S,a,—Will you allow me space to make two comments on
the Rev. Mervyn Stockwood's letter about the public schools ?
First, Mr. Stockwood foresees trouble of two sorts for the public schools, financial and political. As for the one, I doubt if he realises how powerfully the present regime of small families contributes to the security of these schools. The wisest course for many fathers of an only son is to send him to boarding school ; and many fathers can afford it. As for the other, he proposes appeasement of the enemy in advance. He does it in the name of " sound democratic values." As a Socialist he means by democracy, I suppose, the egalitarianism which appears to be at bottom incapable of a " reasonable accommodation " with indepen- dency in education.
Second, he picks on the Headmasters' ponference, the H.M.C., to undertake the appeasement. With all respect to a body of men that, within its limits, has high standing and usefulness, I call Mr. Stock- wood's attention to the Association of the Governing Bodies of the Public Schools, the G.B.A., which is more authentically responsible for public- schools' policy than any group of its employees. The G.B.A. had a double parentage The governors of Sherborne and the city companies responsible for schools called meetings of representatives of the governing bodies about the same time. The Sherborne invitation went out first, while the city companies' invitation named the earlier date. -The two joined forces at a private conference in the Bishop's Palace at Salisbury, the Bishop, Dr. Lovett, being a governor of Sherborne. Mr. C. N. Hooper, secretary of the Fishmongers, represented the companies. The joint meeting was duly held in London, the G.B.A. was formed, and the Bishop of London, Dr. Fisher, became chairman. What brought all this about was the circumstances of the public schools at the time, and more particularly an alarmist agitation among headmasters about finance. Amateurish views on the "debts" of the schools had been given currency. The agitation came to a head at a meeting in the Charterhouse with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Lang, in the chair. Since those days the governing bodies, through the G.B.A., have averred themselves masters in their own house.
Mr. Stockwood casts the H.M.C. for a role which never belonged to it, and in which, so far as a claim to it was ever made, it has been patently superseded these ten years.-1 am, &c.,
JOHN MURRAY,
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