Bernard Shaw once wrote that when the Professors of Philosophy
become the makers of cannon the millennium may be expected to begin. The remarkable career of Mr. Oliver Franks, the new Provost of Queen's at Oxford, villa left the Chair of Moral Philo- sophy at Glasgow University (Adam Smith's Chair) to become a Principal in the Ministry of Supply and rose to be Permanent Secretary, is at least a poetical vindication of that thesis. Mr. Franks is a faithful servant. Just as he worked out his career as the most outstanding war-time civil servant entirely within the. Ministry of Supply, he now returns as Provost to Queen's, where he was an undergraduate and subsequently Fellow and Praelector in Philosophy, Tutor and Dean. He is still only in his early forties, and there is a great deal to expect from him yet.
* * * *
Previous page
