PURE RIVERS
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sin,—Mr. Marston will not, I hope, suppose that the Pure Rivers Society, about which I wrote to you, would refuse to co-operate with other societies which have aimed and are still aiming at the same object of saving English rivers from pollution, or that the Society would choose to take action against, rather than with, the manufacturers and other persons who may be responsible for the pollution of the rivers. Perhaps all that need be said is that the societies have not hitherto achieved any considerable success.
Mr. Marston states that " for just on fifty years " he has been " in close touch with every movement for the improve- ment of rivers'.' in England as elsewhere. But it is within those fifty years that the evil which threatens both the beauty and the salubrity of the rivers has assumed so formidable a character. The report lately submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries by its Standing Committee on River Pollution affords only too clear evidence of the manner and degree in which so many rivers one after another have become
polluted. .
My hope is that all the societies, which care for the purity of English rivers, will unite in a common policy, and by their union will induce the Government to carry it out.—I am, Sir,
Previous page
