“ALIEN'S” LETTER FROM ENGLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 3514, 19 July 1921, Page 49

“ALIEN'S” LETTER FROM ENGLAND.

(Specially Written for the Ladies’ Page.) WHITSUNTIDE, 1921. During his stay at Buckingham Palace the Crown Prince of Japan was entertained at several State functions, but it is regrettable that Courts arranged for early May had to be postponed owing to the coal strike, for at the drawing rooms the Japanese Prince would have seen British society in a brilliant setting, and some beautiful debutantes were to have made their first curtsey to the King and Queen this season. But the Lord Chamberlain announces that he is at present unable to make any definite announcemet as to the dates on which their Majesties may hold the Courts this year. The London crowd, too, are missing the “sights” of the season, for almost as interested as the participants in the pageants are those who look on. And during a normal London season m all those happy summers before the war the i great metropolis was a cyclorama ; a succession of moving pictures by day and j by night. And what was, and "is, so j characteristic of London is the adapta- ; bility of the Londoner to the scene and the mood of the hour. fie and she. whatever the occasion, are one with it. the magnetism of the one thought carried bv millions can be felt. The air is charged with electricity. Be it a mighty mourning or a mighty rejoicing, it weights the air. The sorrow bows, and the rejoicing uplifts. On those great national occasions in which all classes participate in interest and in sympathy there is nothing like the unity* of the crowds. Over and over it strikes me as irrestible, this power that the strong mind of Britain has when it is a question of all pulling together. There is no | empire on earth that could overthrew it were it of one mind and one will. The Crown Prince of Japan, with the Prince of Wales, visited Windsor, where he inspected the cast’e and placed wreaths ! on the tomb of Queen Victoria. Before I h© left Buckingham Palace the Crown j Prince, accompanied by the Prince of j Wales, and attended by the Master of the Horse and members of the suite, visited Whitehall, and crowds assembled along the route, along the Mail, Admiralty Arch. Trafalgar Square. the Strand, F'cet street, Ludgate Circus. Ludgate Hill, St. Paul’s. Cheep, ide, King street, and Guildhall. The reception for the Crown Prince and the Prince of Wales at the Japanese Embassy was one of the biggest functions of this “postponed” season. The new American Ambassador and Mrs JTarvev made one of their first social appearances in London, and were warmlv greeted bv the Prince of Wales, and afterwards had supper with the*Crown Prince of Japan, with the French Ambassador and the Comptess de Saint-Aulaire, at a small table reserved for the Crown Prince and several of his suite. The Anti-waste Party is growing stronger in Parliament. Every week fresh members leave the Coalitionists and go over to the Opposition. But the fight at times seems hopeless, for what is the use of preaching economy and the need for private retrenchment when there appears to be no limit to official increased expenditure and waste? The latest example of this snuandermania is the suggestion that M.P.’s salaries shall in future bo untaxed, and that- thev shall, in addition. be presented with first-class railway nasses. This, on top of the iingo war bonuses granted to civil servants, and the £SOOO a rear granted to Dr Addison, for it would seem, retirement from the huge failure he made as Minister of Health, and in his housing scheme, has roused suffering tax payers to fury. Judging bv the reception that the Dover constituency cave to Sir Thomas Poison and Lady Pol-on the other dav (when he was presented with a- 10-mp'-enr> bv his constituents in recognition of the “gnllant fight.’’ he is making against Government waste), it is ensv to see how grateful the penp'e. are to those men who will take no part In the country’s further oppression. But they are marked men bv the party politicians both In the House

