STUDENTS' REVOLT.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 120, 19 May 1909, Page 2

STUDENTS' REVOLT.

NOVEL SITUATION AT RUSKIN

COLLEGE

LONDON, April V 2. v A strike of workmen students at Ruskin College, Oxford, has been in full .progress this week. It is one of the quaintest of strikes, thi9 revolt of the 54 students.of the college against what they consider the intolerable action of the authorities with regard to Mr Dennis Hird, the principal. Mr Hird, the students say, was called upon to resign, a fortnight ago, and was offered a pension and promised a /testimonial. As Mr Hird had signed; an agreement by which he could give or receive six months' notice, he had no option but to. comply with the demand. Mr Hird asked for a reason for his dismissal, and was informed that it was because he was unable to maintain discipline^ The real reason, the students declare, is the alleged unpopularity of one of Mr HirdW subjects^-soeiology—with the executive. Tne movement to establish a definite connection between Oxford University and Ruskin College necessitates the alteration of the latter's curriculum, so as not, to offend the susceptibilities of the University. Mr Hird's subject is the particular stumbling block, so he-must go. The official lecturers have been barred out, and the students' have appointed members from among themselves to carry out the professional duties. The men also \ have formed themselves into a ; "general committee of defence"; they hold their meetings in their bedrooms, and none may enter or leave the college .without' giving me proper sign. THE DRAMA AT WEST- , MINSTER. The. scene of acton changed on Wednesday from Oxford to London, in view of the meeting of the council in a committee-room of the House of Commons, to decide upon the action of the executive in demanding the resignation of Mr Dennis Hird, the principal, and upon the rebellion among the 54 students, who decline to part with their chief. Mr Charles Buxton, the son of the Postmaster-General, who is the viceprincipal of the college, and on the side of the executive council, escaped early in the morning from the strict and, unpleasant boycott of which he has been the victim, and took a breakfast train to town. He was "shadowed" by two of the studentstrikers, who followed him in the afternoon to the House. .Many of the students also travelled to town..,- Indeed, all the leading actors in this. strange . little, drama assembled at Westminster. Most of -the members^ of the .council (including the executive) went to the committee-room 15. Among them were Professor Sidney Ball, Professor H.-B. Lees Smith, Mr C. W. Bowerman, M.P., Mr Richard Bell, M.P.. Mr D. J. Shackleton, • M.P., Mr H. S. Leon, J.P.; % the Rev. A. J. Carlyle, and Professor Henry Goudy. Mr G. N. Barnes, M.P., who is on the executive council, refused to join the meeting,, and told the press representative that he intended to stand outside the controversy. ( Outside the committee-room young Mr Buxton read out "The Tied Piper of Hamelin" to Mr Wilson, the secretary of the college, presumably to show his detachment from this scene of strife. A House of Commons policeman was an interested auditor of his elocution. IMR HIRD'S MISFORTUNES. Mr'Hird is a distinguished looking man, with short grey beard and a certain charm of manner. In an interview he said: "The whole trouble between the council and myself has been in regard to the administration of the college. I maintain that if the discipline had been imperfect students would not have attended the lectures with such -splendid regularity. \ The* committee of inquiry at Christmas withdrew charges against me of

pi-caching Atheism and Socialism. I am an out-and-out Socialist, and two out of every, three students who come here, and perhaps more, are Socialists. As active young trade unionist men they are necessarily Socialists. I have not pushed Socialism, down their throats, because, there ..lias been no need for it. All my past.misfortunes have been due—first to the fact that I am a democrat, and. second, because I am a poor man, who could always be squeezed. I was a clergyman of the Church of England, and was given the living of Eastnor by Lady Henry Somerset, but because I wrote^ _ a satirical novel called 'The Christian with Two Wives' I was driven out of the living, and in 1896 I renounced my Orders. Previous to that. I was secretary of the London Diocese of the Church Temperancd Society, but in 1894 I was compelled to resign that post because I joined the Social Democratic Federation." CHARGES WITHDRAWN,

Mr Tlird further said' that the charges which had been made against him of Atheism and Socialism had been fully and unreservedly withdrawn in writing by the council; but the meeting then being held was discussing the decision of a sub-commit-tee (appointed sine©' the strike) that, "discipline must be sustained," and that the principal himself should go. Mr Hird's chief supporter in these hours of suspense was Mr Macpherson, the Labour. Member for Preston, Lancashire, who is himself an old Ruskin College man. Mr Macpherson intends to .stand by Mr Hird "through thick and thin," and all the old students are rallying round him. He has received 500 letters, from these men, protesting against the dismissal of the principal, and upholding the action of the students. "If the council decide^ against Mr Hird," said Mr Macphenson, "we shall fight the matter through." The council sat for three'hours, and then declined to communicate their decision to Mr Hird or the press. It was understood that the council resolved to adhere to its decision.

It is stated to-day that Mr Dennis Hird is no longer principal of Ruskin College, and that the acceptance of his resignation was announced to the students yesterday by Mr H. S. Leon and the Rev. A. J. Carlyle. Mr Hird is understood to have retired on a pension of £150 a year. .