WHAT IS EMPIRE ?
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR) SIR,—I do not often have the privilege of seeing The Spectator. Penny and twopenny weeklies come to this part of London more easily. But American friends lent me your issue of July 7th, as they were distressed by the article, " What is Empire? " They doubted the wisdom of publishing deroga- tory facts at this juncture.
I want to thank you and Sir Wyndham Deedes for it. The whitewashing which Cabinet Ministers so often administer to our British actions at home and abroad does us a disservice. In Palestine this February one of our soldiers said, " I wish our Government would own that there have been some atrocities ; we have lost our heads some- times under the strain of the tense situation out here. If they confessed to some it might put an end to the highly exaggerated rumours about us that are going around." An important Indian official on the North-West frontier, who has himself suffered greatly as the result of our misguided policy, said : "There is great hope for the future if only England would confess that she has made some mistakes. Then we could bury the past and start afresh. But there must be some acknowledgement as a gesture of good faith."
Confession is good if it leads to amendment. If the general public becomes aware of Sir Wyndham's disquieting facts certain dangerous tendencies may be diverted. He mentions the increase of drunkenness in this country. It was a black day for my neighbours in East London when the to p.m. closing hour was abolished in the thirty public-houses that lie within a radius of three minutes' walk from Kingsley Hall. It meant that thousands were allowed to keep children out of their beds until about it p.m. We enjoy the Guinness advertisements, and can answer the intelligence test about the varying number of men whose bottles of beer are being transferred to the pelican's bill, but in India and China I have often felt ashamed because our advertisements there make it appear that British interest is wholly concerned with drink and tobacco selling.
Sir Wyndham reminds us that 93 per cent. of our popula- tion lives in cities. For many years life has kept sane and pleasant in the East End despite overcrowding, because of our backyards. Pigeons, rabbits and chickens have absorbed the interest of many. Nearly every family cultivates flowers. If the downstairs people claim the whole yard, the upstairs people produce blossoms on their window-sills. One .neigh- bour has a garden on the roof of a shed. He has to use a ladder to tend it. Visitors find it well worth while to climb up too, for his mass of blue and gold blossoms smell sweet.
But all this appears to be doomed. A brilliant and devoted London County Council is pulling down these homes and building great blocks of well-planned flats, with electric light, baths, and modern conveniences. The London County Council meant so well, but how glum are the tenants! I was in one of these homes last week. The well-kept grass, of course, must not be walked on. It is cared for imper- sonally by an official. An expanse of clean, black asphalt surrounds the blocks, but only small children may play there. Boys of twelve and over hang about with nothing to do. Only when the caretaker betakes himself off for a few minutes dare they start to kick a ball or throw a dart. A mother of nine said, " I'm that worried, always getting complaints that the boys are playing in the yard. What are they supposed to do? How are their legs to grow strong? When they want 'em for the next war they'll find they've got no nerve." The streets have always been the football field and cricket pitch for our boys. But when five families live superimposed on each other's ceilings, it stands to reason that the surrounding streets can no longer give playing space to such a number.
Before their homes were pulled down the fathers used to put on their pipe and potter about in the yard in the evening. They find it dreary to smoke a pipe skied up high on a concrete balcony, alone, looking down on black, clean
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