The result of this amendment, if accepted, will be to
do what we have so often advocated in these columns,—i.e., make it clear that the State, while anxious to favour access to parks and other open spaces for purposes of recreation, does not desire to put on record that it considers that picnickers are more worthy of State encouragement than men who are training themselves for the defence of their country. The words of the amendment are elastic enough to prevent any injustice in a case, if any such case can be found, which we doubt, where soldiers would do harm and picnickers would not. The Commissioners could then consider leave to picnickers and refusal to soldiers "reasonable access." In ordinary cases if leave to soldiers under proper conditions were refused reasonable public access would not be considered to have been granted. The essential thing to remember is that soldiers do not do damage. They never desecrate beautiful places with scraps of paper, tins, bottles, and other refuse. The Government, we feel sure, must sympathise with the amendment, while we do not believe for a moment, as has been asserted in some quarters, that the Unionists, and especially "the landlord interest," in the Commons will insist on vetoing it. That is incredible.
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