ETON v. HARROW—AND TIENTSIN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23865, 20 July 1939, Page 13

ETON v. HARROW—AND TIENTSIN

TO THE EDITOR Sir,—Many of us have wondered at the apparent complacency with which the British Government has viewed recent events at Tientsin. Frequent reports of Englishmen being stripped in the presence of foreign women have caused us to wonder how much lower British prestige would be allowed to fall. To-day a cable from London proves our needless concern to have been due to our ignorance of English public school tradition. Under cautions, “Scene at Lord’s,” "A Spectator 4 Debagged,’ we read, “ London, July 16 ... A distinguished old Etonian punched an old Harrovian, a clergyman, upon which two other old Harrovians set on the Etonian. They threw him to the ground and tore off his trousers. . . .”

As the majority of the members of the British Cabinet themselves wear the old school tie, they will have recognised that the so-called ‘ incidents ” at Tientsin have been nothing more than healthy interschool rivalry between Japanese old Harrovians and British old Etonians. But why did Mr Chamberlain describe the Tientsin “ debaggings ” as intolerable insults? This is a question which the Japanese Foreign Minister may ask the British Ambassador at the Tokio talks. —I am, etc., A Cad.

Oamaru, July 17.