Far too little is known of those admirable institutions, the
Forma- tion Colleges, of which five exist for the Army in Britain and three for the Army in different centres abroad. They represent the final " spit-and-polish" of education, which men can get in their last month before demobilisation--education calculated to brush up half-forgotten knowledge and technique and fit a man to start his civilian work again a good deal more easily and effectively than he otherwise could. At Formation Colleges (" formation," I gather, means something like " rehabilitation ") officers and other ranks are students side by side ; students of nearly everything—agriculture, building, engineering of various kinds, art, music, sculpture, architecture, the electric and radio trades, carpentering, metal-work, with dressmaking and dress- designing and domestic science for the A.T.S. All this I watched with admiration in the course of a short visit to No. 5 Formation College at Luton Hoo. There about 70o men were putting in their month in the fine mansion belonging to Sir Harold Wernher, with Romneys (one at any rate) looking down on them from the walls. A month, of course, is not long enough, but to double the length of the course would be to halve the number of men taking advantage of it. As it is, something very well worth doing is manifestly being done. * *
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