It is all very well to reculer pour mieux sauter
and that kind of thing, but why Mr. R. A. Butler, just because the compulsory school age is to be raised to fifteen at some date of which we know only that it will not be till after April, 1945, should withdraw the powers which local authorities have possessed since 1918 to raise the age to fifteen in their own areas, is not at all easy to understand. The number of authorities enlightened enough to take advantage of their opportunities was admittedly small, but it included three counties— East Suffolk, Cornwall and Carnarvonshire—and towns like Ply- mouth, Cheltenham and Barrow-in-Furness. It is a poor reward for their progressive-mindedness that the Minister of Education should in 1944 force them back to pre-1918 conditions. So at least it appears to me. There may be some good explanation of what on
the face of it is plain retrogression ; if so, it ought to be forthcoming.
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