and out of it ; their “opposition ’ to the wastrels is an irritation to the Government. But it is to that small body of brave men that the country will owe its release from financial tyranny if realisation is possible. AA ith scarcely half the trains running, and no excursion facilities, the coal strike has yet not been able to take all the joy out of Whitsuntide, because of the delightful change to mild airs and sunshine which flooded the country during the week-end. It determined many on the Friday and Saturday to get oiit of the metropolis by any means possible, and Victoria Station. St. Pancras, Euston, and King’s Cross were in a turmoil. Tens of thousands of people struggled to get awav by the few trains there were, some patient and sea-thirsty folk crowded out of the morning trains patiently sitting on their trunk or bag in the station all <iay for the evening trains—to be crowded out again. Then thousand trippers were left behind at Victoria Station alone. On Saturday people were on all the platforms as early as 4 a.m., walking miles through the twilight of the sweet dawn, many of them to reach the station. Scarcely anyone got away by train at all, all day, who were not at the station by noon, and arrived at their destination some time before midnight, worn out with their effort. Happier by far were those who owned a car, or anything that ran on wheels, and the brilliant sunshine and clarit-v of air made the long-distance motor coach journeys a delight. Far more people were left behind at the railway stations than even a full railway service could have carried, and the loss to the railway companies must be excessive. But the roads were a pa.ge.int of traffic. Thousands of motor omnibuses now link up one town with the next throughout the kingdom, and the local trains that have been taken off because of the coal strike are scarcely missed. Motor coaches ran the long distances from London into Kent, Surrey, Sussex, and Hants with every seat occupied. But it was more a young folk’s holiday. Older people would not face the crush on the stations, or dust or possible rain—of the roads. The road to Brighton on Saturday and Whit-Mo-ndav was like a Derby Dav. From the costly limousine to the tradesman’s motor vail everything on wheels was packed with people, and thousands were on bicycles. In every direction the main streams of traffic were towards the- sea. Yet the seaside towns are hard hit. Those who travelled by road saw the countryside at its most beautiful season, and heard tho birds at their sweetest songl time. For miles and miles the nills ami vales are perfect in a hundred greens of grasses and hedges and trees from palest shades to black-green of the massed branches of the woods, copper-green, goldgreen, olive, emerald—every conceivable tint, and incomparable the world over. I passed through miles of loveliness the other day, the spring copses ringing with the song of birds—larks, the robin, the thrush, the blackbird, and from the green distance the cuckoo calling. The dales were emerald, and gold, and white with buttercups arid dairies ; not sparsely sprinkled, but in millions. The breeze moved the hillsides of young wheat, making rumple like green water! The hedges were pink and white with perfumed May blossom, and carpets of bluebells were spread beneath the tiees, and bv the rills between tall rushes, blue and yellow “flags’’ bordered the stream past fields of dark green lavender bushes. The laburnum and lilac waved great scented branches in the sunshine. It was a perfect scene of English springtide beauty and peace —till we passed some idle men, with dogged, sullen faces, who were leaning on a gate, and marred the scene of Nature’s peace with the reminder of human trouble. It is here all round us, beneath the attempt at holiday-making, and everyone is thankful for the sunshine which lessens the suffering of the distressed. | ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. It is with much pleasure that I received letters from “Gertrude,” “Encouraged.” and “Ex-Soldier” re my letter ‘Success and Failure, and thank you for having written. By the courtesy of Messrs Hutchinson and <34-5-6 Paternoster row, London, E.C.) letters addressed “Alien” always reach me. To “Gertrude."—No; I do not think a woman's life is a failure because “nothing she has ever done was done with a higher purpose than to do it because it had to be done and as well as possible for selfsatisfaction.” Don’t you see that the “trivial round, the common task” that has exhausted and wearied liv its monotony has been redeemed from commonness and commonp’ace bv that “ns well as possible for self-satisfaction”? There lies the secret that lifts work from labour to dignity. The clod works only for his pay ; works to the minute. 1 have seen a man two-thirds way up a ladder with a hod of bricks when the 12 -o’clock whistle sounded, go down again with the bricks. The third way up was overtime—of himself. Long ago. among the Dunedin hills after a long ramble, I came across a little shop where 1 went in to see if I could get some tea. I sat waiting hr (lie counter while the little woman behind it served several customers. She weighed the goods out with scrupulous care, and then, when the scales turned justly, she put a pinch over into the tea. a spooiPul over into tho sugar, an extra sweetmeat into the ounce. “Why do you give the little overweight?” I asked. “I do it for mv own eati.-."notion.” she said. AVe mayscrub a. floor, or write an article for the press, or clean a pair of hoots or preach a sermon, and we may do it honestly well for our pay . but it is that for which we are not paid- the soul in the work, the overweight-, the little more than we need give—that redeems our iontract from sordidness. And “the common life of the common woman” is not common—dignified bv service which is sacrifice. The ordinary- wife and mother, in the course of an ordinary day martyrs herself, as of course. But it is woman’s splendid selflessness

where her loved ones are concerned that b the “overweight ” that counts not only for the sanctity and security of the home, but for the security of the nation. ‘•Encouraged.”—Every morning when you awaken say, “This is a new , : .. v j jL .t us rejoice and be glad in itAH things are possible between the rising and the °setting of the sun. „ To "Ex-Soldier.” —Could I use that story? Tell it again disguised as to name ana PI “L-ucv Bar-lev.”—Thanks you for your sweet letter. It tool; me back to Grange Farm” of 30 years ago. Am writing soon.