CITY SLUMS.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 116, 17 May 1924, Page 14

CITY SLUMS.

NKW YORK WORSE THAN LONDON. IFroni Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, April 20. "Tho London slum evil has been exaggerated," said Mr. V. T. Hickford, of Melbourne, who is visiting London after a tour of America anil the Continent. "It is riot so bad as in New York, but it is an inevitable accompaniment of crowded cities as they grow older, owing partly to the increase'of unemployable*. We will have it in Melbourne and Sydney within ..00 years." Mr. Hickford made an extensive tour in Italy. lie was present at the handing over of the Doge's Palace in Venice to the municipality by the Ministry. He was struck by the desolation of the l.n«lish cemetery in Rome, in which are the graves of Keats, Shelley and Severn. He witnessed a Fascist demonstration in Koine "The fascists." he says, "undoubtedly dominate Italy, though in the elections they contested only 179 seats, the remainder being secure. An instance of the high-handedness of the Fascist was a savage attack on a professor and his son, who had expressed antagonistic opinions. It was worse than the similar case of the Italian contributor to the 'Westminster (.azette,' whom the .'ust-isti roughly handled because of the oi -limns he expressed. "I do not ' link Signor .Mussolini, though he served a turn ill organising a united Italy, will last. Neither he nor the Fascisti are allowing any opinions but their own. They are not brooking opposition, which is completely overwhelmed by terror and intimidation. This cannot persist. There is bound to bo a reaction." Mr. Hickford was delighted with a wee gum tree and wattle tree at the entrance to Pompeii. He came to Kngland via the Italian Lakes. Switzerland, Paris and tho Somme battlefields. He slept iii Mr. Pickwick's room at Ipswich, and ascertained that an ancestor. Henry Hickford, a merchant, was buried at Cancel Church. Saint Mary-le-Bow, in Km!.. He had presented a cmmunion (date to the church. Mr. Hickford will attend tho Grand Lodge of Freemasons' installation of the Duke of Connatlght, and will return to Australia in September.