DEFENCE OF GOLF

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 149, 27 June 1925, Page 20

DEFENCE OF GOLF

LORD BALFOUR ON ITS VIRTUES

GAME "MADE IN GERMANY"

"KOLF."

■'■■- ;?-.' (FROir.ODR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) . ';:■.> ■; : ' LONDON, 14th May. "Does golf do more harm than good?" was a theme.which provided an interesting, debate between the Earl of Balfo'ur I and Mr. Leo Mass© (editor of' The Na--1 tioiial Review").' ■ ■- While Mr. Maxse could see in this occupation suitable for keeping middle-aged men out of mischief, a lure for' young sportsmen, which explained our eclipse o'u_ the international sporting fields, iLord Balfour declared that it was' a "model, of. a game" than which none gave more healthful satisfaction. The debate, which took place at the London School of Economics, was oiie of a series' of lectures and counter lectures prompted in aid of King Edward's -Hospital Fund: There was a very large audiance, presided over by Sir Robert Hudson.. ■..'■ .: '.:.: . r ."- ; ;■ A DIVERSION FROM POLITICS. > '■■"■-Mr. Maxse humorously suggested that the opposition shown to the Earl of Bal-

four by the Araba during 'his recent visit

;o Palestine' was '-probably- due to a fear

that ho contemplated turning the Holy Land into'a gigantic golf links. (Laughteri): No doubt even the Lord President of 'the Council and other Ministers imag-

ined that golf was a game of Scottish origin.;: Nothing' of the-kind..; Like many other things dumped upon this confiding 'community, I'-;:it' . came -.from .; Germany,. where/it; was' 1 known as "lc'olf.'!.';" But, about 1410.the,Teutonic;knights decided .that Jit, was not a gamp for men of blood and. iron,.: so; they -discarded ; it, : and.-. it: was dumped upon-Holland,>still retaining its. nanVe,."Kolf."»..ln.the 15th.;century it.made a.journey to Scotland,' and was

found, to. be. the very ..thing ,that Scots-,' I men; had' long been looking for—(laughter)—and they embraced.:it with?";;that gravity which .had made Scotland ■ the great.nktion:that'she now was.,'(Laughter.) ■, For, four centuries y they continued to playii, just as they ate porridge and haggis—(laugliter)-rthen.: a. certain .Mr:' Arthur.-Balfour..startled ;his';friends at a painful moment "by 'giving it to be-; nighted England;, and from that moment everybody -: who: _was :j anybody began ■ to learn all about it.; Lord Balfour,. how-

ever, was not .responsible for that de-. vejopment, i'.which:'. might' be; called "the golf:.'■craze ', " and-■ which;■ 'threatened , our supremacy-as.-a-game-playing nation.. ;.

f "Lord Balfour. intended''the :game, to bo a perfect pursuit for the'middle-aged,": said- Mr. Maxsei'-'H"I- admit it has; other . public ad vantages:•■' It diverts politicians from politics/-— (laughter)- — journalists from, journalism—(laughter)—it takes international. financiers, mugwumps, mandarins, bureaucrats, and highbrows' away; from the; various forms of imischief ;in which ■they specialise.; (Laughter.) • Hi ;it had ; only remained a' game, for the mid-dle-aged we should not have been having this debate." ;.- But, apart from those who could not run- about, he maintained;, that it ( .was, a:deplorable, thing, that', such:'a; ■lazy.,', walking \ game as - ; golf ,\ a game. in which there /was. no racing, no running should be held up- as aforni; of .athletic activity suitable■;to -the"' younger genera-; .-.tiori in;; the flower; of their'strength'/ .: ;;-, ; ;y' ASlady'ls 'question^:/ !-/'

;'; The':Earl:o_£vßalfour, taking the-oppo-• Bite- view,;;said :that' he. hoped he might have had something to' do with the spread" of golf in this country thirty or forty. years^ago, .but''let there be.no .exaggeration, for the other day: a.'charming lady by -whose side he.was" sitting- asked him,, other' topics : having failed, whether he had ever, played golf. - (Laughter. 1)): That showed that, if he indeed deserved onefraction of the reputation Mr/ Maxse had attributed to him, how fleeting .was human fame. (Laughter.) !As to," the Arabs suspecting him of trying to !introduce;': Western- practices .into the : mountains and deserts ■■ of Arabia, that might. be' possible, 'but hardly likely, seeing that in that country it was easier, to :find bunker's than .putting greens.- ---■( Laughter.): Putting on : one side; this Oriental; speculation—(laughter)-iand also ;the attempt to make them believe; that ;golf was a Bosch invention, he came to ,Mr..Maxse's thesis^ that while 1 golf flour-., ished in Scotland during many centuries, and .was /legislated against in '"'the': fif-^ teenth,-century—because it .prevented Scotsmen - learning archery to /fight the English^-and.again.in.the sixteenth cen-. tury—because.; it occasionally,, prevented Scotsmen- going; to church on Sundays— so' far;as England was concerned,' it did not exist until a time within the; memory of" most. of them. . .That „-was not historically ■ correct, because the Scotsmen" who accompanied James I. to England to his

new throne, proceeded, very wisely in their own interests, to form a golf club at Blackheath, which- he believed was the oldest in the world, and existed up to twenty or thirty years ago.

MISSIONARIES IN GAMES,

If they compared the fate of the poor middle-aged man taken to the seaside by his wife and children, with no means of filling the weary hours of leisure, with that of the' man transported to a healthy climate and" beautiful scenery, participating in a game which would exercise all his skill to. play even moderately,, they would doubtless agree, Lord Balfour said, that the blessings of golthad been immense. (Cheers.) As to the younger generation; he quite agreed that there haid been facts connected with the international sports, which, one must regard ..with ..some, regret, but one must remember that our supremacy in games was not supremacy inherent in the physique of the British race. Our success was due to the fact, that we vcere the authors of all ,the great games hi* the world except, perhaps, baseball and of court tennis, which we learned from the French. We were' missionaries, in this matter, and the very

fact that these games spread to other places must: necessarily interfere with that solid supremacy which once we possessed. (Hear, hear.) financiers; "figures." . "The mere fact that international financiers can play golf and improve their figures, oven if they obtain no other ad-; vantage," is not a sufficient reason for criticising a game which requires all that Nature has given us of muscular-adapta-tion, 'accuracy of eye and;of judgment, delicacy of touch atid of temper. I think the'mere fact,that some classes,to which Mr. Maxse has a strong.objection get a good deal of pleasure out of the game is not a sufficient reason for condemning it," concluded Earl Balf our:'- : "..;.-■