HIDDEN SLOUGHS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19814, 4 December 1919, Page 6

HIDDEN SLOUGHS.

BRITAIN’S GREAT WASTE. UNWARRANTABLE EXTRAVAGANCE. (V The Government pretend that they are cutting down expenditure, but my impression is that they are not (writes I.avnt Eraser in the “Daily Mail”). They discharge half a. dozen “ flappers ” one day and establish a new almshouse for bureaucrats tbe next. 100 much attention is being concentrated upon Whitehall. To realise the way in which the revenue is being squandered, especially by the combatant, services, it is necessary to leave the railways and the big cities, and to go into the nooks and comers of oulr once peaceful and imwarliko countrvsid'e. In the last few weeks I have travelled over a groat deal of England and W ales .south of a. line drawn from the Dee to the Wash. In almost every district 1 have found conditions which suggest that the country is still at war. 1‘ or instance, the. number of carnns and aerodromes still in the possession of tho R.oynl Air Force alone is almost incredible. 1 have seen enough to convince me that for sheer reckless waste the Royal Air Force must have achieved a. record without parallel in the Inslory of any country. It takes tho palm for prodigality. A GREAT MILITARY CAMP. In the oral 1 came (a the conclusion that it is impossible to give' a spacious and comprehensive picture of the prere ut, situation. AVhen you suddenly run full-tilt, as I did the other day, into the midst of tho great military camp by W Jiitchurcli, in Shropshire, and find troops everywhere, sentries on guard. W aacs making tea at the doors of their huts, guns parked by the roadside, all tho paraphernalia, of war still displayed, you first- gasp with, astonishment, and then fool the uselessness of a long recital of similar scenes. ' “Tho thing to do.” I said to my-* self, “ is to Like one single- district and make a study there of the natural lustory of the Wastrels. The district around Slough which 1 selected is not in tho least exceptional. It is merely typical, as I anv qow able to say after journeying many hundreds of miles. The immense Motor Repair Depot at Slotigh is, however, tho most monumental example of what the Government did after the war. It is a vast landmark on the Road to Ruin. The eight special trams a day are still running, despite Lord Milner’s denial. A SURPRISING DISCOVERY. Two miles away from the Slough Motor Depot, on the London road, you may make your filet surprising discovery. Hero the Admiralty have quietly bought a- large mansion surrounded by a big moat, in tho midst of a spacious park which is between two and three miles in circumference. Boards inscribed “ Admiralty Compass Observatory” will, show you the way thither. Why did the Admiralty want to acquire a moated mansion and a ring Sarv in order to examine compasses? eforo the war the compass testers were content with a little office in Victoria Street. They had small branches at Glasgow and Deptford, and one clerk for the whole Compass Branch. At Ditton Dark, in a house built by a duchess, they developed, during the last few months of the war. a. gyro-compass branch, a magnetic-compass branch, an optical branch,, an exjxirimeutal branch, ami an air-compass branch. All these still remain. Ditton Park is run by “retired" officers, as the Navy List shows. There are twenty-six officials, apart front lower ranks, and a staff of thirty-two women clerks. It is a delightful spot. CoWs graze in the park, the foreground on a summer’s evening is graced by land girls. I should like to take Ixircl Fisher to have a look at it, and. to hoar him inquire what tho Admiralty is doing so far from salt water- In the war such an establishment may have been necessary. lam assured that today it is an unwarrantable extravagance and that the work might be done in any dockyard AN AIR FORCE HAMLET. Travel next through tiic lanes for about three miles to West Drayton. When yon see Air Force girls wandering about tho village you will know that you are near the place you seek. At a point about five miles from Lord Invcrtorth’s motor masterpiece you will find ai„ Air Force hamlet which, so far as 1 know', has never yet figured in printIt appears to lie a construction depot, but its veal purpose in a mystery to the uninitiated. There are numbers of new brick buildings, a. great workshop, sentries on guard, a considerable number of troops, and a general atmosphere which suggests that the war has only just began. Tlic West Drayton depot is quite in the luverforth manner, for most of it was made after the armistice. Its first result was to send up the local price of bricks from 45s to 85s per 1000, alihough brickmakin.g is a local industry. Ii lies off the main road, is not- easily found, and those who dwell there seem to lead a secluded life, tho world forgedling, bv Whitehall forgot. MADE FOR ETERNITY Then go north a couple of miles to Hillingdon, close by Uxbridge- There, still only six miles from Slough, you will find (lie biggest Air Forco depot 1 have ever gazed upon- I have beard that, ii covers five square miles. There are. live main entrances on the Oxford road alone, and innumerable blocks of buildings, which look as though they have been made for eternity. There is no camouflage about Hillingdon, where the news of the armistice has evidently never penetrated. The place swarms with men and women lu uniform. I counted over a. hundred Air Force girls in blue sauntering about the main street of Uxbridge, which was so full of troops that it reminded me of the towns “at the hack of (lie front ” in France. How much of the two millions a. day deficit goes to keep Hillingdon ready for war? A little more than two miles to the north-west, and again within, six miles of Slough, you mav find yet another Air Force depot built on the hillside at Denham. This camp has been for the most pari evacuated for some time, but apparently it is being carefully preserved in readiness for tbe next iflilbreak of hostilities, and is in charge of a small parly. INHERITANCES OF AVAR I will say nothing about the antiaircraft defences still existing around Slough, about the great piles of timber cut by the Canadian lumberers and still lying in the woods, or about the many other inheritances of war which continue to transform the neighbourhood. My point is that, as I have seen with my own eyes, for the conditions in this one district there are parallels all over the country. That is where the money goes. That is why the rearing presses of the Government still turn out sheaves of naper sovereigns. Do you doubt mo? Let us start in any direction you like. Come with me, for example, just across the Chi Items, to a point twenty miles from Slough. Walk over the slopes of Coornbe Hill and there, beyond the town of Wendovor. vou will see shining in the sunlight (as I - saw it on Ra.timE(v) the great Air Force city of Halton. unread far on the sides of the. opposite hill* manned by plenty of troops, ready for anything except retrenchment. Halton will amaze vou. and yet I have jnch places by the dozen.