NOT FOR FRIVOLOUS

Evening Post, Issue 56, 7 March 1934, Page 14

NOT FOR FRIVOLOUS

ENGLISH NUDIST CLUB

IDEALS OF NEW CULT In England, in the very stronghold of Mrs. Grundy herself, there is an association of men and women "who believe passionately that the wearing ofclothes, though necessary for social and weather reasons, is in itself neither a moral nor a spiritual necessity- when they can be dispensed with in such a way as neither to break the law nor give offence to those of conventional ideas —and family memberships are the real basis of the English nudist groups. There is nothing about it to attract the frivolous. My attention was drawn to the movement by the chance reading of a letter by a clergyman which vigorously advocated a return to the Age of Inno-j eence, says the English correspondent, of J the Melbourne "Herald." I had a moment's startled thought of a Bondi Street in the busy shopping hour frequented by unclad society, until morej careful reading showed that the writer's idea extended only to sylvan sports and untrammelled family life hidden from the public view. He mentioned an association whose aims were to provide, for people of like mind retreats where they could swim, take exercise, sun-bathe through suitable sunny days, and escape the inhibitions of convention. This association is the Gymnic Association of Great Britain, with "offices in the heart of London and an. official magazine of the movement called "Gymnos." For information I sought the secretary, Mr. E. D. Petter. I found a quiet business man, extremely intelligent, apparently of excellent education and background, and in his middle thirties. His wife shares his duties. She is the typically quiet,, self-contained Englishwoman, utterly unlike the strident .women champions of unpopular causes whom sometimes I have met. NOT FOR FBIVOLOTJS-MINDBD. Mr. Petter chatted for an hour of what nudism meant to >mr and the members of his association. Judging by the standards that have to be attained for membership of the association, which maintains a camp all the year round within sixteen miles of London, it would be easier for a Nazi to get a passport into Palestine than for the frivolous-minded to join. "The great strength of the movement," Mr. Petter told me, "lies with the , ordinary, every-day, conventional person. When we can convince such people that nudity, is decent and clean their judgment overrides the prejudice that has been fostered by generations of crooked thinking. "There has grown up a sort of superstition about the human body," he continued," a superstition that it is a sort of degrading natural endowment of which we must be acutely aware and as acutely ashamed/ This generation has done much to rid itself of this stupidity, and there is more real appreciation today of the essential beauty of the body than has existed for many centuries." "What if it isn't beautiful?" I suggested. "Have you fixed on any stand* ard of aesthetics for young membership? To see obese old gentlemen stalking round a camp without.a tailor's kindly camouflage would seem to me to add a new terror to life." ■• The secretary smiled. "We certainly use our discretion in that matter," he said. "Every prospective member, after his or her qualifications as a citizen in good have been examined, is given a'personal interview. We do hot accept as mem-

bcrs any whose grossness ot body would be likely to give offence." "And what type of people join the association as' practising members?" was my nest question. I cxpeeted to hear that bright young things, postwar products, were the type that liked to parado round "mid noddings on," flinging yet a new defiance into the half-averted face of the Victorian era. His reply confounded me. "In the London camp," Mr. Petter • explained, "there is, in. the summer, an average daily attendance at the various sports and the swimming pool of fifty to seventy. Among these are doctors, lawyers, clergymen, businessmen, barristers, many of them exceedingly well known, and every one of them known not only as respectable but even as staid citizens. Each husband'is accompanied by his wife for it is a condition of membership that no separated married person will bo accepted singly: similarly with betrothed couples. We are determined that this movement shall not be the cause of any difference of opinion on a question so vital; membership of one, unknown to or without j the actual written consent of .the other marital partner is rigidly forbidden.'' "Then you consider that in England prejudice against mixed nudity is actually fading from the minds of what I. call the average conventional per-» sons?" I questioned. PREJUDICE FADING. "Actual personal prejudice is undoubtedly fast being destroyed by circumstances," was his reply. "The 'taboos' of past generations, when I founded on bad premises, are becoming the laughing-stock of thoughtful people of today. Psychologists are not regarded as cranks, and it would be difficult to find one of any standing who does not teach that the breaking down of curiosity between the sexes, curiosity born of these 'taboos,' is not a healthy, beneficial phenomenon, leading to decency in thought, word, and deed. "We know, from our experiences in this association, that the natural mingling of , like-minded, intelligent people has set up new standards of simplicity, friendliness, and comradeship. We have quite a few workmen-' and their families on our list of membership. These are accepted composedly by men and women of the professions who might, under, other circumstances, be inclined to regard themselves as of better social class. Snobbery in the camps is singularly absent, though naturally men and women whose tastes are intellectual or aesthetic standards are similar tend to gravitate together." HEALTH BENEFITS. "It is amazing to notice as the year goes on," he continued, "the improvement in the physique and the health of our members. Some of them have joined as the result of doctors' orders —and I have already said they take their own medicine—-with the result that weaknesses have disappeared and even substantial cures have been effected. One man who was supposed to be doomed is today playing a couple of rounds of golf, in the very pink of condition." ' The Gymnic Association is' the only English organisation that is affiliated with the official "opposite numbers" in. Europe and America. It is the parent of many groups formed throughout the country, and must pass upon any : candi-; date for membership. Its careful standards of morality, behaviour, and citizenship have given it an undoubted "respectability," and in this it differs from many othor bodies whicn exist in many countries, as -well as in England; mainly for pecuniary benefits, and which accept all who wish to throw their clothes off. So careful are "the standards of nudism in England that even sermons have blessed it under proper conditions, and a Nudist Camp ribw , ranks as more respectable-. than many ballrooms. '■■■■: ■■.■.:■-: