1935-01-14 — Page 3

J

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH. MONDAY, JANUARY

14, 1935

ENGLISH CULTURE IN PROVINCES

MISTAKEN IMPRESSIONS OF LONDON'S DOMINANCE

BY R. B. WESTON

After an extensive tour of our leading cities and towns, I have come to the conclusion that the provinces are the real centres of culture and stability.

When I first went to London somo years ago, I was envied by my friends in the country. I was told I was going to the centre of things. I would be at the head of the universe. I should be near the core of life, and so on..

you see well-dressed people hurry. Ing to and from amusement centres. Cafes are crowded. Dancing Boora are full. Expensive cars filt past. The theatres are doing well. Thore in an air of prosperity, security, Wealth on overy hand is noticeable. I do not suggest that that is the whole picture, but it is a very vivid part of it a part that impinges [with great force on the mind.

In the provinces, whilst thore. Is

I half believed it. I mistook size no lack of most of the features of

for sense, magnitude for signif-life to which the West End testines, cance. We all get, that feeling the other side of the picture is about London. The hum of so inescapably present. much activity must denote great On the visit to the provinces things; and it takes some time to which has prompted me to write be disillusioned.

theae notions, I could not get away from a sense of contact with the harsh, the actual, the realities of life; about which, in London, I am acidom moved or stimulated to think at all.

We are all fascinated by the dolights and the glittering pano- rama of a big city, but when we have become acclimatised we soon discover that noine can suggest

emptiness and banality, as well as insincerity has a short life. There

productivity.

In an atmosphere of that kind

urgent

things, more

BRITISH TRADE FIGURES

CONTINUING SATISFACTORY

BIG ADVERSE BALANCE

London,

Detalls issued on Dec, 18 of the overses trade returns for November how that their recent satisfactory trend still continues. British ex- ports were again larger than in the corresponding month of 1938. The increase was £1,690,000, or 4.9 per. cent. and took place mainly in manufactured articles, Imports with £63.720,000 last year, exports amounted to £64,687,000 compared to £30,125,000, against £34,436,000, and re-exports

£4,008,000, Reduced to against £3,019,000. working day averages the totals for imports, exports and re-exports compared as follows:

. Importa.. Exports Re-exports Oct. 1034 £2,565,000 1,361,000

148,000

to

Nov. 1934 £2,488,000 1,380,000

154,000 Nov. 1933 £2,451,000 1,024,000 130,000

A noteworthy change of trend fa Indicated In importa of

I went about being amazed at are better the curious things a city's popula-things, to do than exploit one's ego, tion can belleve in. 1 was aur-one's conceit. You do not talk prised to find how mediocrity could empty platitudes in an area which

the stage. It is my has been devastated by the econmaterials. These have shown ex- Tourlah on firm belief that it in easier to putomic slump. over rubbish in London than in the provinces,

lowbrown on the other, In a mote

MORE VITAL

Public taste in London is, on the The mentality in the provinces, whole, low, You have your high-therefore, while it is slower in its brows on the one hand and your Processes, is more vital. In the theatre, the concert hall, on the cencentrated form than in the pre-platform, and in books there is not

the vinces; and the tastes and ideas of and the third-rate that you find in same toleration for stupidity ofther may be. and often are, j**

Landon. The self-conscious artist, shockingly trivial.

the poseur, the flancur, cannot possibly get as much out of the provincial mind as he can out of |the easy-going drifting mind so

common in great cltles.

MORE FOOLS

In the concert world, so

my friende tell me, it is the

same. Singers and players why ought nat to be heard at all come and go, scattering bad performances and pretentious art as they pana.

It is not much different in the

The suburb to which I go at nights, where I spend my Saturday afternoons and Sundays, is to me little more than a place to sleep in. What happens to its "local affairs"

raw

pansion over a considerable period, but the November total is slightly For the lower than a year ago. 11 months, however, these imports are nearly £30,000,000 larger. An- other Interesting feature of the re- turns is that both imports and ex- approximately the ports of manufactured articles show same increase, about £20,000,000 for the 11 months. The apparent adverse trado balance is now £200,047,000, an increase of 20.292,000 compared with the first 11 months of 1938.

BANKER LEAVES

£91,354

realms of politics and literature. does not appear to touch me any WIDOW AND CHILDREN It is much easier to prate nonsense more intimately than a revolution

BENEFICIARIES

London.

Mr. Robin d'Erlanger, of West Wellow. Hampshire a director of Erlangers, Ltd, the bankers, and son of Baron Emile d'Erinnger, who tied in October, has left £91,354. In his will dated 1923, he bequeath. ed £2,500 to his

In the Metropolla than in the pro-in one of the South American Re- vinces. There are, for one thing," pubiles. Civic consciousness is more fools to take it in.

lacking, and it is apparently In- Bla-bin is not an heavily discount-evitable that it should be so. ed in London as outside, and in That is why I say the provinces London the literary coteries and have the better of the game. There, cliques, lying by taking in each things matter. You feel you are a other's washing, manage to jabber part of the life around you. You and write an amount of pestilential feel that it touches you closely and pille that would be disowned and that you yourself influence it. It half the reahlue of the estate in damned by the slower but sounder is in the provinces that balanced trust to her for life, with remainder thinking provinces.

judgment fa more easily possible. to his children, and the other half If sane Government is to prevail on trust for his children attaining in the provinces that the lasucmajority. Mrs. d'Erlanger, formor- must be settled. If this or that I Miss Myrtle Farquharson form of Government is to continue daughter of the chief of the Clan The average Londoner who comes it is the provinces that will decide. Farquharson of Invercaul, Aber- daily from a dormitory suburb to If I were a political leader, I should deemshire, was granted a decree his office or shop knows very little not worry two hoote about London. nisi with the custody of the child about the condition of the country I should make myself strong in the of the marriage, a daughter, Inat to-day.

