7 MAY 1948, Page 5

From time to time publications of the ridiculous body (1

choose a milder adjective than I might) styling itself "The Western Orthodox University" find their way to my desk. What appears to be its latest prospectus has just arrived. Its academic importance can be sufficiently assessed by reference to the opening paragraph of the prospectus :

"The foundation of the We: tern Orthodox University rests upon an authority granted on August 1st, 1945, by His Beatitude, The Most Rev. Mar Georgius, Patriarch of Glastonbury and catholicus of the West, in exercise of the plenary authority vested in him by the Constitutions and Canon Law of the Western Orthodox Catholic Church."

The Registrar is a gentleman, the Rev. S. E. P. Needham, who held a

similar position in the notorious and still-born Sulgrave University. One of his functions is the collection of fees from persons foolish enough to enrol themselves as aspirants for one or other of the so-called university's worthless degrees, conferring the right to assume the elaborate academic dress with which " graduates " are encouraged to adorn themselves. * * * *