“ALIEN’S” LETTER FROM ENGLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 3662, 20 May 1924, Page 62

“ALIEN’S” LETTER FROM ENGLAND.

(Specially Written for the Ladies’ Page.) AS OTHERS SEE US. March 23 It has been announced that the King and Queen will hold Courts this season at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday and Wednesday, May 20 and 21, and on Thursday and Friday, June 26 and 27, at 9.30. This is the same number of Courts as last year—later in May and earlier in June. With the announcement of the Courts, and the issue of the invitations from the Lord Chamberlain, dressmakers begin the season’s most mportant work, and from now on business will be in full swing. If there is such a thing as a democratic London season we shall have it this year, with the Labour Government in power, and folk here from all parts of the Empire. Despite the Prince of Wales’ reluctance to admit that his accident last week at the army point-to-point was serious, it was evidently serious enough to prevent his removal from the house of Colonel Graham, at Aldershot for a week, for it was Friday before the Prince was taken by motor car to his own home at St. James’ Palace, where he went to bed immediately on arrival, and will, it is stated, take things quietly for some little time. Lady Frances Balfour, sister-in-law to Lord Balfour, who seems not to admire the girl of to-day (to put it mildly), caused quite a flutter by her indictment of the modern woman at the London School of Economics, when she debated with Miss Viola Tree, the actress, whether “ the young woman of to day is any worse than she ever was.’ “ Her .ace Is a mass of powder,” said Lady Balfour. “ Red lips gashed out of all human resemblance ; a strong reek that makes me oug, when I pass her in the street, for a. breath off God’s heaven.” She told vf a young woman whom she heard in Bond street, W., on Ash Wednesday ay to

her companion, in mockery of the fast, “ Let’s go and have a real bilious lunch. Other points made by Lady Bairour were that in the past women led more sheltered lives. They knew less of men, and thought them paragons of virtue—to the inevitable improvement of men. ihat the women of tl.e past led more romantic lives, there were more romantic possibilities in their lives, becaiv.se they were more sheltered. To-day all things are lawful. Whether they are expedient is left to the young woman’s newborn sense of responsibility. Miss Viola Tree, in her reply said: “ Short skirts are t'no embodiment ot open air, hurry, and unashamedness. The girl of to-day has not much to hide, and if she had she would net hide it. It is not morality which is the trouble. The young woman of to-day might take greater care, not of her morals or manners, but her heart.” The views expressed by Lady Frances Balfour apply strictly to very few women. There have always been extremes- —women of every generation who exaggerated the fashions whatever they were, and every generation has its critics of the past generation. When crinolines were worn there were women who wore exaggerated crinolines, and when pork-pie hata were the fashion, in Queen Alexandra s youth, some women wore them tilted f orwsrd almost on a level with their nose, erected at the back by a cushion of hair. When waists were in they weie so compressed by some distorters of the female figure that the old prints give the impression that it would not take much effort. to snap the woman in two. And always some women have caricatured themseives by over-painting. As for women being less “sheltered” whatever that means —more hidden seems a truer meaning for when she was under the roof-tree more, she was just as hardworked as now, carrying the woman’s burdens—it is scarcely fair to blame her that the times have pushed her into the open, or to forget that during the War she had no hand in making, she came from what shelter she had and did with all her might whatsoever “unwomanly” task the urgency demanded. She lost her charm of gentleness in the roughness of the hour, but she had strength for hideous tasks, and courage in horrible dangers. Of course lier manners suffered, her sensibilities were blunted, with her shoulder to the wheel of cruel circumstances she dare not weep and let go. She whistled and smoked at her man’s job. Sometimes she swore. But she did the job. Sometimes in her fear that all joy was passing out of her world for ever, she snatched at seeming happiness in its passing. But as the world grows sane again, she will grow sane with it. Let it be remembered that the modern woman in a wonderful and difficult time lived up to it. She did not fail at the crisis. But for this rough handling of circumstance during the girl’s formative years, there is a price to pay. She was hardened and disillusioned, and grew selfassertive, and self-reliant, and mistook vulgarity for smartness and wit. She matched her manners to those of her war associates and learned nothing horn them to her advantage, perhaps, except patriotism and service. But in gentler times, gentler manners will again prevail. Dame Meriel Talbot, who among many official posts has held that of woman adviser to the Ministry of Agriculture, says of the modern young woman: “1 am all for her. I think she is a big improvement on the young woman of my day. She is infinitely more self-confident. She can express her own opinions, and she knows how to use her greater .iberty. As for the short skirts she wears, I think they are extremely sensible, and it she has pretty ankles there is, to my mind, no harm in her showing them. The modern girl is rapidly making ner way in the business world, and in the world of sport. I must say, however, that she has a tendency to stress whatever she is enthusiastic about. She has need to go a little slowly in her pursuits, and eat good meals.” Lady Terrington, M.P., thinks that girls of to-day are much more sensible than they were in Lady Balfour's time. To-day there is more freedom of choice for “life partners.” “The girls Jiat overdo their paint and powder are in a negligible minority.” Each generation, however, must gain its own experience and learn by its own mistakes. And one mistake that ignorant girls make is that a lack of convention and modesty and reverence is pleasing to men. To the animal type, perhaps, but the men whose admiration and appreciation is of better worth shrink from vulgar display in women either in her beauty, or intellect, or in her clothes. There is an aesthetic, if not a spiritual, apprisement of men for women which is not a mood of any moment, but is an instinct of all times —West as well as East, —that the unveiling of a woman should be for themselves alone. A chivalrous and decent man shrinks from the parading of a woman’s lack of modesty. If he does not it is no compliment to the woman—or argument for his ideal of women. He might seem “ old fashioned,” but it is a very endearing old fashion to have men still with reverence for woman. At the recent meeting of the Skiff Racing Association it- was the opinion of some members tl.at the rowing costume worn by women at regattas is too scanty. The committee did not desire to formulate any rule on the subject, but leaves it to the good taste of the women to put the matter right.

