BRITISH CONCERN

Evening Star, Issue 22687, 29 June 1937, Page 12

BRITISH CONCERN

LONDON'S RAPID GROWTH NEW CAPITAL POSSIBLE ? London is something inoro than a great city. It is a great problem (says a writer in the ‘Daily Sketch ). In the last hundred years its population has grown from 2,000,000 to more than 8,000,000, roughly 1,000,000 of which have been added since 1914. And the growth continues. If London’s magnetic influence remains unimpaired and the_ population of the country as a whole diminishes in accordance with the last forecast, the United Kingdom will consist of a vast London and not much else that matThe Government is already showing signs of concern at the growth of London. In his final report on the special areas, Sir Malcolm Stewart suggested that steps should be taken_ to control the further expansion of industry in the Greater London area in the interests of a more evenly distributed production. The question of establishing such control is one of the matters a new Royal Commission is to examine. It is questionable, however, the drift of industry can be artificially controlled. Its movements' cannot easily be canalised. FUTURE OF INDUSTRY. Consider one of the many important factors in the migration of trade to Greater London. Is the State to forbid industry to take advantage of the enormously increased facilities provided by the Port of London, whose business has doubled since the beginning of the century? Is its £12,000,000 programme of development to be abandoned ? Are its new docks and facilities to be condemned to decay, to go derelict, while Fishguard and Whitehaven are developed with State aid to draw off trade from London to the special areas ? To exhibit just that one aspect of the question is to afford a glimpse of the complexity of any plan to control the migration of trade and industry. There is, however, one step which a courageous Government might contemplate to check the expansion of London and to give new importance and magnetism to some other parts of the country. The step is the removal of the political capital, the transfer from London to some free and convenient site elsewhere, of the whole machinery of Government. The United States has its Washington ; Canada has its Ottawa: Australia has Canberra. We set up New Delhi to take the Indian seat of Government from Calcutta. Why not a Washington for Great Britain, a noble city, and a symbol of a ■ magnificent future, devoted to house Parliament and all the Ministries and Government departments, with their ever-increasing population? Oiu' Parliament House is obsolete. It will not nearly accommodate the members elected to it. On important occasions ambassadors sit in one another’s laps, and some representatives of the dominion Press obtain seats on a “ Strangers Bench ” normally reserved for the foreign Press and controlled by the Foreign Office. Committee rooms are at times so full that they would be condemned under the Government's own overcrowding regulations. LACK OF ACCOMMODATION. A recent attempt by members to set an example in maintaining physical fitness among themselves was illustrated by lack of accommodation for a gymnasium. Thus does Britain conduct its Imperial affairs in a grandiose slum. It is easy to dream of a new capital (constructed, perhaps, when trade showed a tendency to slump) where Parliament would bo adequately and

healthily housed, where Civil servants would no longer work in basements and old houses (as some do at present), where aeroplanes could land within walking distance of Ministries, and where a great wireless station would be in direct touch with every part of the Empire. So much is easy. What is harder to determine is the best site for such a city. Shall it be in Warwickshire, in the very heart of England; or shall it bo on the Border, between, say, Carlisle and Newcastle, a few hours’ journey from Edinburgh and Glasgow? Leicestershire, associated with Simon de Montfort, one of the begetters of parliamentary government, offers sites where argiculture and industry would flank the capital. Yorkshire, too, has places admirably suited to such a purpose. Good claims might bo made out for Lancashire, whose Duke is the King, and what of a site that would have historic Tewkesbury as its outer gateway P Consider Cheshire. Somewhere near Chester, a city rich in history and royal associations, might be found the ideal place for the new headquarter's of the British Commonwealth. Here Parliament could be in sight of ploughland and almost within hearing of the machinery of the industrial north. Nearby would be Liverpool, link with Ireland and with the New World beyond.

But there are many apparently eligible sites. To find a place fit to be the new capital of a new Britain is an extremely interesting problem..