BRITISH OPTIMISM

Hokitika Guardian, 17 July 1931, Page 5

BRITISH OPTIMISM

REV. L. B. FLETCHER’S VIEW.

BEARING THE BURDEN. AUCKLAND, July 13. After an absence of 12 months from Auckland the Rev. (Lionel B. Fktcher returned yesterday by the Monowai. While he was in the Old Country he conducted the London Youth Evangelist Campaign in England and Wale's. Commenting on conditions in the United Kingdom, Mr. Fletcher said any talk of the decadence of Britain was simply ridiculous. The outstanding thing wh ch had impressed him during his stay in England was the optimism and determination of the British people in the present world crisis. It was not the people who were suffering most who were making the big-, gest noise about their sufferings, for no land had been as hardly hit as Britain, said Mr Fletcher. The British spirit was the same to-day as it was in the days of the Great ‘War. To the traveller Britain seemed the happiest country on earth. The smiling faces of people in the streets, the unfailing courtesy and gracious attention of' all classes, caused one to forget that this nation was bearing the greatest burdens of any people in the world. Speaking of his work in connection with the evangelist campaign, Mr Fletcher said a new geneiation was rapidly coming into prominence. In England ho had addressed nearly 250,000 young men and women who, physically and mentally, were examples of a coming race; which would uphold the best traditions of the Empire. They lived more in the open-air way than any previous generation, they were more alert and inquiring and they gave the impression- of being determined to have reality ;n religion.

When Mr Fletcher left England in 1924 the great problem was the provis’on of houses for the people, he said.. With commendable thoroughness Britain had faced that problem, and since the war there had been- built more than' 1,500,000 houses, about 1,000,000 of which had been constructed- by means of ;State aid in some form or other-. ; "

A very vigorous scheme was , now be-, ing put into operation'' for the building of a further 1,000,000 houses to take the place of slum dwellings which were' being demolished and also to add to the number of dwellings available. > The building trade had not known any dei pression or unemployment,' and every city had its new suburbs with the modern type of houses. •