London, Feb. 3.
The following paragraph appeared in one of the papers this week. It is worth quoting because the facts it sets forth are absolutely true.
Muippie-crass Woutp-be Exicrants.
The retired and civil servant who are finding their pensions inadequate to meet modern requirements are not contenting themselves with writing to the papers about their plight. A bank manager tells me he is inundated with letters from such clients who ask him to recommend them some country where the cost of living is not so high, He assures me that bank branches all over the country are receiving similar letters, and that there is at the present time widely growing circle of middle-class people who are anxious to get away from England to some foreign shore where they can live in quiet comfort on small fixed incomes. The obstacles are that in countries where living is cheap the ex-changa penalizes the transfer of money from England, and that it is almost imil ian to book a passage to any attractive land, such as Portugal, Spain, or Madeira, The difficulty is, of course, that with the exosption of the three countries mentioned in the last line, there are no lands in Europe where living is as agreeable is here. Even in neutral countries like Switzerland the cost of living is appalling, and for the first time on record there is an_ effort to limit the number of visitors, since the Swiss know with a good deal of certainty that they will not be able either to house or feed them in the coming summer. What, therefore. the scores of thousands of Americans will do who are coming over to visit Eurone after the war passes one's imagination. They should recollect. that they will come to countries where the after affects of the struggle are universally manifest, and they will meet with more inconveniences and positive discomforts than they have any idea of.
It is no use coming well supplied with money, because this nowadays has but little value in many countries' The main thing is to come supplied with food, and those who bring some supplies with them will probably be glad of it at some stage of their travels.
Covnretes Open to Iaatrcrants-
Spain, Portugal and Madeira only appeal to a limited number of people, and the inhabitants of each of the three will probably soon find that they have visitors enough. The outlook is therefore exceptionally good for the various parts of the British Empire which need an increased population to push their claims, The shipping difficulty till exists, but to an ever-decreasing extent, and probably very few ex-service men really know the extraordinary cheapness with which they can secure passages to all parts of the Empire.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.