CHILDREN OF 1958

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28767, 12 December 1958, Page 6

CHILDREN OF 1958

Contrast With Ancestors . LBu ERNEST CHISHOLM THOMPSON! LONDON. “There are no longer delicious dark attics under the rooftops, no cupboards under the stairs.” Such was the recent complaint of a well-known woman speaker criticising Britain’s modern houses from the viewpoint of the average child. Her argument was that life in this streamlined, glass-fronted wofld of ours is losing its fascination and romance. The modern child, she warned, would soon have no scope for wonder. While seeing her point. I cannot bring myself to agree. “They have never had it so good,” said the Prime Minister, Mr Harold Macmillan, speaking not long ago about how the population as a whole benefits from the general rise in standards of living. The phrase exactly fits the children of today. When it comes to opportunities for wonderment and awe, I am sure they have never had it so good. Palace of Fascination To take one small instance, I have just been shown a collection of children’s toys dated around 1870. They struck me as pathetic—crude wooden sets of railway trains and shapeless stuffed dolls which would drive any self-respecting child to the attic or the cupboard under the stairs. Beside this sad array, the modem toy shop, with its space ships and under-water kits, and dolls that say “thank you,” is a palace of fascination and romance. In the shops this Christmas there will be toys enough to keep the youngsters spellbound until the holidays are over. The rise of Britain’s toy trade has been sensational. Canada and Australia are our best customers overseas, with the United States of America a close third. One of the happiest men in the country today is Mr S. H. Powell, chairman of the British Toy Manufacturers’ Association. He has just reported that sales of toys made in Britain last year reached fhe record figure of £36,000,000; 20 years ago it was

barely over £3,000,000. But children are not the only sharers in this exciting new world blending make-believe and romance with even more wonderful fact. We have none of us ever had it so good. Who would have believed, 25 years ago, that the historic pageantry of the State Opening of Parliament by the Sovereign would be seen as well as heard in cottages and farmhouses, hospitals and works canteens, all over Britain.

History Re-lived The precedent set in 1957 when Queen Elizabeth II opened the Ottawa Parliament no doubt influenced the decision to televise the same magnificent ceremony this October in the “Mother of MrKanaefatsr ht Westminster. And what a fairyland Df splendour this revealed to the young in heart of

all ages. It was history re-lived. In the reign of England’s first Elizabeth, 400 years ago, the ritual in the House of Lords differed little from that enacted before the television cameras a few weeks ago. Queen Elizabeth 11, in her Crown and Parliament Robe of State, was preceded, like Elizabeth I in 1558. by heralds in armorial tabards after being saluted by the symbolic Sword of State, borne aloft this time by Viscount Montgomery of Alamein. But even in this scene modernity reared its shaoely head with the presence, for the first time in a thousand years, of peeresses. Pour life peeresses, recently created, were there, berobed in scarlet and miniver and wearins tricorn hats, the newly-ordained fashion for peeresses of the realm. Fashion Parade for Troops The new look is not confined to the House of Lords. The British Army has begun a new drive, not exactly for glamour, but for the sort of smartness that will make it difficult to distinguish a private from an officer. Mr Soames, Secretary of State for War, held a “fashion parade” the other day to show off six service uniform designs which are to be given a three months’ troop trial beginning on December 1. Five were based on uniforms at present worn only by officers; the other was an improvement on present-day battle-dress. As a former serviceman from the First World War. with memories of the rough khaki tunics of those days with their tight, neck-tickling collars, not to mention yards of puttees wrapped round the legs. I must say I envied these modern soldiers with their collars and ties and smooth jackets of barathea and “Terylene” worsted. The bright brass buttons did not even need polishing.

The girls, too, are to be clad fashionably. Members of the Women’s Royal Army Corps and Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps paraded in uniforms cut—so my women friends tell me—on classical lines. They wore black court shoes. The man-in-the-street is winning recognition fast. The latest manifestation comes from the City of London Court of Aidermen. They have agreed, subject to ratification by Parliament, that that the annual Lord Mayor’s Show in November—the world’s most famous procession of trade and • industry—shall from next year be held on Saturdays so that as many people as possible may see it.