IS COURTESY ON THE WANE?

Colonist, Volume LVI, Issue 13930, 11 February 1914, Page 2

IS COURTESY ON THE WANE?

The new play, "A Place in the Sun," being performed at the Comedy Theatre, London, has given rise to considerable newspaper discussion, because its author depicts the fashionable young man of the day as devoid of courtesy towards his elders, and especially towards women. The Ranee of Sarawak writes thus on the subject: — Is it possible that so much cynicism and so little heart can 'be characteristic of any considerable portion of the community", however degenerate they may be from the youug men of the \ ric-

torian age?-I daresay their morals were no better, but at all events -they j were men, and.it would have been im-J possible for .any 3 roung man who wa-s i responsible for so grievous a tragedy in "which his own sister was the victim? I wish to onake it clear that I am not referring to the question of morality at all; I pnly protest against such a tragedy being treated by those mostresponsible or chiefly concerned in it with such blatant cynicism and with a want of heart which it would be impossible to discover in anyone witlrthe most remote pretence either to honest manliness or decency of thought. The one thing that consoled, me was that the ending is so contrived as to leave s? pleasant impression on one's mind on leaving the theatre. Some of my women friends assure me that the character of Capel is not overdrawn. It has certainly struck me that gentleness and courtesy are somewhat on the wane in the younger generation. 1 have at times had shrewd suspicions that some young men consider the traditional deference shown by their sex

. in the past in the presence of women " was a sign of weakness, but after one passes a certain age one is loth to criticise, even to oneself, the apparent ■ shortcomings of younger people, lest

one appear to have forgotten the demerits, and only to remember the merits of the moral atmosphere ih which one's own youth was spent. I do not know what ( purpose Mr. Cyril; Harcourt had in writing 'A Place

in the Sun,' nor does it really affect the question at issue, for the play itself and the vivid manner in which it

is presented make one tremble for the future of the country if his facts are correct, although with the 'art which conceals art' he has contrived to sugar his- bitter pill with such a generous

covering of humour that many of the audience the evening I saw the play appeared merely to revel in -the exhilaration, of the moment; One" thing is certain: "the preaches so goo 3 tt~ sermon '• .-hai'M-ram^ sureiy^Sppei^ to.

all but the basest, for J still refuse to believe that the. modern, young man can have sunk so low as depicted in the play in . question. J write from b jjtrongfry interested. ana^persbnal point ,^f sdeW/-for what I feel is^tbaiHf Br'i^' >sh men are .decayJ^and^degOT^ratjrhjg* at "the very heart of the' Empire, then the days of the Empire are numbered. Such a play, at all events', can serve the highest purpose if it only tends to arrest the decay' before worse evil befall us.