I have not read Mr. Croft's book—a de- ficiency I
must remedy—so I cannot assess either its literary merits or its documentary accuracy, but I must give my wholehearted support to his protest that 'it is impossible to make a film which contains any serious criticism of authority.'
Mr. Croft has probably been guilty of three major offences:
(a) Exposure of the tawdriness of the mid- twentieth-century banner depicting the angel- child rampant.
(h) Scratching the thin, brittle skin of authorities to whom State free education is a political weapon.
(c) Revealing the decay which, eating away the hone and muscle of our educational tra- dition, is the result of mob-wooing by political parties, at all levels.
There is one point that I, writing from per- sonal experience, must make. It is that although the efficiency of a school depends on the head and his/her staff, the power of the school to influence the child's character is in direct ratio to the hacking of the education authority and the co-operation of the parents. —Yours faithfully,
JAMES B. HAWKINS
36 Almond Avenue, Newbury, Berkshire
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