15 JUNE 1951, Page 14

An Act of Vandalism

There is no small indignation throughout the Kentish countryside, because the Home Office proposes to take over a farm-school set in the heart of this intimate and historical scene, and to set it round with a high barbed wire fence, so that it can be used as a Borstal institution. This is an instance of the dangers of central control, by which places, things and human beings become mere figures on a page of statistics. Thus the final blasphemy r.gainst the spirit of man is unwittingly committed.