CONDITIONS IN BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26122, 26 May 1950, Page 6

CONDITIONS IN BRITAIN

“ EXTREMELY DEPRESSING PICTURE ” DR. I. D. BLAIR’S IMI’RESSIOM! The picture of Britain obtained a person who stayed long enough to live among the people under their nacsent conditions was vastly differed from that obtained by the typical tourist, according to Dr. I. D. Blair, senior lecturer in microbiology at Canterbury Agricultural College. Lincoln. Dr. Bla.r returned to Christchurch yesterday after a visit to Britain and A Trr’ :> -a under a Nuffield Travelling Fellowship in natural science. He has been a..ay about 16 months. The British bad been persuaded by politicians that they must have tourists and looked upon them in typical quizzical fashion. Dr. Blair said. They did not live among the British. They visited places the native Englishmen failed to see; they bought goods which lhe native inhabitants were not permitted to buy; they lived in hotels among fellow tourists: and they obtained their views of Ihe domestic aspects of British life from the news-

If. however, one stayed long enough to live among lhe people and be adopted by them (and the Englishman took about two months to decide that he liked a person), the picture one obtained at the outset was extremely depressing. “It might be that the root cause of such a state of depression arises from the very apparent fact that Britain is suffering from land starvation of the most acute form,” said Dr. Blair. “The planners have failed to co-ordinate the competing demands for British land. I Housing schemes compete with food ; production, 50,000 acres yearly being i lost for new building areas. The I security needs as expressed by the ser- ' vice departments conflict with the ' amenity needs of those concerned with | preserving Britain's beauty. The expansion of new industries demands new | factory sites, transport needs new , arteries, destructive open-cast mining ■ is forced by necessity, space had to , be found for recreation.” 1 These wore the stern realities affecting life in Britain to-day, and it was !of distinct concern that all in the Commonwealth should appreciate these

issues, particularly if they were inclined to pass judgment <>n Britain's politics. It might be said that the cure was to persuade a million Britons to migrate. Some thousands were leaving and during his travels on ships he had been intrigued to be informed by some of those persons that Britain was done. That was a conviction, that had to be scotched. In reply, it should be pointed out that the best intellects within a‘ll the groups in Britain, the academic, the professional ano the working, had no intention of leaving Britain in any circumstances and could not be persuaded to leave. ‘‘We can consider ourselves fortunate if we get good migrant stock and I believe we will continue to remain more interested in those who remain iin Britain. We should assist rhem. because in the genius, humour, k ndness. ! imperturbability .and toughness of the ; Britisher who is really welded to Britain’s earth and life remains the solid core from which the sorely needed leadership is more likely to come than from the atmosphere" of suppression i and direction on the one extreme cf ihe world-dividing curtain or from the atmosphere of abundance and comfort on the other.*’ Dr. Blair concluded.