THE CHURCH AND THE SLUMS.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20905, 12 July 1933, Page 15

THE CHURCH AND THE SLUMS.

TO TB* SDITOB 0» TKB FBKSS Sir,—As the "sensation in St. Paul's" caused by a lady novelist in her effort to obtain recognition for her novel may mislead some of your readers as to the true position, I shall be grateful for an opportunity to inform them of the facts, which are of great importance and present interest this Oxford centenary week. The good lady appears to have ignored the fact that on May 16 the Archbishops of Canterbury and York issued an official pastoral appeal on the very subject of slums, calling on church people to give to the British Minister for Health's five-year campaign for alum-abolition the religious support which should be its strongest recommendation to the conscience of England. I do not recall seeing any reference to the appeal in your columns, but if it has been reported, perhaps you will allow me to summarise it again. After referring to the growth o! slum conditions, especially since the war, the Archbishops said: "We have now reached a stage when by the action of a united, vigilant, and decisive opinion, it should be possible altogether to abolish bad and insanitary houses, and that continuing blot on our national life which we call the slums ... We regard this situation as offering a direct challenge and call to the church. If in every town and parish, its members would unitedly and energetically exert their influence, a great transformation of social conditlona could now be wrought. This year multitudes of church people are celebrating with thankfulness the centenary of the Oxford Movement, one of whose main principles was the restoration of the corporate life and character of the church. Where could we find, apart from worship, a better and clearer opportunity for the church's corporate activity than in a campaign for the abolition of slums and for the decent housing of the They went further, and stressed the need not only to provide proper housing but—and here we in New Zealand are deeply concerned—houses at rents within the means of those at present compelled to live in the slums. "Here is an opportunity for the exercise of that 'charity' in its true sense, that love of our neighbours, which is the true basis of citizenship, Let it be used in the way of readiness to pay an increased rate, or in the lending of capital at low interest (or none at all), in order to provide houses for those who cannot pay what is called an economic rent We ask all members of the church to find out and support whatever sound efforts in the way of public utility schemes (in their areas) or to initiate such efforts." The clergy were requested to bring the subject before their people on a convenient Sunday, and invite "their thought, their prayers, and their action. For, said the Archbishops, "it is a moral and spiritual claim that is made. Bad housing and overcrowding are damaging to health of body, and even more perhaps to health of mind and soul. We cannot and we dare not as Christians, acquiesce in the subjection of our fellow-countrymen to conditions so injurious." . One immediate result of tins appeal was the decision of the Anglo-Catholic Congress Committee to devote the next seven years of the congress to the promotion of 6lum-clearance, and to set up a housing association, the members of which are pledged to the full to accept the Christian call given by the Archbishops. This will be sufficient to show that the novelist lady was a little late in her protest, and I may be forgiven for wondering a little about her motives. If, however, I may trespass a little further, may I quote what the Church of England already has done and is doing? The Church Army, which having troubled the world has now come hither, has developed a considerable scheme since 1924, when a West Country lady placed a cheque for £6OO in Prebendary Carlile's hand, with the words, "I ani troubled about the housing of the people; if you can't do anything with this is six months, return it to me." Since that time the Church Army has built 362 houses and flats and maisonettes in London and the provinces, and recently had 47 more under erection—the fruits of that £6OO. Its rents are the lowest of all, averaging for a large-roomed flat of three bedrooms, sitting room, kitchenette, sanitary conveniences, etc., 12s to 13s a week, let to families denied accommodation elsewhere because of children or poverty, preferably to exservice and disabled men, with a rentdifferentiation for the relief especially of young married people with children, whor conditions would involve under-nourishment if the full rent were paid. The Church Army Housing, Ltd., method of financing its undertakings is by direct gifts or by loans to it at a low rate of interest (2J per cent.) by those who cannot give outright. Another 1924 venture was the St. Pancras House Improvement Society, founded by the Rev. Basil Jellicoe, an Anglo-Catholic venture. They have laboured to such good effect that starting with small capital on some old houses in Somers Town, then London's darkest slum, they have transformed six acres into a settlement which is a model of decent comfort, and have raised £211,000 capital. They pay a regular dividend on £1 ordinary shares, now 3 per cent., and it also gives 2§ per cent, on loan stock, obtainable only by those who take out ordinary shares. The Somers Town area now contains buildings with 170 flats—47 new ones were being built

in May; these are let at 4s 6d a livingroom (kitchenette, bathroom, lavatory not counted as rent-paying rooms), two living-rooms costing thus 0s a week. It is hoped to reduce these rents and adopt the sliding scale. Recently the society bought a new site on which 700 people were living in slum dwellings; the cost was £38,000. A similar society on a smaller scale is the Bethnal Green and East London Housing Association, initiated by an Industrial Christian Fellowship group, which has built new blocks of flats in Bethnal Green, besides reconditioning houses, cottages and a public house, turned into flats, in Poplar. It is now at work on a further group of Poplar cottages. Its financial method and rents are similar to the St. Pancras. There is also the Isle of Dogs society, initiated by a church settlement in that district, and there are numerous others in the suburbs and provinces. As the "Church Times" remarked recently, the church has hitherto been fighting local battles, which have shown what can be done, and how. but the archbishops have now called it into a general action. It will be seen that the Bishop of Worcester preaching the Centenary sermon in St. Paul's would have knowledge of the archbishops' appeal for a dedication of the centenary to a campaign for slum-clearance.—Yours, etc., H. O. HANBY, Editor of "Church News." July 11, 1933.