1954-02-13 — Page 5

MIDDLE CLASSES VANISH

By

Les Armour

IQUIDATION, to кау

L' The least of it, is a

naughty word. IL conjures up visions of Georg! Malenkov, hammer in ONE hand and sickle in the pther, chasing kulaks acroHA Siberian sleppen.

Nevertheless, unless the figures lie, that seems to be the word for what has been happening to Britain's middle classes.

they

Happily (or otherwise) haven't been shot, shoved inlo salt mines, or reduced to a mental pulp. But they disappearing Junt the same

аге

Since 1038, their standards of Being have Taflen between 30

ral 60 percent--swcording

tu

ince slatinien which have Depart-

Just leaked out of the

inent of Inland Revenue.

...

The slice of the national in- come,

which they oner allegedly fattened! themselves the suburban paradises, has been awallowed by the working Plast. Working class standards have been rising-slowly and painfully, it in true, but rising all the same,

NET LOSSES

The man who earned £500 A yea is 10 ml so WIN Lock filled by se atalisticlans into the middle clowny would have to farn £1,000 in 1954 in onirg to keep hinvolt in the Sure

degree of comfort. Mostly.

scens, he will earn about £750 in 1054. In some casen he will get only the rame 000 corned in 1938.

}

to

The ranks of the E500 £750 n year boys have been

inereused by 1 percent since 1038. BUL there Are

16 percent mure In

only

the

class.

£750 to £1,000 4 year And, thereafter, the The m inockets chow net losses.

The increase in the bottom bracket of the "middle income" group is

probably due targely to ux of skilled workmen The influx who have nearly all eused them- selves over the inc

What used to be the "middle clary" is still where it was be fore. But the point is that the old income buys only 40 percent of what it did in 1938,

This is what As known. bolitely, as "lovelling" and "fair

shares for all."

But the sad part of it is, of course,

"THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1954.

"Grandma-whatever's making you take so long to put pussy out on a cold night like this?"

Wanted:

A NEW

ON

W

27

the

the

VISION DEFENCE

-but URGENTLY!

4

affect only

ITHIN

week lea ne

something will play a less prominent But this has been prolonged by of what Britain part in them and so will delays. something of

wanted

smaller what be and America are doing about numbers. defence. The difference in the two is disturbing.

London. future wars will be fought The R.A.F. has been going By that is meant small atomic

same in

way and that through a temporary drop in weapong which new AL

kind strength, a drop due to its being limited areas. world forces of the older

the midst of re-equipment.

in

is tict a tactical weapon or an An atom or hydrogen bomb

ideal one to use against armed The policy of incorporating forces Tactical atomic wea- pons if they are good enough, It tout armed forces. They improvements is on be necessary, but it may ro UNT be overdone, Some are due to are likely to be an outstanding "bugs" that survive the killing- deterrent against potential

due to enemy whose strength bottle. Some may be

though they are mainly in land forces. mistakes,

Earl Alexander, in Bri tain now, also hints broad- Eisenhower ly at a reorganisation based promises the highest-ever on new thinking. The time

on the air for him to give the facts seldom admitted. expenditure

not come and figures has

it has in round yel, as America, but it is close at hand.

President that it is a levelling down and not a leveling up. And, in fact, the families who have "crossed the line" are not taking on the functions and way of life of the middle class.

The working classes not much better off.

The middle classes ar much worse oft. And, there is scant Incentive to Join the middle cluss. Who

are

wants to study for live you when plumbers get more than rehvol teachers?

CIVE STABILITY

of some And it is a matter concern to sociologists as well as

economists

force, with a result mount ing to 120 wings; 22,900 aircraft. and 970,000 men. The air force has become the first arm of the United States.

Naval expenditure

is down and so are the re- sults, but the U.S. Navy will rub along with 1,078

if

Lord Alexander could only hope that the Hunter and Swifi would be coming into squadron service "soon." It is quite a wo first heard while ago that that word "soon."

Д

his speech means what it said, there is going Creation of strategic

be a big shake-up in 3

reserve. This applies most to and action on de the Army because the greater part of the Navy and RAF, is

to kdeus fence.

ships and 13,130 planes, by

The marines are down by 10,000 men.

The sociologists point out that

middle the

classes

the give society people who stability. They ore the blokes

The army suffers who

save money. fight like wildents

their It lose two divisions. educate to children, spearhead the social the end of the year reform campaigns, and generally will have provide, the brulus and

"park-

destroy

plugs for the metal machine,

Cut their security, their ability to full their fune- llón,, and A will more than likely find that you have killed the goose which lays the golden

cgg.

sions.

most.

Ry

only 17 divi-

due

to

This change is a busie review of American policy, which is in effect a new outlook on war.. Americans belleve

CYRIL FALLS

Sometime Chichele Professor

of Military History at Oxford

J

reserve. ~

П

A BALANCE

11ee

HAVE said we need to alter the pattern of defence, and that must mean altering alloco- itons to the three Services. At the same time we have to keep n balance..

