20 JANUARY 1933, Page 12

It is usual to present the Englishman as an example

of manliness. He is a bulldog with an open mouth or, at worst, he is Mr. Churchill with his biography, half dandy and half adventurer, a descent in the direct line. In reality the Englishman is very effeminate and I would picture him looking like a young lady of good stature, not ashamed of the shrivelled skin on her hands, but full of a girl's bashfulness. The Englishman is afraid of women and that is why he .avoids them. At the Universities, the men students carefully 'avoid the women students. Though one cannot prohibit the women from riding in omnibuses, there are nevertheless thousands of refuges, called clubs, where the entrance is forbidden to women. In every middle-class hotel there is a room " for gentlemen only." There the Englishman can doze or dream, sure of complete safety. Yes, all those forbidden places arise purely out of the men's fear of women's wiles and the inconceivable nature of the mind of the women, those • prosaic women. It is certain that, having encountered some bony young women, only capable of cooking boiled eggs and playing tennis, the young Englishman, who is accustomed to the quietness of the boarding school, at once impetuously falls in love.