"NO MORE LOYAL BODY"

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 62, 10 September 1921, Page 9

"NO MORE LOYAL BODY"

Following is the report by Mr. W. H. Gould (vice-principal of tho college) referred to by Mr. Forsyth :■— "In accordance with your request I have investigated the matters* referred to in the director's letter, and desire

to submit the following regarding the three points specifically referred to therein:— (1) 'A statement from the girl students referred to indicating whether their attendance at the Court and the fact .that they contributed towards the payment of the.fine were evidence of their approval And support' of Miss Weitzel in the offence with which she was charged.' . ■ j . "Upon inquiry I find that in all seventeen women students attended the Court. I have interrogated each of these and find:— ''(a) That no student contributed towards the payment of the fine. "(b) That the attendance of each student was'prompted, either by her sympathy with Miss Weitzel in her predicament, or by mere curiosity and a desire to know something of the con- • duct of a Court—largely the latter. "(c) That in.no case does any one of these students approve or support the offence with which Miss Weitzel was charged, viz., 'Circulating literature encouraging violence and lawlessness.' "The sympathy in-every case is personal—the result of an association with a fellow student whose conduct within the College has been exemplary. I may add that Miss Weitzel's youth (she is but 20 years of age) and her somewhat retiring, and by no means assertive, disposition could scarcely fail to attract the sympathy of her fellows, who, so far, as I am able to ascertain, ' were quite ignorant of, or indifferent to,' her political or social beliefs. "(2) 'Whether the students in general are aware of tho circulation of any of the literature referred to among students of the College': "None of the students are aware of the circulation among the students of the College of any of the literature referred to. I cannot find that Miss Weitzel or, indeed, any student of the College, has ever endeavoured to disseminato among the students revolutionary ideas encouraging violence. Political, or politico-social, matters are foreign to the purpose for which the College exists, and'their discussion • would be neither encouraged nor permitted by the staff. "(3) Whether there is reason to believe that, either at the Training College or during their attendance at Victoria College as Training College students, influ-, ences of the type exerted by Miss Weitzel are operating in relation to students: "So far a3 the Training College is concerned, I cannot find, as pointed out above, that there is the suehtest reason to 'believe that undesirable influences are operating in relation to students. I have no means of personally ascertaining what influences are operating at' Victoria University College; but all students whom I have questioned deny any' knowledge whatever of undesirable influences iof the kind indicated. '■:. "Owing to the publicity this unfortunate case has received, it would appear that the loyalty .of this institution and of its -students has been called m ques-tion-throughout the length and breadth of the Dominion. This, however unavoidable, is most unfortunate, for it reflects adversely alike^upon the loyal'and disloyal, if such there .be. When the matter has been thoroughly sifted, I trust that, in common justice to the fair name of the college, the same publicity that has been given to these charges will be given to their refutation. "There is no more loyal institution in the Dominion than this: there is no more loyal body of young men and women than the students of this college. ' Their record of war-service will stand a monument to their loyalty, for,so far , as we are able to ascertain, every eligible student and ex-student during the period of the war volunteered his service to his country. An unusually high percentage of these lie buried on the battlefields of . Gallipoli and :FJanders. ■ There are in the ■college at the present time several returned soldiers, while the president of the Students' Association is a returned soldier who bears most palpable evidence of the service rendered to his country ",