EXPANSIVENESS IN " WHO'S WHO "
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—My attention has been called to the references in your issues of December 3oth and January 6th by your contributor " Janus " to myself. He indulges in highly offensive remarks and innuendoes because the space occupied in Who's Who by details of ..my life is greater than that of another head- master he mentions. He tells a scandalised world that the space I occupy is 91 inches.
On this broad basis he makes a foolish jibe at the school of which I am warden and refers to me with an unusual lack of courtesy.
I enter this remarkable atmosphere with reluctance, but I must ask leave to state certain relevant facts.
When I was elected to the House of Commons in 1910 the editors of Who's Who wrote to me to ask permission to include my name in their publication. They sent me a. form stating the range of facts they wished me to supply and they particu- larly asked me for a list of my published works. They suggested that this list should include those not yet published but for which arrangements had been made.
I complied with this courteous request in the spirit in which it was made, and sent the information asked for. Each subsequent August the editors have written to me asking me to bring the details up to date, and I have generally responded. Who's Who has therefore taken nearly twenty-nine years lo extract from me (for nothing has been offered unasked) the staggering total of 94 inches which has so upset your con- tributor. This total does not seem to me to show any special gift of loquacity when my own achievements are the subject of examination. It means that in the main I have sent each year the titles of two or three books newly issued.
I think it will surprise your readers, in view of " Janus's " jibe at the school with which I am connected, to know that beyond recording the date of its foundation (in three words) I have never referred to it. Having stated the facts, I must leave his charge of tiresome self-advertisement to the judge- ment of your readers.
I should, however, like to hear the views of the Editor I have now the pleasure of addressing on what I must describe as a gratuitous and unfounded insult.—Yours faithfully,
Bembridge School, Isle of Wight. J. HOWARD WurrsiousE.
[" Janus " writes : I have no doubt Mr. Whitehouse is right. I would only observe that 21 inches in Who's Who is sufficient for the Prime Minister, 11 for the Editor of The Times, 21 for the Archbishop of Canterbury. Mr. Churchill, who, like Mr. Whitehouse, has done and wr;tten a few little things, is content with 5.
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