COUNTRY LIFE A.R.P. in Country Life
Four strong influences have been felt in village life since the War : the decline of the big house, the decline of the church, the influx of townspeople seeking something in the country which the post-War town could not provide, and the motor- car. Now come two others, which are, in fact, bound up with each other ; the first is the drift of village populations, of labourers in search of a higher standard of living, to the towns, and with it the daily exodus of children to town schools; the second the problem of national defence. Although villages are still believed—and widely believed if the increased search for country cottages is a guide—to be means of escape, A.R.P. has now become an essential part of village life. The neces- sity for A.R.P. in villages hardly seems to be very great ; yet reports show that rural enthusiasm and organisation is far greater than urban. In the next paragraph I give some figures showing how A.R.P. has been organised in my own small, scattered and strategically unimportant village. If it is true that enthusiasm for the defence of the country is greatest where the defence is least needed, then it would be interest- ing to know the reasons for that paradox. One reason is perhaps that villages are still very strongly governed by a sense of communal pride. By appealing to such pride, even indirectly, it always seems possible to move a village to action far more easily than a town. The following figures, at any rate, should interest town-dwellers.
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