1937-01-04 — Page 6

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 1937.

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Has

your

wife

got too much

time

to relcase his wife.

on

her

hands?

The women of this class have, ECAUSE his loneli- responsible for the declining

birthrate.

'as a rule, enough money to keep ness is unbearable,

in moderate comfort. 25-year-old Sidney SO, coupled with the fact them

that the woman in the What little work is necessary at has TRY THEM Allcorn writes to the King flat

not enough work home can be done by one ser Sen- to occupy

her time is the vant, Significantly this class tenced to death in July for other fact leading to mental also leads the field in the declin.

ing birthrate statistics. the murder of her child, she dissatisfaction-the

marringe. hours was reprieved 23 later.

"All my life I had been lonely he says, till We married,"

GET BEHIND THE WHEEL AND THRILL TO THE BRILLIANT NEW STUDE- BAKER PERFORMANCE.

childless

Thus, in a vast number of cases, women are faced with a period of leisure for which nothing in our social system has

Hongkong Hotel "From the age of four to thir- prepared them.

Garage

teen I was in an orphanage. Since then I have had only one real pal-Helen."

a rare and extreme This is Phone 27778-9 Stubbs Rd case. For every man victim of the disease of loneliness there are 60 women.

The

Hongkong Telegraph.

SO

MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 1937.

EASTERN EUROPE

DANGERS

on

Not only aged spinsters and girls "living on their own" suffer from it. They are by no means the largest class of sufferers.

The largest class are the wives, and this illness is beyond the range of doctors, but not, perhaps, of the sociologiats, the men who are concerned with changes.

fine Loneliness provides a theme for sentimental writers

for women; it is is time to approach it scientifically.

of

They do not know how to use it, nor can they be blamed for not knowing. How often does the retired man know what to do with himself?

They have few cares and no duties. They are easy targets for the germ, of loneliness,. bc- cause they are alone more hours than any class of society. Their husbands work longer hours than any other type of worker.

In Wales and Scotland there is no sense of intrusion when one speaks to a stranger. Welsh people regard it as one of the oddities of London that a man does not know his neighbour. They talk of it as English people might talk of the strange custom of some tribe lost in the wilds of. Africa

The Welsh avoid loneliness, though not consciously, by going to chapel not only, on Sundays, but several times a week, joining dramatic societies, social guilds, and singing parties.

Continental women in the afternoon meet their friends in cafes, and talk for hours over a A glass of peach soaked in champagne.

The suburban "at homes" and "bridge afternoons" did come- thing to alleviate their loneliness, They were pathetic attempts at The majority of wives be- companionship, but the narrow tween 20 and 30 come from ness of their circle frequently homes where they were one of failed them. How often do the

THE plain fact is that the English quality of perhaps three or four or more newspapers report inexplicable

They children.

their suicides in this class?

reserve has ceased to be merely mothers occupied in rearing a

WHAT makes this in-

a quality that foreigners ob- family with little time for mor-

creasingly perilous is served. It has become, under bid introspection, which is the that this is the very class changing social conditions,

in

that large menace,

undermines is moving result of loneliness. As they which grow older, they helped in the numbers into the big blocks Englishwomen's lives, business of running the family, of flats, not only in London, but or went out to work eight or in provincial cities. nine hours a day.

BNW

AFTER marriage they find they have twelve hours a day to do necessary work needing, at most, three or four hours in a small flat.

In this type of flat there is no social life at all. Thoir occu- pants feel honour-bound not to know their neighbours.

Where privacy might be dif- ficult, their guarding of it makes companionship and new friend- ships impossible.

Soon the novelty of marriage wears off, and the unaccustomed

It is well known that solitude, leisure becomes a drag. They really don't know what to do that is loneliness, breaks the spirit of the most rebellious pri- with themselves,

soner. Can, the psychologists of this estimate the effects peculiarly English disease on not only highly strong but also on normal healthy women?

Those with whom money does not count find escape in lunching out, going to the cinema, joining one of the big libraries and read ing themselves into a state of stupefaction. To the second and third-rate fictioneers they are blessing.

of Joneliness and

IT is a disease peculiar to England. You do not lind it in Scotland or in Wales or

No social expert has yet in- BUT most of the victims in France or in Germany.

The reticence and reserve vestigated what this means in

We they provide divorce lawyers which makes an English railway terms of mental stress. know, of course, that the change with a great proportion of their carriage like a school for the from the seven-roomed house to business come from the middle dumb does not exist in other the three-roomed flat is, in part, classes.

