OLD ENGLAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 249, 20 October 1928, Page 13 (Supplement)

OLD ENGLAND.

FRENCHMAN'S VERDICT.

Despite lip-stick and jazz, bottle and pyjama parties, and midnight mixed bathing, England is : still Victorian. At least, that is the verdict of M. Lucien Homier, chief editor of the "Figaro." He has visited many lands, and now wants to see England and Scotland again. Not that he has not already made up his mind about the island a»-i its inhabitants. He hae already done so, and perhaps only to whet his appetite for his next visit, he gives his views to hi? readers (says a Reuter message). "You have to go to Great Britain," be writes, "in order to get away from British snobbery and that American snobbery which has permeated the world. In Great Britain you will still find that good fellowship, genuineness, and old provincial spirit which the British have always showered on the visitor with such exquisite courtesy. "Nowhere in the world do the old customs of Europe survive as in old England and honest Scotland. Nowhere are the ravages of North and South Americanism less apparent.

"Great Britain still has ner lessons to give, but who heeds them ? She struggles, but on the whole she is still in the Victorian era. A kind of heavy, overpowering spirit of the past pervades the atmosphere — the imagination and breath of the New World are missing.

"Thoough Jeremiahs talk of overpopulation, trade. crises, crushing taxation, and high cost of living, I don't believe their prophecies of the decline of Great Britain. Sense of national duty, respect for all that serves or represents the general interest, are visible everywhere.

"England, the head of the greatest Empire that has ever existed, is patiently and painfully seeking a fresh balance between her needs and her strength. In her search she does not seem to be able to shed the very genuine friendship her people feel towards France."