THE OXFORD CONGRESS [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I
venture to believe that readers of the Spectator will be interested to hear something about that extraordinarily interesting and important development of recent years, the National Union of Students; which has just concluded its annual Congress at Oxford. As a member of the older genera- tion who was privileged to take part in the proceedings, I believe it would be difficult to overrate the significance of the movement, which was originated by the Confederation Inter- nationale des Etudiants, and represents nearly all the English and Welsh Universities. Apart from the perfectly charming personality, individual and corporate, of the students of to-day, and their excellent appearance there were three features of the Congress which offer a particularly happy augury for the future.
The first is the international amity which prevailed. There were guests from Latvia, Hungary, Japan, Estonia, Fascisti from Italy, a Bolshevik from Russia, a Pole of whom inter- national statesmanship should hear again, wild Irishmen and wilder Welshmen, Frenchmen, Germans and many others. To have heard these students discussing day by day, with perfect good temper, conflicting policies which touch their national sentiments most deeply is to feel a real hope that the coming generation will be characterized by mutual under- -standing and sympathy between • the most incompatible nations. Secondly, underlying the superficial cynicism of the modern adolescent a deeper religious earnestness was to be remarked. The official keynote of the Congress----" quo Vadis ? "betokened at least a sense of responsibility. The Roman Catholic students enjoyed a kind of foretaste of their forthcoming" Pax Romana " congress. Prof. Barry's sermon at the Congress Service provoked a demand (Which was granted) for a meeting at which the sermon might be discussed.
Lastly, the National Union of Students has opened its .doors to the University- of London Animal Welfare Society, which seekato educate public opinion by presenting the facts about animal suffering to University students, the leaders of the coining generation. This body was recently -formed,. and its example seems likely to be followed in other British and foreign Universities. Its principal transaction at the Congress comprised a meeting at which Mr. John Galsworthy _pleaded, as only he can plead, for ,the suffering creatures_ he loves so well. May I ask your animal-loving readers to picture the Union Society Debating Hall at Oxford, filled with picked students from the Universities of many lands, us the chair a Polish student, lately President of the Confederation Inter-
nationale des Etudiants ; at the table Mr. Galsworthy, de,mand- ing, amid frequent applause, an end to the cruelty which is paradoxically practised by our not unkindly species. "Ladies, delightful and humane ladies, good mothers, wives, buy their furs as a matter of course. . . . The idea of cruelty never comes into the mind of ladies who buy furs. But take the average lady and shut her up in a room with a trapped beast, maimed or otherwise, for the average space of time that beasts stay trapped before being despatched . . ." Would she ever wear furs again ? At any rate, it is good to see the interest the younger generation take in such questions as this. These young men and women have the power to mould opinion and it looks as if they are going to do so.—I am,
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