in “ good taste ” is the elucidation gi many ot the social difficulties of to-day. Bad form, bad manners, an unsensniveliess to the opinion and feeling ol others, rather than bad morals, migiit explain much in the young that -older loin find difficult to reconcile with womanliness. There is a deep philosophy of life in those two words, “ Be courteous.” Ages and many civilisations have gone t-o io-rmu-late our social traditions ot good manners, and b:id taste, although not immoral, is an offence against the accepted standard. In her severe criticism Lady Bailour has mistaken the exceptions for the : ule. At her best the modern girl is a frank, tree creature; at her worst she is very horrid, abusing her privileges of freedom. The modern woman, struggling for the principle of freedom, is one person ; the modern woman, abusing the freedom tor which lier sisters suffered to gam, is another. Since writing the above I have just read an article of this morning’s date in which Lady Balfour amplifies her views. Speaking of the past, she says: ‘ln society girls were hedged about with every convention and propriety. Marriage—and, to be absolutely just to a past age, marriage where the ideal was high—was inculcated as the only aim for a young woman. Match-making mothers were more in prominence, probably because there were more desirable partners of life than there are to-day. Everything was less organised ; the committees and societies of to-day were unknown, so were all the fashionable pretexts lor raising money. There were cnarity children, but a charity ball was unknown. The hospitals of even 50 years ago would now be called insanitary and dirty. A’urging was still in its infancy, and no nice girl would wish to practise it. “ The down-trodden and the many who fall by the wayside existed then as they will till time shall be no more, but among women—no nice woman spoke of .hem. Here and there a pioneer reared her head and blazed the path, but she was marly always ostracised by the society m which she lived. “ All this has changed, and in differing ages how can we stand in judgment on either the past or the present? “ There is less constraint in the borne, less sense of duty, less obedience to the heads of it. The modern family—l am talking -of the well-ordered homes of the land in all classes—are more 'the < jm panions of their elders than in the past. Their right to a place and to opinions of their own is recognised. But- they are less dutiful. They will leave the rooftree and leave the parents who may need them without a pang. “ If we follow' them into the world that they have chosen We shall often find that in that life they have lost what gives direction to the lihetry thus gained. It is a poorer, not a richer, experience. “ We must admit that with regard to women all conventionality has been set aside. What 50 years ago would have marked a woman as ‘ improper ' —living alone, walking or going anywhere without a chaperone—has completely gone. All that is very good and very wholesome. Why should not women mingle freely with their fellows, as they do m the family? “ Another thing this age has greatly improved in: Women are no longer content to be idle, their standard of work lias gone up; while, rather curiously, on tho whole, that of men has gone down. “ Perhaps the past may have oeen the safer road. It certainly was as long as women were looked upon as irresponsible beings, little more than the possession ot the family or the man who owned them. They were not a:iked for responsible conduct : they were only asked to follow obediently in the road pointed out to them. To-day they are free; all things are theirs. Is it to be a glorious liberty, or is it- to be licence which in women has always preceded the decay and tall of a race and a- nation.” The latest snub of the girl of to-day has come from Belfast, where the dev. John Pollock, in a lecture t-o lovers at Ballymena, called flirts “ beasts of prey.” “ Of all the beasts of prey that hifest the earth,” said this ungallant gentleman, “ there is nothing more disgusting loan a flirt.” He gave, however, some good hints to girls : “ Don’t marry a fop.” “Don’t marry a man who is ashamed to mention his mother.” “ Trust no promises of reformation after marriage.” And to the men he said: “ Women often conceal their affections under an icy reserve.” “ Look before you leap.” “ Love marriages are tho only ones It is to be hoped that we shall get all our strikes over before the exhibition season begins, for if visitors from other countries have to share the discomforts that were thrust on London denizens yesterday by the tram strike they will certainly not think that this is a- country fit for heroes to live in. With scarcely any warning the greatest city m the world is suddenly deprived of its tramway and omnibus service. The strike was sudden, and hundreds of thousands of men and women who live five miles or more from their work in the city are put to the strain of walking in and out, or fal'ino’ to appear in office or shop or workroom. At the best of times the London traffic problem is unsolved, and the transit- from Greater London to the city and back is an exhausting rush and scramble. The public is sick of strikes. They do no good, and should be made impossible. Huge sums are lost by the companies in revenue and by the men in wages, besides all the injury and loss inflicted on private persons as well as business. Tie-in-re Ixmdon with its seven millions suddenly robbed of the means of ’ransit! The scenes were indescribable—pale-faced girls hurrying breathless and exhausted to their work after miles of weary t-rimp-ing, and youths, who, perhaps, ? up on roller skates. Many employers had

