CORRESPONDENCE
A LETTER FROM OXFORD [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sia,—Oxford has suffered a great loss in the deaths of Professor Sir Paul Vinogradoff and Professor Francis Edgeworth. Apart from their work both will long be remembered here, for they played a great part in University life, and Sir Paul Vinogradoff's presence and Professor Edgeworth's inimitable alter-dinner speeches were unforgetable for those who had the privilege to experience them.
Meanwhile the O.U.U.S. has given a performance of Henry IV., Part II., and for a week the pit of the New Theatre rang with quotations from Croce. As usual, very few could be found who were in agreement over the acting, but all were unanimous in their praise of the production (which was in the hands of Mr. Bridges Adams) and of the fine rendering of Doll Tearsheet by Miss Olga Lindo. It was unfortunate that the audience was so deep in discussion between the acts, for their arguments drowned some very competent incidental music composed for the occasion, but the keenness displayed on both sides of the footlights was quite surprising, and on the whole the O.U.D.S. is to be congratulated on a very creditable performance. Indeed it would seem that the drama at Oxford is beginning to come out of its long winter sleep, for an Oxford Arts Theatre Guild has been formed which hopes "to gain more support for the present repertory organization known as the ' Oxford Players,' " and further " to impress on public opinion in Oxford and beyond the necessity for an Arts Theatre, a permanent building completely equipped for the performance of music, opera and drama." The obvious advantages of this both for undergraduates and permanent residents need not be stressed, and if the Guild succeeded in building a theatre, no praise would be too high for it ; but in the meantime its importance lies in the much needed encouragement and support it gives Mr. Fagan, who 'has not in the past received the sup- port his pioneer work at the Playhouse deserves. 'However the audiences every night appear gradually to be getting larger, though they are largely composed of North Oxford parents educating their daughters, for the undergraduate will not readily desert his cinema.
Excitement has been provided by a visit from the Labour leader, Mr. Cook, who first told Oxford through a daily paper that he had read in an undergraduate magazine that his underlinen was dyed purple, and warned the proprietors that he was not going to tolerate such statements. His meeting, however, passed off quite quietly, as did one which presented Mr. Saklatvala to the American Club. Then there was the Union and the action of the Vice-Chancellor over the behaviour of two Communist undergraduates. Enough perhaps has been said about this in the London Press ; though it does not seem generally to be understood that there is no Society or public body in Oxford in the least representative of the University as a whole and that the Union in particular is only a private debating society. The whole affair raised little if any interest in the University, where the proctors carried on their duties as usual, and the ordinary undergraduate, though grateful for something to talk about for three days, was already becoming preoccupied with the Torpid races.
The result of the Torpids is that University are now head of the river with Merton behind them. Christ Church who started head are now fifth, having been bumped night after night.— I am, Sir, &c.,
YOUR OXTORD CORRESPONDENT.
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