To the Editor of the "Norra-Cuina Dairy News."
Sin,—In former letters Ihave pointed out that there is no British School for senior boys, run on Public school lines, in the East, and I am much obliged to you for allowing so much space in your columns to a discussion of obstaci and objections that have been ad-vaneed against the establishment of a school of the type which so many of us—unless we have lost all sense of proportion—must see is urgently needed.
Wo have already discussed "inherent social and financial dif ficulties," and I have endeavoured to show that such a school. situated in a "well-chosen spot," would not be costly, for a boarding school pays its own way. In fact, if we assume that a school should not be run on the lines of a restaurant, that it is not desirable that boys jin their teens should develop pear-shaped bodies"; that. as in England, school dietary should be plain in quality, though amply in quantity; it would not be difficult to show that a school in China could be managed more economically than in England. since the ordinary foods are cheaper here than there.
"Social difficulties'" can only be regarded as serious, Sir, if we fai to appreciate what is happening at Home as one consequence of the -war. There the middle classes—often described as "the backbone of England''—are being ground be: tween the upper and the nether millstones: and, under pressure of the instinct of self-preservation, they are coming together. There is even talk of forming a '"'Middie-Class Union!" Thackeray, I believe. once described us as "a nation of snobs," but a great deal of water has passed beneath the bridges since his day; and no one who has followed the careers of nien like our present Prime Minister can fail to recognize that we are at last a truly democratic people. He, too, would be a bold man who ventured to contend to: day that either character. capacity, is the peculiar per quisite of a particular section of the nation.
This disappearance of social barriers—hitherto carried to a greater extreme among the English, T think, than in any other civilized people—is naturally being reflected in our schools with distinct advantage. It involves less waste of educational energy and consequently better results must follow. We are an_ individualistic people, slow ta take united action cept' under pressure, but would it not be a fine thing. Sir, if we middle-class people in the East—we are, nearly all, only middle-class—could come together in this matter of a truly British school?
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.