CLOG-FIGHT
SIR,—Distressed by Mr. Cyril Ray's nostalgic cry that he hasn't 'seen a clog-fight for these more than forty years' I hasten to assure him that only recently a man was kicked to death in the streets of Man- chester. Also recently, a policeman was set'on by a number of youths, knocked to the ground and kicked; he had to feign unconsciousness in order to avoid further punishment. This also happened in Manchester.
However, when during the recent smallpox scare a young Pakistani collapsed on a Manchester pave- ment (although it was in fact later found that he was not ill with smallpox), a number of people gathered round with none offering to touch him in the way of help. The ambulance took him away.
This is in no way an indictment of Manchester people. Compared with the Black Country of my youth the Lancashire scene, today at any rate, is quite genteel. I myself have no hankering to see any more of my boyhood days in this respect, nor hear agaitt of a dog being thrown down a disused pit-shaft for losing a race, but I thought I would let Mr. Ray -know that the dear old days' are not quite beyond recall.
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