THE "MENACE" OF SOCIALISM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 170, 20 July 1935, Page 8

THE "MENACE" OF SOCIALISM.

Mr. F. W. Doidge asks me if I have ever heard of Poplar and Bermondsey under Socialist, "misrule." When on leave from France in 1!)18 I visited both places, and a menubei of the Bermondsey Board of Guardians conducted me around some of the worst slums I have ever seen or hope to see a"ain. Bermondsey was then under Tory municipal control. Mr. Lloyd George, Britain's Prime Minister, bad just been saying that Britain was to become a place "fit for heroes to live in," and as I gazed at those wretched hovels in Rotherhithe and Bermondsey, whence thousands of British Tommies had gone forth and made the supreme sacrifice, I wondered how Lloyd George's pledge would be honoured. Well, the Socialist municipalities of Poplar and Bermondsey that Mr. Doidge despises so much have at least done their best to make that promise a reality. Since the Labour council took office in 1922 it has wiped out 1 thirty acres of the foulest slums in London. Large, airy, four-storey flats surrounded by grassy lawns and flower beds now stand in Vauban Street, which, when I saw it in 1918, was a festering eyesore. The inhabitants have responded nobly to their new environment and vie with one another in enhancing its beauty. Last year the city engineers of New York and Montreal made a special visit to investigate the methods of slum clearance adopted by the Bermondsey Council. The Montreal city engineer said that Vauban Street was the .most inspiring sight he had seen in Britaiin. And Poplar's new schools, school swimming baths, where every child is taught to swim, and health clinics, are the envy of much wealthier localities. Apparently Mr. Doid»e has overlooked the fact that "some of the worst slums to be found in London to-day are in Chelsea, Paddington and Kensington— all Tory municipalities—and on properties owned iby some of the wealthiest landlords in Britain. K.C.S.