LONDON IN A.D. 5000

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19733, 30 December 1926, Page 10

LONDON IN A.D. 5000

MR BALDWIN’S PICTURE WHAT EXCAVATORS WILL FIND The British Prime Minister drew an amusing picture of the finds of excavators in London in A.D. 5000, when presiding at the meeting of the Aeolian Hall, London, of the British School in Athens, which has made some valuable discoveries by excavation work in Greece. “I have often wondered,” he said, “when we go taking up the treasures of people who lived more than 2000 years ago what would be tho thoughts of those who might come and dig in London 2000 or 3000 years hence, when our towns arc covered with masses of debris. “Would they find vases of exquisite design, on which the Keats of the period might write odes, or bronzes idealising the human figure—works showing the individuality of the artist and crying across the ages because of their intrinsic beauty ? “I have to confess to myself that such excavators in the year 5000 would be far more likely to find instead of such objects hidden heaps of razor blades and coils of gas pipes.” Greek Fashions. Referring to the excavation party which the school is sending to Mr Baldwin said he thought there were two or three things in Spartan life which ought to appeal to sections of this generation. ‘ ‘ Fresh from my recollections of last week in the House of Commons I cannot help thinking the example the Spartans made of the drunken Helots would have appealed very much to Mr Salter and Lady Astor —(laughter)— and in the same way the alacrity with which some of our modern womanhood are striving now to overtake the modes and the fashion of those girls who took part in the festivals of Greece ought to commend their practices to this generation.” (Laughter). There was in Sparta much which would appeal to the Fascist! of to-day. Sparta had one excellent rule —never to trust the foreigner, and he thought there would not have been much chance of a Soviet Delegation in Sparta.