1931-12-18 — Page 22

14

HE'

CHINA MAIL: CHRISTMAS SUPPLEMENT, 1931.

The passenger from mouth, looked out who had landed at Plymouth, looked out of the train window and murmured, “Same old Engilsh weather!"

It was misty, dank, overcast weather. Natural enough, for the day was Christmas Eve (in the year 1941). Yet, somehow, the dullness didn't seem to the returned Briton as depressing as he once felt it.

Perhaps it was because the porters at Plymouth had been so cheerful. "How do you like working on a National Railways?" he inquired of the man who examined his ticket (the silly practice of clipping had been done away with)..

"We like "Fine," said the examiner. to feel we're in the service of the nation, not piling up profits for private people."

The traveller put the same query to the engine-driver, and got much the same answer. There was a live, alert look about all the railway men, a look of responsibility. of self-respect.

Perhaps, too, the altered landscape he looked out on had something to do with his cheerfulness, in spite of the weather.

Instead of the interminable grass fields, the vast stretches of country uninhabited and desolate; the infrequent farmhouses, the villages few and far between, there was cultivation everywhere, there were dwell- ings everywhere, villages followed one an- other in quick succession.

The South-Western part of England had come to life since the traveller left his country ten years before. He stared at the changes bewildered.

"This is marvellous," he muttered, "marvellous!"

The man

leaned forward.

sitting opposite heard.and

"You're marvelling at the speed we're making, I suppose," he said in a friendly tone. "These electric trains certainly do never have got slip along. We should them under the antiquated directorates of private enterprise days."

"No," the other replied, "it wasn't that. I was struck all of a heap by the change in *the country-side.”

"Been away long?" asked his new ac- quaintance.

“Just ten years."

The new acquaintance nodded severa! times.

"Yes, yes, of course, you must notice a great difference. And you'll notice other differences, too. It isn't the same country as it was ten years ago."

Is

"Ive gathered something of that; but I've been in a very out-of-the-way spot.

-is-London much the same as it was?"

"Well, I don't know that it looks a great deal changed, except that you don't see any private cars in the streets."

"What, people too poor to have cars?” "Oh, dear, no; but they became a nuisance, so now they can't run in the busy parts, only public vehicles. Oh, yes, and No there's another thing you'd notice. beggars, no poor old women selling matches, no young men singing or playing organs by the kerb. No one need beg now, so no one's allowed to."

are they just what

“And the shops, they used to be?"

"Ha! I was forgetting them. No, in- deed, they are.not. The biggest store now .belongs to the London Co-op. Takes up nearly half Regent Street: Thousands of See them every- shops that Co-op. has got. where."

"Do you mean the society that used to run those. nice-looking grocers, very clean and tempting?"

Biggest business

=

in the "That's it.

Well, you

can't world they've got now. wonder at it, can you? If we can do things

be mugs

to let for ourselves, we should

Christmas 1941

• A Vision of New Jerusalem

procters do then for us and get rich in the process.'

"But I suppose the big industries re- main in private hands? Coal, I mean, and cotton and wool, and iron and steel?”

so far as control “Oh, Lord, no, not

with goes! We couldn't afford to go on that. They'd made such a hideous mess of everything. The coal mines were taken over. by the nation at a knock-out price.

once

"Now, most of the coal is turned at into oil or gas or electricity. You shockingly aren't allowed to burn it raw, in open grates filthy practice or furnaces wasteful too.

-

"Textile mills are still owned by the old shareholders, but their capital had to be written down by half, and they only get a fixed 3 per cent. on their money. Iron and steel works have been taken over by a ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ

Karen Morley, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer player, makes a beautiful Christmas picture framed through the window of her California home.

big public corporation, something like the B.B.C., or the Central Electricity Board."

"And all these people on the land, did the Government put them there?"

"The Government? Oh, you mean those chaps at Westminster. No, no, we don't look to the Government to do much in that

way.

"It's true they did control imports of wheat and barley and other things, and at once there was a rush for land. It could

the past living by owning, as such a lot of people once did, just existing on interest which is all fixed now and, for those who don't work, very heavily taxed. But, prac- tically speaking, everybody works. If they didn't they'd starve, and get no sympathy

either."

“So you think, on the whole, it's a bet- ter Britain than it was in 1931, say?"

"I most certainly do. We aren't perfect by a long way, but we've got rid of idlera: we've got rid of deference to titles and we give every child that's born a fair riches because there aren't any of either: chance to be healthy and wealthy-wealth to us means enjoyment of life.

"No little girls are told they mustn't skip because they've only one pair of shoes wear out. No child is told he can't have and no chance of getting others if they a penny for milk at school because his mother hasn't got it-I recollect hearing of that just before Christmas in 1931. Oh, they were terrible days, those!"

“And all this in ten years. How did you manage it so quickly?"

Each for

"Well, it was the idea of

all and all for each' that seemed to get hold of everybody. That broke down the barriers between classes and the absurd fear of change that had haunted the country.

"We tried all sorts of experiments (oh, yes, some of them failed, of course then we tried something else). We made up our minds that it was all the people who mat- tered most, and not a few here or there...

"We believed in each other, and that helped us to well, to love each other, to fe- we were all comrades, and not we only, but all the people in the world, and somehow in that spirit you can do anything."

The train

He had dropped his voice. was running into a station. He gathered up his belongings.

"In fact, we learnt,” he went on, stand- ing up and talking rather low, "that the message of Christmas was something to live by, that Jesus really meant what He said and not what the Churches tried to make out, and that's the secret of it all.

"That's why we keep Christmas with more meaning than it used to be kept. To us it's really His birthday. Good-bye. wish you every happiness.'

He was gone and-I woke up! But we can make 1941 like that if we choose.

A HARBINGER OF CHRISTMAS

New Raphael Tuck Publications.

Motives of

economy

will doubtless

valuable Christmas gifts to their friends, compel many, who in former years sent content themselves this year with well- chosen cards of greeting.

be got easily, because a law had been passed that any of it which wasn't being used could be put up for public sale at an agriculto tural price by any local authority.

"Co-op.'s started big farms-huge cnes with dozens of villages on them. At the same time, any number of small proprietors started in."

was a Socialist

"But I thought this country. That isn't Socialism.""

""

With this in mind, Messrs. Raphael Tuck and Sons, Ltd., have prepared an even more elaborate selection than usual of their al- ways-pleasing calendars, cards and Christ- mas novelties. Among the latter are packets of daintily tinted paper doyleys and dish- mats in all sizes, and paper souffle cases in various shades may also be obtained. Calendars may be had in great variety and some of the cards bearing Christmas or New Year greetings' are distinctly original and well-worded.

"No, some of the old-timers raised a howl at the time. But what does it matter? An ounce of practice is worth a mountain of theory. All we ask now about anything If so, it's quite is: Does it work well?' Socialistic enough."

"I see. And have you really got rid of unemployment?"

"Oh, I wouldn't say that. There are (The speaker smiled.) unemployed still.”

over sixty, "Children under fifteen, folks and here and there you find some relic ofvelopes.

A pretty line of card novelties will be found in the delicate handkerchiefs tucked into card flaps. Some cards of simple and distinctive style are printed on parchment- like paper and enclosed in prettily lined en-

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