Petrol restrictions have hit garage-Keepers badly, but they have done a lot for towns within a 20-30 mile radius of London by compelling people to shop there who would otherwise have motored to town. I had to go into Windsor and Eton this afternoon for an accumulation of household needs (the distance is only fourteen miles there and back but in these days one waits until one can kill a number of birds with one stone: incidentally this "pool petrol" gives one a poor mileage and is very feeble in. hill-climbing) and both places were crowded with cars and shoppers. Eton, which has but the one narrow street, was particularly bad. It is the same at Staines and, I am told, at Kingston, which prides itself on its shops.
Nevertheless life in London is brightening up in spite of the blackout, with bigger crowds and more traffic. It is said that very soon all the West End theatres will be going again, Already most of the long-distance trains are fully lighted, or at least quite enough for reading; and lights are being installed on suburban trains. The method used is to edge the windows with black paper; the ordinary blinds are then quite enough to shut in the light; and the lamps over-head are shielded so as to throw the light down and keep it from spreading laterally. It certainly will be a great boon when one can read on the journey home, though in all conscience the evening papers have little in them.
1 hear that some of the clubs are feeling the draught. Many members have resigned—cut out a superfluous club is every man's first economy—and the others are more parsimonious over food and drinks "Back to the Land" Results Tte Land Settlement Association, which was formed to put the vnemployed on the land and make them self-supporting, has just published a review of five years experiments on 21 estates. It has to admit that there was a total deficit of £37,000 on the estates over the whole period. But there was enough success to give full encouragement for further efforts.
Thus out of 167 tenants, one third made a net profit of £150 during twelve months in 1938-39; one man made £288, another £820, one as much as £426, all clear profit. And all these men had been unemployed industrials before the Association took them in hand.
The Association is certain that farming on small holdings not exceeding ten acres can provide a decent life and a fair income. But certain conditions are essential: the settler must not be too old, say between 25-35 and be sound in mind, and limb; he must be given training the beginning and be able to get money lent him on easy terms. And most important of all he must want to succeed.
There are many-who do and there will be more as time goes on. Badly as the evacuation has been managed, it has discovered a number of town boys who take to the country and want to stay there. And after the war, plenty of men will not wish to return to offices. Already the Land Settlement Association is preparing for them.
'Undoubtedly a decent living can be made on the land if you are prepared to "scorn delights (the pictures' for instance) and live laborious days." I remember Mr. C. B. Slowe, formerly of Shanghai, saying once. "You can't expect to make farming pay going to work at seven o'clock." He certainly knew what he was talking about and practised his
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.