24 SEPTEMBER 1932, Page 12

This brave and original endeavour is a part only of

the slim volume, which is a wade mecum of preservation. Its concluding pages tell you exactly what local authority can do towards preservation, positive and negative, and gives every individual preserver the wherewithal, as Mr. Winston Churchill used to say, to " ginger up " the local authority. There is now power to forbid and regulate advertisements, to prevent litter, to protect wild flowers, to control " eleva- tion," to regulate the colours and material of petrol stations, to " site " electrical transmission lines, as well as to make and administer a general plan. All who want to know what can he done and how to do it will find within ten pages the necessary information and within a dozen pages a most useful bibliography of the subject. The townsman is not less deeply concerned than the countryman. It is not a mere verbal paradox to say that " The Preservation of Rural England is fundamentally an urban problem." Or again, " the fundamental fact is that England needs planning for amenity as a whole, town not less than country."