THE NAVY AND ITS CHIEF NEED.
[To THE 'EDITOR OP TIIE " SP.ECTATORn SIR,—May I suggest to your correspondent, "A Student of Naval History" (Spectator, November 17th), that lie should ignore "sinister rumours" and make opportunity to go and see for himself the " play " and the "rot" at Osborne ? He will find a far more active interest in work than in any public school in the kingdom. There are here none of the "absolute rotters " that one hears of so frequently on the public-school staffs. The masters are picked men, experts in their subjects, and are allowed time to keep up their own reading. The greater part of the " education " of the Cadets—all their out-of-school life—is in the hands of a splendid body of naval officers, who, reared in the old school themselves, are indefatigable in their efforts to secure success for the new scheme. Good feeding is not "luxury and extravagance," even though it be contrary to the traditions of nineteenth-century house-masters' wives. The barely adequate conditions of comfort at Osborne must not be confounded with the undoubted extravagance at Dart- mouth. If it be true—and we believe the assertion—that the Admiralty's scheme is not attaining to the success which was anticipated for it, the reason lies undoubtedly in the method of selection of candidates, and in the periodic and inexorable rejection of wrongly admitted Cadets.—I am, Sir, &c., A. E. L.
Previous page
