[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Is it actual fagging
that is under discussion in these pages, or is it bullying ? No system is perfect and no doubt .many fag-masters are tyrants ; but on the whole it would appear as though an organized system of fagging were a preventive, rather than an incentive, of indiscriminate bullying. Better one master than many.
Further, however, one may disapprove the setting of half- grown people in positions of authority ; it is hardly, as your last correspondent suggests, in disaccord with the spirit of the age, which is all for deferring every question for decision to adolescents (as by the Evening Standard).
Actual children appear frequently rather bewildered and oppressed by this spirit of the age. And the prefectorial system is certainly the essence of democracy, when one considers that the prefect might" be the son of- a tradesman, or of one of our Cabinet Ministers, whereas the fag might be the last of an old ducal line. Was there ever a play like Journey's End to make its way over two continents, and stir the hearts of millions of people ?. All its four principal characters are unmistakably from English Public Schools. Had not " young -Raleigh " been ". Stanhope's " fag and .worshipped him ever since ?—I am, Sir, &c., - 35 Leigh Road, Mghbur% N. _ _ DION SHORE.
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