arranged with their employees that in the event of the strike coming on on the Saturday morning not to- come in for the half day, but to take tlve whole day off. The suburban services of the railways were called to cope with extraordinary pressure in the early morning hours. There was an unending stream of business tramping homewards, streams ot bicycles, carts, and motors laden with men and women; old traps the like ot which the public had forgotten; an occasional four-wheeler or other antiquated conveyances, among them hansom cabs, which brought memories of London in happier times. One feature of the first day of the strike was the- kindness ot people with motor cars, who gave many a lift to their destination. And taxis were in great demand. The theatres did not suffer at night, the managers say, for many of their patrons come by private car, and most of the others by train. Houses were full, and restaurant supper parties numerous. It seems that we have not done with the winter yet. Snow fell lightly in Manchester during the week, and m Buxton and the Peak district- of Derbyshire. The first day of official spring—March 'll—was one of a series of bitter cold days, tne mornings thickly coated with hoarfrost. Anything over 14 days without rain is described by the Meteorological Office a drought, and this March remained dry—one of the driest on record—till to-day, March 23, and before it was yet light rain began to fall, and, to the j°y of the gardeners and the birds, has continued heavily. The gardeners are thinking of their seeds, and the birds of the worms. For the birds have had a hungry time during the weeks of frosts, and so, too, have Iliad the would-be buyers of spring greens and salads. But the spring is now officially here, and presently we shall have the flowers. There is a stir not only in Nature, but through tho whole community. Evidently Mr J. 11. Thomas, the new Labour Secretary for the Colonies, does not impress strangers with the dignity of office, for it is told of him that- during his recent visit- to Newport, his nativetown, arrived at the Town Hall for the banquet of the Chamber of Trade, he was met in the corridor by old friends, and they stood talking gaily and, evidently, loudly outside the Police Court door, when a policeman suddenly emerged from tho court, and, addressing Mr Thomas, curtly said, “Get- out, with your infernal row.” Someone asked the constable if he knew who he was talking to. “ What the devil do I care what he is. Let him get out.” Later on Air Thomas told the tale against himself at the Chamber of Trade banquet, adding, “And such is fame! ’ But isn’t there a sort of snobbery about so much insistence upon humble beginnings? We hear a good deal of it at the moment.