Showing posts with label correspondence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label correspondence. Show all posts

2nd March 1928 - Correspondence

Original image on Facebook

Correspondence

The League of Nations Union and The Conservative Government

Sir,

The League of Nations Union, in spite of its good intentions, is in danger of becoming an ebarassment to the Conservative Party and an obstacle to permanent peace.

Living on the coast and having been employed during part of the war as chaplain to the coast defences, I am perhaps better able to realise the necessity of a strong Navy than those who live inland.

England depends for her food supplies on foreign trade. If every acre of land in Britain was cultivated to its full extent we would not grow enough wheat to keep us alive for six months.

Within about 20 miles from where I am writing - that is not much more than the distance from Ware to Royston, and certainly much less than the distance from Ware to Cambridge - lie at the bottom of the sea scores of British ships which were sun during the war while bringing supplies to England. In 1917, though the public did not know it, we were very nearly compelled to make peace at whatever terms we could get for fear of starvation. The only people who really know how many ships and what kind of ships are necessary to protect our food supplies are our admirals and naval officers.

I lived much with naval officers before the war (my next door neighbour was killed at the Battle of Jutland), and I can testify to their anxiety for the safety of the country. Being employed, too, on the Solent on the edge of the submarine "Warfare," I was able to realise what an enterprising enemy can do, though I must add that the Admiralty and our own seamen went one better. Several of our ships were sunk within 10 miles of this house, so close did the enemy come, and so skilful [sic] were they in laying mines.

The League of Nations Union facies that it knows more about the sea than the sailors. That is absurd. When the League of Nations Union attacks the Conservative Government it is, of course, weaking the Conservative Party. It is doing more than this, and worse, for by trying to prevent adequate protection being given to our food supplies, it is endangering the safety of the country.

The Americans grow their own food and apparently cannot understand the requirements of a nation which fetches its food from overseas. The Americans wish to have a strong fighting Navy. Well and good. We require a force of small ships (how many our admirals can only tell us) to protect the vessels that bring us our supplies. In addition we require a fighting force as strong as the strongest fighting fleet, otherwise that fleet is our master and can sweep our ships off the sea whenever it chooses and leave us to starve.

Your obedient servant,

C. Poyntz Sanderson

Emsworth, Hants.

Feb. 28th, 1928.

27th August 1926 - Correspondence - Health of the District

Original image on Facebook

Correspondence

The Health of the District

To the Editor, Buntingford Gazette

Dear Sir - 

Having read the report on the Buntingford Rural District by Dr R.A. Dunn (Medical Officer of Health for this portion of Hertfordshire), which I consider should be made widely known in the district, it seems that Buntingford is actually one of the healthiest parts of the county.

The death rate for the year is very low, being only 61 (namely 12.3 per 1000), of whom 39 were of persons over 65 years of age, and of these 16 were actually over 80 years of age - figures which speak for themselves.

As regards Housing, it compares very favourably with other parts of the county. According to the last census, the number of rooms per person was person was 1.35, as compared with 1.27 for the whole county.

I certainly think that these figures should be made widely known, and that if only the L&N.E. Railway Co. gave better facilities in the way of cheaper weekend and daily excursion tickets it would no doubt be of considerable benefit to the district, as it would cause a larger number of visitors to come more frequently.

Yours faithfully,

Albert J. Hayes

25 Aug., 1926.

20th August 1926 - Correspondence

Original image on Facebook

Correspondence

To the Editor, Buntingford Gazette

Dear Sir - 

In company with many other residents in the north end of the town I am wondering for how much longer we are to be deprived of the privilege of posting our letters without the necessity of taking them down to the head office?

It is to be hoped that the publicity given in your paper (for which I thank you in anticipation) will have the effect of waking up the authorities, whose dilatory methods are open to severe criticism.

Yours faithfully,

Frank White.

10th September 1926 - Correspondence - Buntingford Revisited

Original image on Facebook

Correspondence

Buntingford Revisited

Sir,

After an absence of 17 years, I visited the town of Buntingford, and the village of Westmill recently, and thought an account of my impressions might prove of interest to your readers.

Buntingford appeared to be quite up-to-date with good raods and progressive shops. The paths were fair, and I was surprised to find some of the old cobbles on the paths at the Corney Bury end.

The old almshouses near "The Crown" have lost none of their original beauty, whilst the War Memorial, a feature new to me, of course, was not so suggestive of a cemetery as a good many monuments of a similar kind in other places.

I found that there was still good service at the "Adam and Eve," which looked no worse - and only slightly altered - than when I first became acquainted with it over 80 years ago. With its Grammar School, Technical Institute, Women's Institute, and other modern improvements, the town looked in every way progressive.

Visiting Westmill, I found the churchyard overgrown with grass, and the head-stones of the graves covered with moss, obliterating the inscription. I failed to find the resting-place of my forbears, and it seemed to be a pity Old Mortality should thus have gone from our midst.

The old familiar pond was filled up, but the village was delightfully quiet after the noisy traffic of a parish so near to London as Cheshunt. I missed some of the old landmarks entirely, but on the whole I spent a profitable half-day dwelling on the memories of the past, and I am convinced that the march of progress and improvement, whether we will or not, will go on making for a fuller, brighter, and better life than our forefathers knew, and tending towards a far better world than the croakers would have us believe.

Yours faithfully,

James Bunce

25, Turners Hill, Cheshunt.

 
Buntingford in Old Newspapers Blog Design by Ipietoon