Indeed, the real measure of: success in a New Look for de- fence is in blending imagination for the future with realities of the present,

Supposing we were to decide that the Army was only a

cold- war instrument and cut it down too drastically. Suppostrig America were to do the same.

What would happen? 20

airaelds on the Continent

be overrun ̈ in a week or two,

Supposing we decided

that

It is high time there was, already based on Britain or no. Air forces by themselves, how-

Alter

keep pressing further off than the Mediter- ever well. armed, would not from the Chan- The

enemy are flexible.: Britain has fallen to a low cbb ranoon, and both

Practically nel const. And once there they by comparison with the United But the Army has

would set up a variety of long- The Sintes and Russia. We have nothing in the way of lighting range devices horrible to think

keeping pace that not been

with troops-at-home, emphatically of. potential developments of war- nothing we can call a strategio: fare..

For

outpaced is

ho us to be

Lord Alexander sald more serious even than in wanted to create a small one, the obvious sense. The Com- and he is certainly right to do monwealth Forces are built so. He did not say it was mainly on a British model and exactly a long-term project, borne aircraft, that can keep British practice. That is an but I am pretty sure it cannon: the convoy routes open. advantage

but it be a short one. in itself. means that if our defence of date theirs bo as much

THE GHOST GOES FOR SAME BOOK

By J. W. Taylor

IN the Yorkshire Museum, moving and dropping the Alder policy falls out

more.

the Navy belonged to the past and lopped it too hard, we ahould be in equal trouble. We should starve, because it is still only the Navy, with its ship-

'IMAGINATION

A thorough review, of our 30 or oven 4 naval construction pro at York, there is a book men's antiquities book. The at-will

gramme. We hear of the small tendant avows that he has seen called: "Antiquities and the

und ships

done. We straight

craft needed for. LOT has been thing shuffle

My Curiosities of the Church", through a locked door in the

point 19. that we are anti-submarino: war, That is A realise that if, for instance, time, due for a New Look. All de well because they are of vital wo look back to the one of several books former library.

slightly different importance.

shortly after the war, when wo Says Mr Jonas: "On the last signera havé ly belonging to Alderman

on New Looks and on

really had no Army at all búf occasion it was due six of us ideas Edward Wooller, a Darling waited. No one was nearer than what the principal points in

only hundreds of thousands of ton solicitor and antiquary, ove feet to Alderman Wooller's them should be,

young men in training. who collapsed and died at a book on the shell. Suddenly wo mooting many years ago. it amazed when it her consideration-urgent considera- WE hear of carriers Atting out.

from among the other has the Alderman's busi by an unseen hand and ness card pasted inside it..

pulled

dropped on the floor. Among those who saw it happen were my doctor and my soilcitor. We did not then see the ghost itself, and I am disturbed by it

I submit the following for

ion

I think the

of

SHIPS SCARCE

alow

But it has still fallen short, not in terms of money and mon Again, well because, despite so much as in imagination. the controversies about carriers, • for the there still pen to be jobs Casc

When people tacklo According to Muscum alten

R.A.F. getting rather more which carrier borne aircraft and steady pull, which our de dant George Jenas and five

the available men, money can do best, or even which they. fence, effort has had to be, they other witnesses, the "ghost" of. Alderman Wooller has mani su 130 Ruppening was 'uncunny, and equipment has become un- alone can do-and "these jobs arò apt to get so inimersed in answerable. All three fighting tested Uself in the library with

The experience has to affect Services are needed to averta are not all for the Navy alone it that they keep their eyes on

bik moliculous punctuality at twenty

war of fight in it it it but for the general cause, ed Mr

Mr Jonas that he has boen

should come. minutes to eight at night every off work ill for three weeks, weapons. fourth Sunday, cased the book having lost over a stong in out of the shelf and dropped it weight, and has now been taken weapons. That is where the big

off duty at his own request for advances have been made,

on the floor.

It is this same book every; the Sundays when the apparl- the only occasions on is due. He is glad, how- won the ghost is into are ever, that other people have during Summer Tinto when the manifestations dry dietly one seen it

Mr Jonara doctor, who do

But

Bro

trail.

the new But behind what is already You cannot look on the trail primarily air in the water, already launched, it is no good one man taking a and the horizon at once. And the Navy has precious little on look every now and then, be-

cause tio may not understand: A building holiday, has a big what: hay seen without others to anag in it. Booner or later & Interpret 18. ap blank phase comes round in some

IN THE AIR

the stocks.

which

existing material The American programme Admittedly, the RAF has fring and replacements are and American military thinking Hour: hop

Strict

irs today #héruld be a spurs. Mr Jonas Brst saw the appari. stres to remain anonymous but been apt to get impatient with locking.

But the

Capur "In in tibes in the form of an old man vill ha of the six keeping the older rice and to naval building vigil, states:;:!") was absolute- Imagine it can i on jobs that" sary, but. It is

Inven with side whiskers and wearing by Incredible Without a doubt 1 a not yet for Yet it to aband

Which and the book was fched out of the has a strong came for, reinforcojo

"Khalf and dropped on the floor: ment--Inki proment, conditional

Ulice

four", besering tint was not of above all; !

thle

the matter

AN

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