VIRTUES OF THE VILLAGE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19437, 24 October 1925, Page 13

VIRTUES OF THE VILLAGE

MR. LLOYD GEORGE’S SIMPLE CREED. The Right Hon. D. Lloyd George, who for the past week or two has been at Criccieth, spoke in the village institute at Llanystumdwy. He said he was there, not as a statesman, good, bad, or indifferent; he was there as an old village lad. There had been some distinguished presidents of that annual concert, including the present Viceroy of India, Lord Reading. He felt out of his depth I in addressing a concert, as he could not sing (Laughter). Across the road in the old village school he had his training in tonic sol-fa, and that was all the music he knew. He won a prize for singing once, but was so down in the list that he had never been encouraged to compete again. “I am a believer in villages,’’ proceeded Mr. Lloyd George. “I am a believer in the country. I do'-not know what is going to happen—who does? I do not like the outlook. What fol-' lows a great war are just broken ■ as I did when with my wife and ■ daughter I crossed the whirlpool of’j waters after a great storm, and they ; have not calmed down. I feel exactly j

Niagara about two years ago. On. that wire rope you look down and you just see a sort of swirl of waters. Looking down like that on what is happening now I* can see the same tense concentrated slow swirl, which is very terrifying. I should feel happier and more confident about the future if there had been more people living in the country. There is a calm which comes from the country. It js the countries that have their population in the rural areas that in the end will pull through. I believe that is going to save Russia in the end. A vast mass—9o per cent.—of the people are outside the towns. I should feel happier about Britain if there was not such a large proportion of her population concentrated in the dusty, feverish atmosphere of the great cities and industrial areas. I have been saying this for some years, and I am per* fectly certain, speaking as a detached man, detached even in politics, that there is no more important question for the statesmen of Britain than the problem of getting a larger proportion of the people to dwell in the secure atmosphere of the country.”