Evacuation and Country People The Government's scheme for the evacuation
of children is not being well received in country districts. A friend took on the job of a house-to-house census in a village—outside of and three times as large as her own—which was too lazy to do it for itself. The results were interesting. With few excep- tions the response varied inversely according to the ratio of the social scale. People of independent means and good-sized houses, who had little else to do but exercise themselves, their dogs or their horses, revealed a sudden genius for excuses. They came to the door as if they had been waiting for someone at whom they could fire their annoyance at the Government's ineptitude. The scum of snobbery was too thick to skim. In a house of nine rooms and three people an irate gentleman not only declared the Government to be a set of nincompoops, but seemed to hold the canvasser in some way responsible for it. " In times of peace," he raged, " townspeople look down on us country people. But in times of crisis they come snivelling to us for shelter." To which came the knock-out reply : " On the contrary. There are thousands of townspeople who at all times greatly envy your good luck in being able to live in the country." At another house a young couple whose children were away at school argued on the supposition that every evacuated child was (a) dirty, (b) mentally deficient, (c) suffering from measles, diphtheria, whooping-cough or contagious skin complaints; (d) in some other way undesirable. Their " after we have brought up our children cleanly and decently why should we be subjected to this? " was a typical heart-cry on which it was hopeless to comment. Again and again were noted the same affronted refusals to have easy lives turned upside down.
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