5 OCTOBER 1934, Page 3

Surrey and Jarrow Sir Sohn Jarvis's scheme for the adoption

of Jarrow by Surrey deserves not merely to be supported but to be copied. The Spectator pointed out some time ago that the established principle of the adoption by English towns and cities of devastated villages in France might well be applied to areas devastated by unemploy- ment and consequent distress in our own country. That is precisely what is being proposed for Surrey. No contrast could be more vivid than that between the beauty of Surrey villages and the luxury of many of the Surrey country seats, and the gloom into which unemployment has plunged the already all too sombre streets of Jarrow. The appeal, initiated, be it noted, not in Jarrow but in Surrey itself, is . not merely for financial assistance (to provide employment and initiate public welfare work like roads and parks) though that is necessary, but for human sympathy, the establish- ment of human contacts, and the application to an all but insoluble problem of imagination as well as alms. What Surrey is doing today some other county chould hasten to be the first to do tomorrow.