Unemployment. poverty, provinces and, being strong there, May, misery do not hit his consciousness I should”prevail," below the belt na they do in the. industrial areas.

Away from London, people live closer to ilfe and reality. There are fewer distractions. There are fewer anodynes to lull the mind.

1

BEHIND THE FACADE

London is largely a facade for the nation. You have to go else- where for the reality behind the facade. At night in the West End

it

I am

not suggesting that the provinces are free from faults.] that in the towns and cities men Far from it. They are often nar- and women are untouched by the row and clannish in outlook. That meretricious and flashy things of is more or less inevitable.

LIFE NOT A "SHOW"

fo. as they are in London; that. they think slowly but surely; that they are close to earth and fact The real point is that you do feel and human issues; that you cannot

wheedle them by flattery nor battle | them by bluster.

They do not shake you by the hand when they hate you, and do not let you down when it suits their purpose. A simplieity and honesty still cling to them. Life is not a "show" as in London; it is a struggle.

an

Fland

•Inscriptions on houses in the Saar appealing for a raturn to Germany were part of the campaign on the eve of the 'pleblecite

rate.

A view of the beautiful Saar River, near Serrig, one of the most plcturesque spate of Europe.

ITALY'S CITIZEN ARMY

GOVERNMENT'S AMBITION

subject to, military training is con- siderably increased.

'Very little' Information lo given about the order; which is described A very important. This may be due to the new royal decree which bana publicity concerning a sur- prising number of matters con- sidered of military interest.

The "forbidden list" includes In-

They are, in the provinces, near to the idle pits and the closed works. The noises of prosperity to which they had become familiar have stopped In many areas, and A new Italian mobilisation order formation about mobilisation of the new grim bidding allance can has been issued reducing conscrip- troops, army manoeuvres, rallway be heard all the time. They do not tion service for certain forces, such lines, and even publication of the forget that their old world has

as Bersaglieri, cavalry, and artil-"opinion and attitude of the Italian been destroyed, and the new enelery, to twelve months instead of Government with regard to inter- has not yet been built, -

It is easy to forget in London. eighteen, and dealing with.com-national negotiations which have We did not hear the wheels so plications arising out of the not oficially been made public." yound in the old days. We do not Fascist Government's intention to "hear" that many of them have turn Italy into a "nation of citizen- Infringement is punishable by stopped now. That is why I say soldiers."

from two to ten years' imprison- that the centre of gravity, and

While the period of conscription

ment in peace time and by the

'reality fs in the provinces, every is reduced, the number of those death penalty during war time,

time-not in London.

CHEVROLET'S 2 LINES OF CARS "MASTER" and "STANDARD": offer you

TWO PRICE RANGES

but

ONE HIGH STANDARD OF QUALITY The same high standard that has made CHEVROLET the greatest name in low priced transportation.

The mere fact that the leader built it is assurance of outstanding value:

But you will never know how outstanding it is till you see and drive it yourself.

There are models to suit your needs and fastes and your ideas of prices.

BE SURE TO ASK FOR A DEMONSTRATION BEFORE DECIDING ON YOUR NEXT CAR.

FAR EAST MOTORS

(Distributors for Chevrolet, Cars & Trucks).

26, Nathan Road, Kowloon.

Telephone 59101.

"King Georgs IV"

Old Scotch Whisky

Frog Storgat

shinton de

Contay

All 'round

the world it's

“King George IV.”

for

"Quality

col

THE DISTILLERS AGENCY LIMITED EDINBURGH

Sole Agents:-~~

SCOTLAND

402

GANDE, PRICE & CO., LTD.

Tel. No. 20135.. Hongkong

THE

HONG KONG

PENINSULA HOTEL;

HONGKONG HOTEL; REPULSE BAY HOTEL PEAK HOTEL

SHANGHAI

ASTOR HOUSE; PALACE HOTEL;

HOTELS

LIMITED.

In association with the Grand Hotel des Wagons Lits, Peking

Penang

The Scenic Gem of Malaya

A million Jubilant Leadenere lined the streets through which passed the carriage of the royal newlyweds, the Dake and Duchess of Kent, iftar, thule brilliant wedding in Westminster "Abbey"". Here crowds press against the line of guarda" to' glimpse the royal pair^as" their coach passss: Marlborough Gates" on the

way to the palace after the ceramany

Inscriptions on homes of all assist in the:

Runnymede Hotel

Malaya's Premier Hotel

.....

also under the same management.

THE CRAGE HOTEL

Penang Hill

(A health station? CABLES RUNNYMEDE"- RUNNYMEDE HOTEL LTD.