" TEST WORK "
[7'o the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Unfortunately those responsible for assigning " test work " do not distinguish between the fitness of unemployed professional workers and artisans. For instance, in 1934 the Public Assistance Committee at Maidstone under the chair- manship of the Rev. J. R. Hale (stipend nearly £2,000 p.a.), knowing me to be a lifelong actor, aged 62, forced me to do "test work " for 12s. weekly. This means that I was exploited for twelve months as a stoker and general labourer with less than a labourer's pay at the Public Assistance premises, Maidstone, to " test " my willingness to work at any job. How absurd and futile ! This sentence of twelve months' hard labour for the crime of being workless made me realise the mental torture of Clarence Hatry in Maidstone Gaol, but even he is given an adaptable occupation. Working as a stoker day after day without respite not only grieved my artistic temperament, but seriously threatened my mental stability.
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