Sir Thomas Lipton has given 2100,000 to form a Trust,
of which the Princess of Wales is the titular head, for the purpose of providing poor men's restaurants in various parts of London. If the Alexandra Trust proves a success he will later hand over another £100,000 to the trustees. The plan appears to be to provide buildings and pay rents, rates, and taxes, and then supply breakfasts, dinners, and teas at coat price. Apparently there are to be no waiters, but the customers are to buy a coupon at a pigeon-hole, and then expend it at a counter, taking what they buy to the tables, and there eating it. If properly worked, the scheme should be a great boon to single men and single women who hire a bedroom and have either to cook unpalatable meals at home, or spend more than they can well afford at a cookshop. There has been, of course, a great deal of criticism of the scheme chiefly on behalf of the existing keepers of poor men's eating-houses, but we do not believe that they will be injured, though, even if they were, they could hardly claim on that ground to stop a real public benefit. Lord Rowton's lodging- houses no doubt compete with the old-fashioned lodging- houses, but surely that great help to the poorer single men is not, therefore, to be opposed.
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