It is a little too soon, no doubt, to conclude
that Ashridge- meaning by that not the institution's formal existence, but all that Ashridge has succeeded in being in the last three orfour years— is finished, but it looks deplorably like that. The events of last week-end have brought everything to a head, and thrown into relief two pieces of tragic irony. One is that General Paget, when failure to raise funds to carry on Ashridge is the alleged cause of the present crisis, is able to announce that he has actually raised them ; the other that of the three persons mainly concerned, the two who ought, in the interests of Ashridge, to have carried on have resigned, and the one who ought to have resigned is carrying on. Let me say that I have communicated with none of the three, and am basing my conclusions simply on the published documents. And though I said last week that a practical solution might be found in Mr. Arthur Bryant's suggestion that he should resign his chairmanship of the Educational Council and Lord Davidson his chairmanship of the Board of Governors, I took that view simply on the ground that the former resignation might facilitate the latter ; apart from that I can see no reason why Mr. Bryant should relinquish a task which to all appearance he has carried out extremely well. But the fact that not only Mr. Bryant but the whole Educational Council has resigned is a pointed enough comment on the whole situation. That it will be possible to rebuild on these ruins is very hard to believe. A tradition, created not by the Governors but by apparently harmonious and effective co-operation between the Educational Council and General Paget and his very able staff, has been destroyed. Ashridgc seems destined to be known in the future as the home of the House of Citizenship, for young ladies in a position to pay (or have paid for them) 90 guineas a term. As for General Paget, it is impossible not to be confident that means will somehow be found for him to carry on elsewhere the national service he has been rendering with such signal success at Ashridge.
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