TOPICS OF THE DAY

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21033, 8 February 1940, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY

Getting Together An interesting report on the problems resulting from the evacuation scheme in Britain was prepared recently by the Liverpool School of Social Science, says a contemporary. One of its remarks was to the effect that “Each social group in society has its own standard of living and behaviour, but under this scheme the different groups are forced to live together,” and that “neither group takes kindly to this new way of living.” No doubt, in many cases, time has done a good deal to render both parties more adaptable. For. often, there was an initial prejudice founded on nothing but complete ignorance—an attitude exemplified in the story of the very small “evacuee,” who on the third day of his stay in a country mansion,'remarked regretfully : “If I'd only known it was going to be like this, and you was all going to be so decent, I’d have brought my watch!” But one cannot deduce that the more they are together the merrier they will be. The report makes the very sensible suggestion that trained social workers should be “appointed in each reception area to visit the homes regularly, to give informal advice, and straighten out any difficulties.” Certainly, a little expert summing-up of the problem presented by a group in which one half does not know how the other half lives, might do much to remove from each a nonplussed feeling, and to add all vulgar fraction* into a family umL