Old Girls
I do not know how many alumnae of Smith College, in Massachusetts, there are altogether, but I believe it is the .world's largest college for women, so there must be a fair few. I have been reading a pamphlet, 27 pages long, which has been sent to all of them by Mrs. Aloise B. Heath on behalf (allegedly) of a group of these ladies who call themselves the Committee for Discrimination in Giving. The document begins Dear Fellow Alumna,' but these are the last kind words used in it; for the committee has got its (or rather Senator McCarthy's) knife into five of the professors at Smith College and its purpose is to smear everybody in sight, including the President and Trustees of the College. Mrs. Heath. who writes with acrid verbosity, wants the blood of the professors' for having been mixed up with various left-wing organisations. in the 1930s (the Associate Professor of Art is accused ofi having, on an unspecified date, exhibited a picture at the American Artists' Congress, which doesn't sound a particularly traitorous thing to do); and she wants the blood of the College administration for not doing anything about it. One of het dear fellow alumnae tells me that Mrs. Heath's campaign (one of whose hoped-for results is to drive a wedge between conservative-minded trustees and liberal-minded professors) has not gone with much of a swing so far.. She refuses to dis- close the identity of the other members of her committee, and the fact that her brother is a friend of Senator McCarthy svg■ gents that there may be a certain lack of spontaneity in het crusade. The whole affair, though saddening, suggests a neW opportunity for Miss Joyce Grenfell./
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