RICH LIVE MIDST POOR IN SLUMS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18013, 25 November 1926, Page 9

RICH LIVE MIDST POOR IN SLUMS.

MANY FIND JOY IN BRINGING SOLACE TO UNHAPPY CITY FOLK. (Special to the “Star.’ ) LONDON. September 18 I low many wealthv and weH-to-do men and women to-day are devoting their money and time to social work in the. poorer working-class districts of London and other big cities 1 If the numlxr were known it would astonish most people. Attention is directed to the growth of this social service by the case of the late Major E. E. Atkin, of Addlestone. Surrey, who frequently left his country home to live and work among poor people in London, and actuali\* died in a room in Bloomsbury, where he carried on this work. Titled people, men and women prominent in society, retired officers and civil servants, lonely bachelors, widows and widowers, persons from every class in life, from the wealthiest to the scholastic and professional, go to make up the self-sacrificing army of helpers and workers who have found their greatest joy in serving others. Modest and Sincere. The most obscure and modest manner in which they devote themselves to this work, sometimes living in the drab districts they serve, constitutes a minor revolution in modern life. “In the past few years we have had among our helpers men of means who, haying left the Army, sought for something to do, and found it in social work among lads, ex-prisonerv. and to forth.” Mr J. J. Mallon. Warden of the Toynbee Hail settlement in the East End. said. ‘‘ln some men the experiences of the war created a religious impulse which finds an outlet in this way. Well-to-do city men are among those who frequent these settlements and share games with the boys and befriend them. “These workers are often lonely bachelors or widowers, but all are men of exceptional qualities and character ” Among these “voluntary uncles * - who have found happiness in life and reconciliation with a perplexing world in such work, a Westminster Gazette reporter discovered yesterday: A country squire who works among the street lads A wealthy city broker who has lived in one of the roughest streets of South London for 30 years and keeps practically “open house” for his settlement boys, who have the run of his rooms for games and the run of his library for reading. An Indian civil servant who, since retirement, has devoted all his time to welfare work. A retired business man of 60 who devotes his knowledge and experience in affairs to the administrative side of welfare work. Prosperous city men who, at the end of their day’s business as directors or officials of big companies, go and work among the settlement lads until 11 or 12 every night. At settlements like that at Canning Town for women, the helpers are for the most part women of leisure who not only work at their own expense, but practically live in the settlement. The time which others of their class devote to personal pursuits they devote to hospital work, to running invalids’ kitchens, to inf ant welfare, to the organisation of boys’ and girls’ clubs, or to serving in an East End public house converted into a social canteen.