CHANGE IN MANNERS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19848, 17 January 1920, Page 2

CHANGE IN MANNERS.

| “ A WAVE OF LMPOLITENESS.” | ! Gondoncrs of the more articulate ] classes--those whew remarks get into tlie newspapers—are lamenting that wiiat they caii a, " wave, of impoliteness” Jins swopr. over England (pays the “ New York Times ”). Like every I other change everywhere, nowadays, the asserted deterioration of British I manners is ascribed to the war, but most I of tho complaints, when the makers of them como down to details, seem to charge merely the disappearance of a I certain obsequiousness of servility in the j behaviour of the lower classes towards | the higher, ami the people who used to i be treated with an approach to rever ' once by those of hunjblcr social rank than themselves arc grieved or resentful when they find their superiority no [ longer recognised in the old way by%cr- , vauts and tradesmen. They should re- | member bow often, while the war was jin progress, consolation for its hardships and isorrows was discovered by them in just this elimination of the old distinction between the men of high and low degree who fought with equal cour. age in tho trenches side by side and with like readiness gave their lives in the common cause. Why that should have attracted more attention in this war than in those of the past it would be hard to tell, for it was nothing new in tho British ajmy, or in any other array, for that matter. Tho difference now. apparently, is that the equalising tendency of war has been carried over into peace .and those who didn’t want that to happen think that courtesy has waned to an alarming degree. For manifestations of the new spirit in England by no means are confined to the men returning from service with tlie colours; they eomo from the women, too, ancl the managers of the big suops mourn their inability to make the girls behind the counters treat customers a? if, they were beings of another order. Whether or not this is a sad change depends, cf course, upon the point of view, hut probably it was less due to tho war than contemporaneous with it, or hastened by it, for there was talk abou! tlie fading of class lines in England long before Germany tried to turn the world upside down-and nearly, succeeded.