PURE RIVERS [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—May I
invoke the powerful support of the Spectator in support of the newly constituted Pure Rivers Society, which held its first general meeting in London on Tuesday, October 5th ? It is surely time that systematic action should be taken for mitigating, if not for remedying, the pc lution of many English rivers, and for preventing so far as possible the pollu- tion of other rivers. For the ever-spreading pollution not only banishes the fish which used to abound in the rivers, but threatens to impair the health of human beings as well as of animals living on the river banks and to destroy the amenities of the countryside. A recent Report of the Standing Com- mittee appointed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries to deal with the pollution of rivers, while it admits the gravity of the evil, suggests that the nation must " awaken to its duty, both to the present and the future population of this country," before the problem of pollution can be " tackled in a compre- hensive manner." It is by the Press that public opinion can best be educated ; and the Spectator will, I feel, only act in accordance with its long beneficent tradition if it now advo- cates the policy which aims at insuring or helping to insure the purity of English rivers.—I am, Sir, &c., The Deanery, Durham. J. E. C. WELLDON.
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