WOULD FIGHT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 165, 15 July 1939, Page 7

WOULD FIGHT.

OXFORD SCHOLARS. NO LONGER PACIFIST. AUCXLANDER IMPRESSED. Oxford's "young gentlemen' , are no longer pacifist. Not only that, but they would plump for conscription if the issue were to-day debated in their famous the Oxford Union. This was the view expressed this morning by Dr. J. A. W. Bennett, a former Aucklander, and old boy of the Mount Albert Grammar School, who

arrived from England by the Mataroa i on a brief visit to the Dominion. He is i a fellow of Queen's College, Oxford. i Eight years ago the Oxford Union [declared that in no circumstances would it fight for King and country, but if the question were debated to-day there could be only one result—an out-and-out victory for the patriots—he said. The undergraduates had abandoned many of their loftiest views. They had been "awakened to the political dangers in the world, and were much concerned about the future. Oxford's "Gentlemen." "Oxford is no longer the legendary place of elegant gentleman," he said. "For one thing the young men are not so elegant, and for another they have not the leisure they used to have. They have to work and to think about earning their own living when they leave." Lord Nufh'eld's interest in Oxford had been partly responsible for the change in the atmosphere of the old university town. By his bequests he had given aj great stimulus to scientific study, but] his factories had given Oxford the character of an industrial town. That, in I turn, had produced ite effect on the character of the university. There was J much more noise, and the atmosphere of . brooding peace had been shattered. So far only the medical side of the research system founded by Lord Nuffield was in operation, stated Dr. Bennett, but within two years Nuffield College, a graduate college consisting oi fellows drawn partly from the university and partly from the business world would be launched. Some of the fellows had been already elected. There was a general feeling that the college would have great possibilities. Cultural Advance. Speaking of cultural trends in Britain Dr. Bennett declared that the most hope ful sign to-day was the cheap productior of good standard works. These wen bringing the best literature within th< reach of the crowd, and were helping ii a more far-reaching advance in cultura education than had occurred for s century. Literary publications had met with s . difficult time lately, he eaid, and a I least three of the most prominen " periodicals—the "Criterion," the "Mer curv" and the "Bookman"—had fadet ► lout Scarnl.9;-4k.£eiaodieaJ<WMr,ieataiD«

in England wholely devoted to lilera- . ture. This seemed to be due to a gtneral 1 uncertainty and to new ideas of values. It was a pity the outlets for young 'writers were contracting, but fortunately the book clubs had arisen to exercise a formative influence and to fill the gap during the change-over and groping for a new basis. Leading Young Writers. Among young writers of the present j day three of the most prominent were W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender and Christopher Isherwood, continued Dr. Bennett. The first two were poets, one I being the son of J. A. Spender, and the other was a versatile novelist. Ten yeare ago Auden and Spender were extremely modern and difficult to follow, but they had since come much closer •Ito conventional forms of poetry. This bad given power and intensity to their . writing. While they had not discarded I entirely their former mannerisms, they r were now grown up, but were still poets Jof the Left. There was not much interest in poetry in the universities to-day; 'as a subject of discussion it had been displaced by polities. There was also a feeling that it did not offer a very " secure hope for a future livelihood. j Oxford's traditional attitude towards women was being maintained against all the efforts of women to claim equality e with men, said Mrs. Bennett, wife of ' Dr. Bennett, who is visiting New -Zear, land with her husband. She was one of * the minority of women admitted into * ancient halls of learning, and was disy appointed with much she found there. "Oxford is a jumble architecturally," 8 she remarked, "and there is a prejudice a against women. Of the 5000 students, d- only 600 are women, and it is always difficult for girls to enter. Yet the authorities think they have opened the door too generously." »,