A PLEA FOR WINDOW TAX
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sra,—I would like, if I May be so allowed, to applaud the refreshing and balanced realism of your leader "Our Own Country First," wherein you emphasize what ought to be a truism here as it is in certain other countries (notably Germany, Italy, Sweden, and Switzerland), namely that seemliness, whether rural or civic, has a cash value, and that architectural good manners are ultimately good business. Had I not been an architect active in the "amenities move- ment" long before I became a pluralist publican (and there- fore directly interested in the tourist traffic, one of our still really flourishing industries), I should suspect myself, and be justly suspected by others, of being a selfishly interested propagandist.
In fact, of course, I am—inevitably—for it is clear to me that no discerning foreigner (which is the only kind I am at pains to attract) will return to a country which he finds so little like the flattering, if slightly archaic, pictures of England that we unrealistically export abroad, and so increasingly like a diffuse and planless mining camp. Yet even to-day, England can still be truthfully called a lovely land—besmirched by plague spots, though it is rapidly nearing the point when honesty will compel us to admit that we have declined to the humiliating condition of a slatten country redeemed by picture-postcard "Beauty Spots." We broadcast photo- graphs of Bath and Broadway, of Magdalen Bridge and Snowdonia, - and the trustfuloverseas visitor in search of Fmgland " finds himself inexplicably confronted by Peace- haven, Southend, and Aldershot, by Stonehenge and Kenilworth (as they 'really Are); and by the Horne Counties now frankly become a diluted and mslpuh suburbia. in Short, looking for Royal Windsor he is dismayed to 'discover Slough.
Now all this is implicit in your admirable article, as is also an appeal for organized effort in the conservation of what you justly call our" National Assets" in amenity : but may I remind your readers (not for the first time) that the Council for the Preservation of Rural England, and its sister, the Council for Wales (both of 17 Great Marlborough Street, .W, 1) are the active co-ordinating bodies. for all such efforts, and always ready both to give and receive help ? But as even a public-spirited organization cannot give out more than it receives, whether in subsidies or service, I do feel that the good citizen who shares your views should also be prepared to share his purse to the small extent of becoming a subscribing member to one or other of these councils. Particularly do I feel it incumbent on the innkeeper Whose prosperity Must depend so largely on the English countryside being still worth seeing. l'ersonally—as an innkeeper—I would welcome the levying of a definite Voluntary "Amenity Tax "—an annual tribute to such societies in return for their good offices in
" Preserving the Peace" of the countryside, and by way of insurance against unneighbourly . outrage.
As this tribute would be to preserve visual beauty, it might very fitly be a window tax, and speaking for the several hotels that I can speak for, I -would joyfully see that any such impost that might be generally agreed was promptly paid. The official receipt for such a tax, displayed in the entrance hall, should be the recognized mark and badge of the good publican who deserved well of the travelling public. If he is indeed a good host, he will know already that good manners are good business, and this care for the countryside is, after all, merely carrying his good manners out of doors.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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