MODERN BABYLON

Waipukurau Press, Volume XXXI, Issue 48, 27 February 1936, Page 3

MODERN BABYLON

LONDON THE GAYEST CITY CONTINENTAL SUNDAY Is London “the gayest city in Europe, more Continental than Paris, merrier and brighter than ever before”? Or is it, to quote Mr H. H. Martin, secretary of the Lord’s Day Observance Society, <c a modern babyion, the Sodom or Gomorrah of the twentieth century”? Both views were expressed, following Mr Herbert Morrison’s statement that London is becoming “rather wild” in its Sunday entertainments. Mr Andre Chariot said: “I read Mr Morrison’s speech with dismay. Intolerance is at the root of most modern and ancient ills. “I should hate to think that any recent small improvement in the happiness of common folk, whose leisure is limited to Saturday afternoon and Sunday, was now to be curtailed again by or with the approval of the L.C.C.”

Mr Martin, on the other hand, described Mr Morrison’s “indictment” as “not a whit too strong.”

“On Sunday nights there are more people in London’s cinemas than in all the places of worship put together. I am appalled by the way in which London is letting slip the Sabbath. Only one out of every ten persons goes to church. “The metropolis has become a modern Babylon, a Sodom or Gomorrah of the twentieth century.” Quaglino, the famous West End restaurateur, who has just returned from Paris, said: “London is now a Continental jetty—perhaps the Continental city. Paris is at least 50 per cent dearer than London. “I have been recently to Berlin, Vienna and Budapest. All are brighter than Paris, but London holds the palm for gaiety.”