weedier than ever. I am not a
prude (I think!), but the eternally amusement-seeking and irresponsible
lives led by many of the rich, and the really appalling looseness of
morals now being led by girls without a qualm, bode very seriously ill
for the future of that New World which we were promised the war would
make safe for--well, I believe we were told it was to be Democracy, but
the Government official and the profiteer still seem the most firmly dug
in of us all. I go to the fashionable West-end haunts, and I see the
crowds of wealthy women getting as near the nude as they and their
dressmakers can manage; I go to the poor parts of London, and I am really
shocked by the immense number of girls, some only children, who are
practically and _voluntarily_ on the streets. These may only be the
minority of women and girls, I admit, but they are a minority which is
having, and is going to have, a very sinister influence on the
future--and the peace and beauty of that future. For the out-and-out
prostitute one can feel understanding, and with understanding there is a
certain respect; but these amateur "syrens" are a menace and a disgrace
to the "homes" which breed them so carelessly, and look after them so ill.

_Children_

I suppose the most absurd fetish of modern so-called democratic politics
is that fetish of the liberty of the subject. In theory it is ideal--let
there be complete liberty of ideas by all means; but when that liberty,
as is nearly always the case, means that the liberty of one man is gained
by the sacrifice of another--then it is the enemy of humanity as well as
of nature. I always consider that, in the really Socialistic state,
children will not entirely belong to their parents, but will also be
guarded and looked after as an asset to the world. This will, of course,
give complete liberty to _good_ parents, but it will prevent _bad_
parents from wrecking the lives of their children, as is the case to-day,
unless the parents' wickedness is so disgracefully bad that they come
under the eye of the N.S.P.C.C. But the law always shields the
wrong-doer. We are far more concerned that mothers and fathers should
have complete control of their children even when they have proved
themselves unfit to bring up children, than that the children themselves
should be protected. We are far more concerned that the drunkard should
be given complete freedom to go out and get drunk than that the misery
whic