The civil war in Spain, with all its possible repercussions, has concentrated attention

To begin with, it is im- Western Europe that the situa-

possible to say under tion in Bastern Europe has our divorce laws how many

widespread divorces

the result art latterly escaped notice. In particular, the full boredom, which the American for divorce "incom- implications of the understand-cause ings concluded with Russia by patibility of temperament, so

adequately covers. France on the one hand and

The sociologists believe, and Czecho-Slovakia on the other

every man who lives in a small have not been generally recog-flat knows, that the work of nised. The latter pact, which is running a small flat by no means said to be directed against Ger- absorbs the energies of the many and Hungary alike, has average healthy woman. been described by a British com- mentator as the plague-carrier of European politics. Of itself, the Franco-Russian understand- ing could not have worked, since the frontiers of Ger- many and Russia would have remained widely divided by in- tervening countries. All this has been changed by the agree. ment reached between the Soviet and Czecho-Slovakia, which, it is pointed out, will enable Russian air-power to be carried into Germany's vitals. What is Britain's attitude to these de- velopments? According to Mr. J. L. Garvin, one of the most balanced writers of the day, our duty is to keep out of the whole of this business, and, as far as in us lles, not to allow it to be come the cause of war in West-

"Nothing Europe.

ern

011

A VITAL

countries.

MOVEMENT

THIS morning I received a Letter Oxford Groupers

from one of the leading Agures

of the Oxford Group movement. It was brimful of vitality and con- Adence, describing Interviews the Groupers had arranged with politlent lenders in America and Holland.

This vitality is, in fact, one of the most striking features of everything Associated with the movement, and is one of the explanations of its

extraordinary success in the last few

ycara.

"Changed Lives"

up at one of the meetings and con-

Maybe the problem will be solved not by the professora, bui' by the builders of the homes of the future.

Already some builders of modern flats incorporate in them swimming pools, squash and tennis courts. They do so not for any sociological reason, but to make them more attractive.

When, instead of dozens of such blocks, there are thousands, the disease of loneliness may disappear by people, especially women, getting to know each

Until that happens you will other by playing together. still read, as I did not long ago, of a husband who said at the in-

queat on his wife, "I was away all day, and the loneliness gol on her nerves."

The English are funny that way; they would rather die than risk a snub. So they won't talk.

Emrys Jones

alists, industrialists, officers of the three fighting Services, and unem- ployed men from the special areas. There was no attempt to grade or sectionaliso different interests, and in practice there were no dificulties, this strange medley of people living

easing their failures in the past, together in perfect harmony.

and their new resolve to maintain

the Group standards,

In recent years the groups have Many people are introduced to the spread all over the world, and there

in sections strong

Canada, day's programme, and smoothing out movement at what are called "house arc

series of meetings held in one town, Germany. The recent drive through problems brought to him by his partics." These parties consist of a Switzerland, the United States, and 1 success, and certainly aroused assistants, all at one and the same attended by members and their the Scandinavian countries was voted time. He is never ruffled, and has

who are friends,

enormous interest. The Group num- a strong objection to anything in "quiet times." The house parties bars in its ranks to-day leaders of the nature of hysteria at private or have so far been very successful; public life in a dozen important public meetings.

introduced 10

excellent organisation. Usually

the colleges.

most unexpected places. On my Inst visit to Berlin I called on a Grouper who is a member of Hitler's personal bodyguard!

There is nothing of the typical and a noteworthy feature is their countries. There is hardly an im- Founded in 1921 by Dr. Frank Buchman, a former Lutheran pastor evangelist about him, and his mind several big hotels are booked in, portant town in Europe where there is essentially practical and realistic. towns where house parties are held, is not at least one group of people in the United States, the Group is

Among his chief lieutenants are ex- but in University towria it has be- meeting daily for a "quiet time" an association of Christmas who bind

officers, Oxford and Cambridge gra- come the practice to hire some of together. I have met groupers in themselves to live their lives aduates, an ex-Fleet Street editor, a earth." says Mr. Garvin. "wit gording to the standards laid down former Communist organisers from in the New Testament. There are no rules or induce the British people to

"in" or "out." All Classes

#changed to be are sald to mobilise against Germany in people are either ship cards, East Fife, and a young novelist.

and the leaders believe that if sumclent key people In cach country can be "changed," the whole course of history can be altered, and the present international discords wiped out by mutual understanding. The severest critics of the Group

Oxford When I was at

cach

that cause. Our plain and sane policy in this world about us is one of maximum of armaments and minimum of commitments. ....We should shun every en- tanglement in Eastern Europe." do not deny the truth of the "changed

Hver The opinion is further expressed leaders of the "fast set" underwent that if we refuse to mix the two amazing transformations after being problems, there will be lasting brought into contact with Groupers, Some of them had to stand a great peace in Western Europe, but deal of ridicule from former assocl- not otherwise. There can beates, but they stuck to their guns, little doubt that British feeling and made fresh converts of their in gencral is distinctly in favour own,

of

Group converts have told me how much better they felt after standing

At the last house party I attended there was on extraordinary assort ment of classes and professions.

