BRITAIN'S PROGRESS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 163, 13 July 1931, Page 9

BRITAIN'S PROGRESS.

'DECADENCE'.TALK A SLANDER

HEW, VIGOROUS GENERATION'.

REV. ME. FLETCHER'S REPORT.

The people of the old Homeland are certainly facing terrific problems, but they .will win through, as no one there allows himself to think anything else or, say anything else," said the Rev. Lionel B. Fletcher, of Auckland, who has been absent a year abroad, and with Mrs. Fletcher returned by the Mouowai yesterday.

"There is no defeat complex, but a traditional British determination to win through into the new day of accomplishment;', and s6 it must be in New Zealand," he added.

For a year Mr. Fletcher has been conaucting an evangelistic mission in the United Kingdom. At a great celebra-tion-in.the Albert Hall, London, he took JJe place of the world president of the Christian Endeavour Union, Dr. Daniel and he also-performed important offices in other English cities.

..* "In• Canada I found a new note of ■hppe as 'I came through this time," lie "I can say without hesitation that Canadian people want things to be made right with New Zealand. They do n °t like the present situation." Optimism and Determination. To talk of Britain as being decadent or - worn out is simply ridiculous and mischievous slander," said Mr. Fletcher. he optimism and determination of the People in this present world-wide crisis evident. People are not talk"Ut ■ they are grimly hanging on. . 110 other thought but that they must go through with the job in hand, o matter what it costs. It is not e people who are suffering most in e world to-day who are making the ggest noise about their sufferings, for been hit as hard as Britain, is ? eems to the visitor that Britain ' •t.f T hap P iest country in the world. To clrivpV i 1 anc * hear the cockney bus t.» +i • eon ductor6 giving utterance in - lr sa yiugs; to see the smilexnWiQ 63 people in the streets; to frra : c in« nCe . un f a ilu)g courtesy and ° s-attention of all classes, is to.

make you forget that you are in a nation which is bearing a greater burden than any other people in the world."

It was plain that a new generation was rapidly coming into prominence, Mr. Fletcher said. It was a splendid generation, full of promise and virility. He had addressed nearly a quarter of a million young men and women while in England, and physically and mentally they were examples of a coming race of men and women who would uphold" the best traditions of the Empire. Spiritually they were waking up to a moral passion which was arresting the attention of church leaders of all denominations. England Housing the People. When he left England in 1924, the great problem was that of providing houses for the people. Britain had faced that problem, and since the war had built more than 1,500,000 houses, about a million of which had been constructed by State aid in some form or other. Since the war the Government had spent more than £100,000,000 in erecting or subsidising the erection of houses, and a very vigorous scheme was now being put into operation for the building of a further million houses to take the place of slum buildings, which were being demolished. The building trade had not known any depression or unemployment and every city and village had its new suburbs with the new type of houses. New Zealand's Prestige. "Every country in the world i<3 in the grip of economic depression," said Mr. Fletcher. "But it is more than inspiring to realise how high in the opinion of the' people of Britain, America and Canada, New Zealand stands. To say that we came from. New Zealand was enough to bring a smile and a hearty welcome from everyone. It sometimes meant all the difference in little courtesies which are shown —it opened shut doors. New Zealand stands high in the estimation of the world, and it made me feel more certain than ever that when the Dominion emerges from this present cloud of difficulty it will have a splendid future."