"TWO LONDONS."

Waikato Times, Volume 100, Issue 16750, 17 March 1926, Page 8

"TWO LONDONS."

WEALTH AND POVERTY. EXTRAVAGANCE AND SUFFERING. SIR F. CHAPMAnIT IMPRESSIONS. (Times Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, Tuesday. While he did not have the opportunity on a purely pleasure trip, to make a ".close investigation of social and o'ber conditions in England and on the Continent, Sir Frederick Chapman, who returned to-day after a fifteen months' absence abroad, was particularly impressed by a great show ol prosperity which was apparent to the casual observer He was also struck by! the contrast between the extravagance of dress and general living in some quarters and the distress reported from oJicrs. "You would suppose," said Sir Frederick, "judging only, from a residence in parts of London that I move about in, including the City and West End and many other districts, that the whole population were rolling in money. The expenditure is extravagant. That stands out at every turn. You would think you were in the midst of an enormously wealthy population, the most obvious facts beir.g indulgence in dress, motor-cars, and all kinds of entertainment. On the other hand, people who live in London are constantly receiving appeals from clergymen and others connected with charitable relief who describe the appalling distress which exists in the South of London and in the East End. I did not have much occasion to go into these districts while I was in London, but the contrast between what the Colonial visitor to London sees and what he hears about from those parts which he. does not see is most striking. The complaints of distress in the poorer districts are not confined simply to what one hears from clergymen and others whose dulies take them' into these sordid parts. The visitor cannot but be struck with the fact that there are two Londons."

Judging by appearances in the counl:y districts through which he passed —Devonshire, Worcestershire, and the Midlands—Sir Frederick said that one would suppose there was prosperity in the mining town and the villages. That was all he could say so far as they were concerned, for he spent no great time In those districts, and could only judge by outward appearance. He found the principal seaside places in England swarming with holiday makers. All accommodation was booked up ahead, and he was unable to secure quarters. No doubt that was due purely to the intense 'beat prevailing and the rush to the, seaside from London and other closely-populated centres. At the same period it was very difficult to find accommodation at the French watering places. The apparent prosperity prevailing in London was also' noticeable in Paris, and, in ihe main, in Italy and other parts of the Continent that he visited.