Can the Oxford Group really Anglican bishops rubbed shouldera with Trade Union leaders, Com-change lives? The answer is to be munist orators, politicians, journ- found in seeing its members, many of whom were jaded and unhappy people a few years ago, and are to-day brimful of energy, with that self-confidence that comes from A full and enjoyable life.

PLAYING THE GAME

surance,

houses.

and large

Friendly Atmosphere

PROFICIENCY in sport appears to corps; the keeping up of the cloned

be the open sesamo to success in spirit in his business or office, in

There are many prominent figures commercial their firm the best, and foster its

Lwho have Reverely condemned business, especially in banking, In-order that his workers will consider both inside and outside the Church interests because they are of one

the Oxford Group for its lack of Time after time the junior who is brotherhood in "playing the game." "dignity and its use of the most In practice is this so? I venture modern advertising devices, but on good golfer or Rugby player 18 selected for advancement before to suggest it is not. Those who are those of his colleagues who, equally specially favoured soon come to look meeting these people one misses the clever at their work, prefer a hobby upon their privileges os rights and friendliness that emanates from the that does not bring them before the further, being favoured and ap- "life-changers."

plauded for their prowess in sport, Psychologists have explained the As perfect honesty is prescribed crowd.

Ruccess of the Group with wordy Not only does the "sporty" werker soon forget that they receive their for Groupers, great importance is attached to "Quiet Times," which are

benefit in advancement. Innumer-weekly wages for doing a certain job dissertations on repressions and in- woric is often feriority complexes, but neither they private gatherings able halfdays and odd hours off of work. Their held at all

come his way, while those left in scamped, but a blind eye is turned nor any of the other crities offer a members. A "Quiet Time" is the name given to a short period of the office or shop have to overtake to this failing because of their abill-practical cure for individual misery

tics on the field.

and unsatisfied longings, which is silence, during which those taking his work.

On the other hand, the man who just what the Groupers do. Is it fair that the man who pre- part in a meeting sit with pencil and

The sins described by conve becomes disgruntied. In doing his paper before them, ready to jot fers a hobby such as tramping, fish-pursues his own private hobby toon

Group principles at the down any "guidance for future; ing, or bowls, should suffer financial-

meetings are much less ly, in social prestige, in time of job to the best of his ability and for actions which comes to them

After the leader has said a short duty, and advancement in his work, the good of the firm he receives no prayer, these thoughts are "shared" because he does not enjoy the sports encouragement; plainly he is shown than outsiders often imag tach individual reading out what that are popular with his superiora? that he is not popular because. he petty acts of dishonesty Ho ly no "rabbit"; his particular goes his own way outside businces ed, soon to be rectified

tias a largo : sum-h has been written: There is an ex-

aordinary friendliness about these form of recreation or sport is per-hours, and so his work, too, is bound I know paid the Incom

so than, that of the socially-Import- By all means let us play the game withheld over a per meetings, and the shyest individuals haps just as strenuous as, or more are soon made to feel at home.

and, in addition, he is in the proper sense of the express was a rare case strangely The Group lenders

For the vast n sion. Do not let it interfere with of a sportsman, in probably more

business. The popularity of sport are not accret law assorted. Dr. Buchman himself, looks that he is wholly, disinterested us

a successful

dalty, but he is a wise llvers. Their pr his quiet, neat clothes, incisive voice, regards the rewards of his hobby. Increases and alert eyes, which are continually He seeks pleasure, a change from business man who is strong enough concerned with

both in practice, and effect, outside Group claims searching the faces of those around work, and the game for its own to keep it in its place, and that is, great personal

sake. him When I Inst anw him he was

The boss, of course, supports his business hours. dressing for a Royal garden party, Interest on the score of esprit de arranging the details of the next

of improving our relations with Quiet Times Germeny, rather than to do any thing which would create fresh friction between the two nations. Our political ideologics may be totally at variance one with an- other, but that is no reason why we should not be able to work together for the preserva- tion of peace. To use the words of Mr. Garvin, "another Anglo- German war from any cause would be a dark catastrophe; an unnecessary Anglo-German war, made by Britain for the sake of the Soviet Pacts and Eastern Europe, would be a blunder and a crime past example. These words reprosent sober British for thinking that they do not also reflect the policy of the British Government,

CRAWFORD, LTD. opinion, and there is no reason

ore

antones,

to suffer.

V. D.

atuwers.