Рождественские каникулы (Моэм) - страница 32

At school he was already an ardent socialist and at Cambridge he became a communist.В школе он уже был горячим сторонником социализма, а в Кембридже стал коммунистом.
Leslie listened to his wild theories with good-humoured tolerance.Лесли слушал его нелепые теории с добродушной терпимостью.
To him it was all talk, and talk, he had an instinctive feeling, was just talk; it didn't touch the essential business of life.По его мнению, то были всего-навсего слова, а слова - они слова и есть; самого существа жизни они не задевали.
"And if he does become a well-known journalist or gets into the House, there'll be no harm in having a friend in the enemy's camp."- И если он и в самом деле станет известным журналистом или войдет в Парламент, что ж, совсем не вредно иметь друга во вражеском стане.
Leslie's ideas were liberal, so liberal that he didn't mind admitting the Socialists had several notions that no reasonable man could object to; theoretically he was all in favour of the nationalization of the coal-mines, and he didn't see why the state shouldn't run the public services as well as private companies; but he didn't think they should go too far.Лесли придерживался либеральных взглядов, весьма либеральных, даже не прочь был признать, что против иных убеждений социалистов не станет возражать ни один здравомыслящий человек; теоретически он и сам был за национализацию шахт, полагал также, что государство может управлять коммунальным обслуживанием не хуже частных компаний; но считал, что тут не следует заходить слишком далеко.
Ground rents, for instance, that was a matter that was really no concern of the state; and slum property; in a great city you had to have slums, in point of fact the lower classes preferred them to model dwelling-houses, not that the Mason Estate hadn't done what it could in this direction, but you couldn't expect a landlord to let people live in his houses for nothing, and it was only fair that he should get a decent return on his capital.К примеру, земельная рента - это уж никак не дело государства; или трущобы - в больших городах без них никак не обойтись, низшие классы, в сущности, предпочитают их образцовым жилым домам - Компания Мейсон чего тут только не делала; но не может землевладелец позволить, чтоб в его домах жили бесплатно, он должен получать приличный доход со своего капитала, это только справедливо.
Simon Fenimore had decided that he wanted to be a foreign correspondent for some years so that he could gain a knowledge of Continental politics which would enable him when he entered the House of Commons to be an expert on a subject of which most Labour members were necessarily ignorant; but when Leslie took him to see the proprietor of the newspaper who was prepared to give a brilliant young man his chance, he warned him that the proprietor was a very rich man, and that he could not expect to create a favourable impression if he delivered himself of revolutionary sentiments.