GOVERNMENT BY OLD ETONIANS
SIR,—May I suggest that carping criticism of Etonian achievement, as displayed by Mr. Hollis and Capt. Kerby, is entirely misguided?
As a retired schoolmaster I can discover nothing sinister or conspiratorial about Etonian supremacy anywhere, and simply because of the plain fact that English public schooling is the best schooling in the world and also that Eton happens to be our best public school. Naturally, also, the school makes the most of the usually excellent material at its disposal.
Such Etonians as I have known invariably impressed me by their supreme confidence and extremely good manners, qualities which I would suggest to Capt. Kerby as likely to impress political selection committees and electorates alike.
Indeed, it seems to me that disgruntled politicians and journalists in all political parties could be much more sensibly and profitably occupied in attempting to raise the comparatively low level of effectiveness in our State schools, rather than by incessantly gibing at 'the old school tie' and especially considering that, the latest bureaucratic Socialist device of 'comprehen- sive' herding of working-class children in enormous brand-new edifices, is likely to achieve little beyond the stabilisation of the automatic Labour vote.—
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