDICRA
[0 FAT N JOHTOKENPOT
REENGREL ITANBULA I
IKT
of
PLUNG
KAFE
迎
4 Useful novelty you'll have to
H
E.
1
3 Hidden in Clue 20.
got in the end.
3 Also, in a couple of words, a
Ewell.
0 Friends do as a rule, though it.
sounds most unfriendly (two words; 3, 2).
E
B
TAI
BLANDI
סא