Struan 1962 - Adm.monash.edu.au

The younger English women have me baffled. Most of them look alike,as though manufactured on the same assembly line. Several times I've said toa young woman, "I met you last week at the Jones' party," only to betold that she wasn't there.Young women in England are success symbols. Going up the escalatorat Piccadilly or some other underground station on e is carried past an endlessstream of young women advertising foundation garments or sheer stockingsor prestige cigarettes. My favourite advertisement is of a glamorous youngwoman staring starry-eyed into space while in the background is a porterleaning on a broom and gazing longingly at her. And this picture symbolizesfor me the position of man in English society. He is metaphorically leaningon a broom looking longingly at the pampered young women whom he hasput on a golden pedestal.The English worship of the glamorous young woman must lead, in myopinion, to the setting ur of false values; the g.y.w. must perforce come tobelieve that beauty and youth are the supreme virtues and are worthy ofesteem even where there is no integrity or unselfishness or any other desirableattribute behind the face . A wiggle or a shapely figure or a flash of even teethcan come to mean more than efficiency or kindness or selflessness.Many of the young women I met in London impressed me unfavourably.They seemed to suggest that the world owed them a living and that outingsand parties and adulation were theirs by virtue of their youth and their sex.On the other hand, 1 met some young women from Devon and Cornwallwho were refreshingly devoid of the belief that possession of a skirt wasin itself a passport to all the good things of this life. They were withoutconceit and had a wholesome attitude to life and a sound sense of values. Ifind myself, like Cobbett, thinking at times that London is a corruptor ofpersons, especially young persons.8. The English are a courteous people.Only occasionally have I met a discourteous person in England. I amcontinually amazed that harassed London bus conductors, policemen andothers answering hundreds of questions daily, can yet remain so patient andhelpful.One gets the feeling in England that the tourist or the customer isalways right. In Australia if one asked for a bottle of beer in a milk bar onewould be glowered at and made to feel an imbecile. In England the reply ismore likely to be : "Sorry, sir. We don't sell it. But there's an off-licenceplace four doors.further along where you can get it._" ...... ­This is why England is such a good land in which to tour. An Englishman'sinstinct is to make you feel at home. In some other countries the 'national instinct is towards making the visitor look foolish.What a patient, orderly people they all are. They queue for buses, trains,theatres, cafeterias and a hundred other things with the self-effacing resigna­---Pag3 Sixty STRUAN. 1962