Little Support For Dr. Edith Summerskill's Anti-Boxing Drive

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27986, 5 June 1956, Page 7

Little Support For Dr. Edith Summerskill's Anti-Boxing Drive

Press Association— Copyright)

LONDON. June 3.

With a human skull in her hands and a host of medical arguments ready. Dr. Edith Summerskill. M.P., faced hundreds of journalists and sportsmen in the reception room at a London publisher’s at a function to launch her anti-boxing book, “This Ignoble Art.” She found herself tackling a most controversial subject with men who seemed to know far more about boxing than she did, and there were some heated moments as the views she has expressed in her book and on the platform were challenged. Clutching her skull, she indicated where, if its owner had been a boxer, the sphenoid bone would ultimately have injured the brain. She said it was absolutely deplorable that innocent boys should enter a prize-fight ring without being fully aware of the dangers to which they were exposed. “You know how slow boxers can become. How long it takes them to collect their thoughts. How tired they get. This is the first stage of punchdrunkenness,” she said. At this stage another doctor from the audience interrupted. He introduced himself as Dr. Michael Leahy a physician for 50 years, a boxer for

40. and the winner of the Irish ama' teur championship in 1908 and 1909. “and still boxing despite a wooden leg—Mons. 11th Hussars.” He said he was “in the most frightful opposition” to Dr. Summerskill and if she were a man he would ask her to step outside. “Boxers are fine fellows, and the British Empire has been built Up with people with the fighting spirit. I nope the art you describe as ignoble will survive long after you and I are gone.” he said. Dr. Summerskill started to int * r " rupt. but Dr. Leahy forestalled her by saying amid laughter: “And if there is no fighting in heaven I do not want to go there.” . j ru. A woman journalist asked n ur. Summerskill wanted British males to be “rather wet.” She replied: “My approach might be different from your own. I like men to be intelligent, with good minds and with moral courage. I do not Icok at a man and wonder what nis muscles are like—this lady’s approach must be entirely different.” The published reaction of the sporxing writers suggests that Dr. Summerskill could get little encouragement from them.