Sir,—'To decide to launch a great programme of technology,' says
Mr. Wilson, 'or indeed of anything else simply because the Russians or the Americans have launched a bigger one, is to do it for the wrong reason.' Why? What about competitive co-existence? There seems to be a much better case for the exactly con- trary view: the Soviet menace is the only reason cogent enough for us to upset the balance of our ancient universities.
And as to this balance, why not found new colleges? This is surely the obvious way to ensure that staff employed solely by the university can get their feet under some High Table; while the balance between arts and sciences (as opposed to that between colleges and university) is obviously wrong and must be abandoned.
I seem to detect in Mr. Wilson's article the widespread. fallacy that education, and especially at an ancient university, is an end in itself. Surely all institutions, even the noblest, must subserve the common weal.— Yours faithfully.
P. J. D. WILES
New College, Oxford
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