LONDONERS’ PRIDE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 143, 20 June 1939, Page 7

LONDONERS’ PRIDE

ANSWER TO POET RESENT ACCUSATION LONDON. May 20. Do Londoners take a pride in London as a whole, apart lr their on« little corner of it ? When Mr. John Masefield, the Poet Laureate, referred recently to tho "vast and sprawling London,' and declared that it wai "impossible for a citizen to foci pridfl in any part of Londo.i exempt that in which he dwells,” he was "asking for it.” Here are some of the re- , marks made by Londoners who do not 'share Mr. Masefield’s views: ' Mr. Herbert Horrison, M.P., Lader of the L.C.C.: "The Londoner is proud of London as a whole, proud of the efficiency of its public service iu orderly character nd its i.i-torie contribution to British self-government. And, although he (io a nA p maps say much about it, ne is proui of himself, too—as a Londoner.” Mr. George Lansbury, M.P.: "I do not agree with the Poet Laureate any more than I agree with th? remark of William Cobbott, about London being a ‘great wen’. It is the people, not the buildings, that make a great city. I would rather live in Puplar than anywhere cL , but, apart from my local pride, I am proud of oJng ‘a citizen of no mean c.tv. I think most Londoners arc like that.” Mr. A. P. Herbert, M.P., who lives at Hammersmith, thi.ms th. t the Poet Laureate went too far. "London is scattered as he said,” remarked Mr. Herbert, "but where i; the nun Jiving in one of the 28 boroughs v ho would not jump to the defence of London i£ somebody said Manchester wrs a better city? I, for instant, live a fair way out, but am trcmeirioi i ly p;ojd of London’s underground : -m.’’