8 A War Memoridl Jor Belfaf^t. 



living permanently in endless vistas of identical brick dog-kennels, 

 which, if they are properly connected to the town sewer, satisfy 

 onr bnilding anthorities. In a well-planned city, it would, for 

 example, be impossible, /ov it would be illegal, to issue an 

 elaborate scheme of harbour extensions, without including in it 

 the essential proAdsion for dock-labourers' dwellings, reasonably 

 accessible, decently comfortable, and provided with such 

 necessities as schools, playgrounds and gardens. 



(6) Schools. There are far too few schools in Belfast. 

 For many years we have been short by about 15,000 seats of 

 the accommodation considered necessary for a population of equal 

 size in, say, Birmingham or G-lasgow. At least ten, probably 

 twenty, first-rate primary schools are wanted, and are urgently 

 wanted, now : and this (luite apart from the additional schools 

 which will be needed if our population is to expand above its 

 present figure, and, also, quite apart from the certainty that more 

 and better schooling is going to be demanded than has ever yet 

 been provided. We are dealing here with the very foundations 

 of public welfare in the future, for it is our schools which are 

 repairing the ravages and the destruction of this war, it is in 

 our schools that our democratic civilisation will grow, or die. 

 If our primary schools be, as they often are, insanitary, over- 

 crowded, insufficient in numljer, starved in soul or body (by 

 underpaying teachers or skimping equipment), what sort of 

 citizens will they turn out to govern our city in future *? For, 

 in the years ahead, the workers are going to hold the reins of 

 power, not only in the Imperial Cabinet and other parliamentary 

 institutions, but in municipal government as well. 



Similarly, if we need schools, we need playgrounds. The 

 fii'st city map I would wish to make for our Sui'vey would be a 

 map of the children's playgrounds. The need for them, in 

 scores, is almost appalling. No child should have to walk more 

 than a quarter of a mile to a playground. 



Thus, a compulsory reservation for schools and playground 

 would be one of the first essentials, in our Town Plan, in every 

 area undergoing either new development or reconstruction. 



