London, Nov. 28.
'The Bast End, which has, been eomewhst out of the limelight in the past few years, seems to be Feeovering its proper place. public attention. After that fascinat book, "London Below Bridges,' dealing with that absorbing problem of poor' streets, the human. boy, (which T dealt witha few months ago), another book "The Real East attention, End! by Thomas Burke is attracting
The writer's object is to show not only that there is abundant Fomance in the East End, persuade us that whelks and jell very pretty, eating" (as East, in from a coster's barrow are 'Tom Brown's: Sehooldays; yook pie), but that a great des really beautiful is spread all over the East End's allegedly squalid acts however, is to look, at the Fast "End with' an artist's eye. Realism is now strikingly presented cly the "New Survey of London Lite and Labour," produced by the London School of economies, and carrying on the, similar investiga tions of Charles Booth 40 years ago.
wide—from Shoreditch to Lewisham, 'The Survey spread its met very from East Ham to Aldgate Pump, dan nea containing 2,500,000 people, mong shor the' investleators gaanifned conditions in 12,000 work-li Charles Booth put the poverty me' at an income for a moderate family of 18s, to 21s. a week. Tothe same me must be drawn a '388, fo 40s.—a sufficient commentary on the fact that, though we may get more for our efforts nowadays, ave not better off than our fathers, Indeed worse off, owing to the dis-mee in-s6. many households once all-essential, "margin."
atlafactory to. learn. that the numbers of East Enders living below the Boverty line is now only one-third. of that estimated Booth. Yet there are still 260,000 people—one, in 10—"subjgct" to Conditions of privation which, if long continued would deny them'all but the bayest nec and cut, them off from aces to" many" of, the material and" cultural" benefits of "To add to this, 20 to 26,000 poor; and although" the charitable societies have Undoubtedly made their live easier, "the prospect of rehabilita Ing by Tanke proportion of these, people is very slight."
W fs good news that "sweating fs less a cause of poverty than it used to be. Unemployment has Uefnitely taken its place, and with that at Toast the State does make some attempt to cope. But in spite of all that has been done to solve the housing problem, there ig still dreadful ovewrowding. One-fifth of the population of Shorediteh were found! to be living three persons to a yourn, and the general percentage of those' who do so actually' increased Detween 1921 and 1081.
The" street-trading community upon picturesque touch.
There fare some. 30,000 0 Costermongers, form the. highes cines, sandwichboard men the lowest. Occasionally the street traders make quite large profits, but it chancy existence and the stand of living low.
Even with the decrease under the "poverty line," it ig a sad picture. One's thoughts inevitably return to the boys in "London Below Bridges" and the urgent need of saving them from leaving school only to become messenger boys of carters' boys oF of the things which mean the ok" when they. are too bie for boys! wages and know nothing to justify a man's; and the subsequent Yecline to tin employment and unemployability. Surely there mus something very wrong with our educational system in spite of the colossal sums given to it—too much "Shakespeare and the musical "and, too, little saleable training?
Comment is being made on the absence from the King's Speech of any reference to. the Salter Report on the competition between road and rail. Does this mean that the Government are not going to do anything to. lighten "the. heavy disabilities under which our rail-Ways droop, annually, more and more? Conversely, as' the motor-Ing world asks, can the lorry build: erin and users" get on with their Schemes at present held up by dread of the "penalizing" (their word) Yaxation on road transport which the Salter, Report advocates? "Penalising?" retort the railways. "You get the roads practically free, charge what rates you please and can scale your contracts to suit any customer." We are bound at every turn, have huge expenses for the upkeep of our track and have pay for the upkeep also of your Here is a recent example, A West Country firm of distributors, to save cost of renewing "their lorries, asked the "Great Western Railway" to quote them special terms, Tt did so and a contract was agreed on, when rivals of the distributing. firm objected that the latter would be enabled to compete unfairly with them who still used Tomes, and thatthe G.W.R. were not allowed by the Railway Acts to quote such "special terms. The Courts, found themselves compelled to uphold this argument, the contract had to be torn up, the distributing, firm must burden themselves with the cost of a new fleet of lorries and. the G.W.R. loses 40,000 tons of freight annually.
If the the railway were neglecting their duties to' the public, the case [would be different. But. their Service, the comfort of trains and Abundance of facilities could not be bettered. The "Southern Railway gre now beginning work on ferry from Dover to Calais whereby, ina year or two's time, it will be [possible to/eravel in-thesame train from London to" Constantinople. 'The cost of widening the quay, lay. ing' new track, the ferry itself, and lock to compensate for the 26. Variation in tides at Dover will cost fat Toast £545,000. On northern Tines, there are" special buitet and Jeateteria cars, shower-baths and of course third, as well as first, class Sleepers.(I travelled in' one of the former recently and it. was admire able). Yet, railway receipts go on Jdropping. The motor transport people slipped in to seize the chance fof roads for which they only pay a fraction of the cost and i being well established how! with all the injured vehemence of a vested interest when the plain fact is pointed out that they ate being indirectly subsidised to ruin the railways.
Months of silence having followed on the first rumours of a new uni form for Tommy Atkins, the War Office sprang rise on London sday by parading an infantry.
at the Recruiting Depot in the new rig-out, One word lof reassurance at once: there are no plus fours." Trousers however fare much baggies, and gaiters replace puttees. Buttons and, numbers are of bronze. The jacket. cut with a yell-collar, over which the collar of the open-necked khaki shirt turns down. 'There are, two knapsacks, the upper one containing, 'a8 the official description "articles from which the 9 cannot normally be separated," the lower one for the many' lit leaves or may leave, be But nothing hangs below the waist except frog and bayonet. The
intort and hygiene. eight and But the deerstalker hat gives a Jdreadfully sloppy effect. "Unkind rities say it makes Tommy look between a Boy Scout fand @ Sunday "hiker. "What Tom-
ovtunately there, is not money says would hardly go by mal.
yet, 0 something mere soldier-like enough to reclothe all the Army Jast nay be volved eat, Now t'see proposals to re-bat the postmen "with" the conventional Feheete-scoop" cap, just as the Army is thinking of giving it up. Avsilier idea was surely. never proposed. 'The "old, postman's-hat is perhaps the only one which really Protects the head in all weathers, shielding eyes and rape of the neck Hom sun tod reg cing, moreover, cetinctive etd plete fne. The Post Office mayor may Sot' need" smartening ups but tiny its hats do not 'The cancellation by the Persian Gavermment of the' Anglo-Persian Oil" Go's" concession—which was originally granted to a New Zealand loneer named D'Arcy in 1901—was Hot altogether unexpected For months past the Persian Press has been attacking' the' Com. pany, The "Persian Government Fecelves 18 per cent in royalties, fud of course did well on it former:
But for the pose. two or three Years the all industry" has been Eoflering' and. the yield from the ich Wwag_about 1/300, 1880, dropped tasse Sear to the replan of 300, To make matiers. worte, Persia had been allowing. pare of her royalties to accumulate in London hia view fo a revere ape standard. With. Great "Britain day of going on. to a gold
going of the gold standard, the false of this fond nas of course rally depreciated, Apart from irritation on this score Persia was counting on ai
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.