17 JUNE 1966, Page 14

SIR,—Surely any Tory must ask himself, 'Is it good that

as many people as possible should be encouraged to make their own private provision for welfare, and that the more people there are who are not dependent on the state, the better?' If the answer is 'yes'—and how can it be other- wise?—then the clear duty of the Conservative party is to encourage, positively and not merely passively, the independent schools. The Tories encourage private enterprise in industry, they are coming round towards encouraging it in their reappraisal of the social services, and therefore they must surely encourage it in education. It is patently not their job to indulge in the sort of social engineering which goes by the name of education on the left.