BRITISH PHYSIQUE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 280, 7 August 1909, Page 13

BRITISH PHYSIQUE.

'(.'.'CANADIAN- VISITOR'S. FEARS. ,i. A: Canadian who has ■ returned home to Montreal, after a visit to the Home' Country -writes. to the. London "Times" :r—While we -do.not-minimise; the'~vital importance,of the building■ of. .Dreadnoughts;' some, (of :us .who have ; ' Studied the social and economic tioris of the teeming millions of East London and 'of your -industrial cohtres have returned to Canada . wondering how many Dreadnoughts,would;bo required to compen-, sate, foi- the physical decline of'.British man-' hood by whose former ipight arid valour Britain .has become the ruler of "half .thoworld and : all: tho main." '. .;.. ' ■;:':.■ . ; .

, One 1 who lo'vos England and. who is proud of her glorious past does' not, of course, ppeak.of this;visible and'palpablo physical decline and of its causes in any spirit of harsh but in ; a spirit of, sympathy, impelled by. a'-desiretoshow tho.people of. Eng;land,..that which-' they! theniselv.es; evidently' navenbtf'yet:seen.:' : -'■. - ':--\ ■::'-'■■■':• ■■■•■■;/ ■■' ' During "'a/study of your •social and economic conditions,'l;fgained- access, to figures which' may riot be : absolutely correct/but which, contain enough ' truth to show .that'. Britain's most serious menace is not-German Anglophobia, : but that her most dreaded foe is ■within her own-borders waging au'insidious warfare Against'that British physicarman-.. hood which is tho'bulwark'of the nation. .. ■'. ■ Half a century ago the' minimum standard of height for your ..infantry', was sft. 6in. During tho.ensuing quarter of a'century that standard was reduced to sft. 3in. ; During ,'tho Boer War it -was further reduced 'to ,sft. 2in.; and:before'the.end of that'war it-was reduced .to, sft.; More :thau .50 per cent', ■'■'of: the .'soldiers in South Africa, were, below the: minimum standard req\iired' ; of tho .recruits for the Crimean/ "War half a century previously. .'About .50 per '.cent; of the recruits' in tho;. Boer. War failed to reach';tko; former minimuiri standard .of chest-girth, which hadbeen ,34ini; and about one-third of the troops in. the Boer:, War, fell below the former minimum standard,,of weight,'which had been 1351W:"■"..,, ■'; ■■' :'''"''■:';. ;"'.„.'.,.' ..:During 'the Boer,. War the., average British soldier was 2in. shorter, lih. less, in:chest g[rth,' ; and 151b/,lighter than the averago British soldier-in the .Crimean War.;,.. >~. . '■> A ..Canadian visiting. your .'industrial cen-. ties does not need, any'statistics at, all, for he sees onlyitooV much evidence of physical decline in, the'majority of the'men-,whoin he sees on the,streets. ... .. ~ :•.':;. ■'■■■ > '■: Tile,- Japanese have shown that men of smaller stature may,bo sturdy men. But figures seem to show that in England that principle: does not apply. During the recruiting" of London for,the Boer War,_ about 40 per cent, of the. applicants .were, rejected as unfit, and in. the .'manufacturing centres, that percentage was still higher.'.''■'''.-, '~' In. Birmingham in : June, 1908, a Sunday school procession of several thousands .' of. children, gave only too much evidence that at maturity they would not reach a. high stan-. dardof physical development. ,: - v ' A study,.of the physical condition of the 'many factory girls - in your manufacturing centres gives too little, promise of .that physical vigour which,in; motherhood is so essential for the physicalweal of future, generations. - l '.'■ ■ '.-'.'. : These conditions being general, it follows that there must be some general cause—and .here the cause may easily bo found. ' Of the, British soldiers who fought at Waterloo and Balaclava, the majority were country r bred. • Statistics given by : Jlacaulay show'that, a largo percentage of thepoople of the England of the seventeenth century lived on land of which they''themselves-were the owners. In the' England -6f per cent, of •the population live in- cities and'.towns;while d large percentage of : these are congested,' hundreds to the acre, in; the slums, from which the ory'of the sickening and dying children rises to Heaven in sad and vain protestagainst'the'national iniquity 'of their slum-hunger for sunshine and fresh air and bread, the lack of which .is the chief cause of the physical decline of British manhood. , . "Tho noblest work of the statesman is that done to raise tho standard of public health." —Gladstone. "The voins of true wealth are purple —not in rock, but in human flesh." The divine intent of air wealth is the production of sturdy men."—Ruskin. "The greatest State is that which produces the brawniest breed of men."—Carlylo. "Rome failed with the failure of her crops —of men."—Scoloy.'

What of England's future should her cropa of men continue 6t fail?