5 DECEMBER 1914, Page 32

OXFORD AND THE WAR.

THE Oxford Magazine has published in the form of a supple. ment a "List of the Members of the University resident in, the year 1913-1914 or in the present term now serving with His Majesty's Forces, With the Units to which they belong" (Oxford : Horace Hart, 6d.). The list is arranged in alpha- betical order of the Colleges, and an analysis yields the following figures : All Souls, 11; Balliol, 115; Brasenose, 88; Christ Church, 162 ; Corpus, 52 ; Exeter, 85; Hertford, 73; Jesus, 47 ; Keble, 109 ; Lincoln, 33; Magdalen, 135 ; Maroon's Hall, 7; Merton, 63; New College, 134; Non-Collegiate Students, 26; Oriel, 117; Pembroke, 39; Queen's, 67; St. Edmund's Hall, 17 ; St. John's, 102; Trinity, 120; University, 114; Wadham, 61; Worcester, 48; or a grand aggregate of 1,825, of whom no fewer than 51 are members of the College staffs. - The list is corrected up to November 21st, and, unhappily, the number of those killed in action has been increased since its compilation. We are probably inside the mark when we say that upwards of sixty per cent. of the Oxford undergraduates have answered their country's call— not a third of the normal number are now in residence, and they are nearly all drilling—and we have no doubt that the same is true of Cambridge. And yet a correspondent of the Westininster Gazette had the assurance to state last week that the " upper classes " were not doing their duty in the present crisis. As a matter of fact, the percentage who have volunteered from what may be called the public-school class is far higher than that in any other. We do not for a. moment deny that their ultimate prospects—if they survive-- are less precarious than those of working men who volunteer for active service. None the less, it is a fact that many of them cheerfully sacrifice their careers, and, in view of the figures given above, to impugn their patriotism is a libel as well as a lie,