SPECTATOR COMPETITION No. 15

Report by Peter . Fleming The Order of Merit is bestowed on British citizens by the King for " especial distinction in any field." There are at present two vacancies in the Order, whose numbers are limited to twenty-four. Competitors are invited to nominate their candidate for one of these vacancies. A prize of £5 was offered for the best entry explain- ing, in not more than 200 words, the grounds on which the candidate was considered to deserve this honour.

This was not an easy competition to judge. After weeding out a few frivolous entries (including one from Mr. Robert Hartman, who kindly but implausibly recommended me), I was left with the following candidates for the Order of Merit: Mr. Ernest Bevin, Mr. Walter de la Mare and Mr. Hilaire Belloc, each of whom had two supporters ; and—with one proponent each—Sir Adrian Boult, Mr. Bruce Smith (a keeper at the Zoo, whose devotion to his duties has " culminated in the survival of Brumas "), Mr. Arthur Bryant, Sir Charles Cochran, Sir Han ab Owen Edwards (the founder of the Welsh League of Youth), Mr. Epstein, Sir Alexander Fleming, Captain C. B. Fry, Mr. John Gielgud, Sir Henry Holland (the eye specialist), Dean Inge, Lord Mountbatten, Pandit Nehru, Sir Laurence Olivier, Mr. Carol Reed, Mr. Bernard Shaw, Mr. Arnold Toynbee, Miss Ninette de Valois, Lord Wavell and Lord Woolton.

Most of these distinguished people probably have, in fact, some claim to be considered as possible candidates ; but competitors were to be judged not by the supposed suitability of their nominees, but by their explanation of the grounds on which they nominated them. The best way, for instance, to state the claims of Sir Alexander Fleming to the Order of Merit and thereby advance your own claims to a prize in this competition is not to write brusquely (as his pro- ponent did), " The world of today and of tomorrow would be shocked if the discoverer of penicillin were excluded from this honour," and leave it at that. Another entry, which concluded, " He is a. self-effacing craftsman who deserves well of his country," sug- gested a certain lack of lustre in its subject ; though this, to be fair, was an uncommon failing in the general atmosphere of panegyric. What I hoped to find were entries which were neither fulsome nor analytical, but which " made a case " for their candidate without pretentiousness or over-emphasis. Miss Marion Wright, who cham- pioned Bernard Shaw, came near to doing this, and so did the Rev. W. H. Hamilton, who—with Miss E. B. C. Jones—supported de la Mare. But I thought that easily the best entry was that of Sir Alan. Herbert in -support of Sir Charles Cochran. He gets a first prize of £4. A second prize of £1 is awarded to D. I. Beaumanoir- Hart, largely for hitting off, in the phrase " a knightly and chivalric quality," something of the essence of Belloc.

SIR CHARLES COCHRAN PROPOSED BY A. P. HERBERT When the great Order of Merit sit down together they can call for a report from famous men in almost every corner of public life. But they have no grand old man of the theatre among them. So I propose with confidence Charles Blake Cochran. This brave, wise, modest man is 77. For 59 years he ,has been working to make the playhouse a place of pride and beauty. He is still at it. Few members of the Order are so well known to the world. None, perhaps, except Mr. Churchill, has made so many happy. None has brought so many new delights into our island or nursed so many of our own young people to fame. What a fine mixed feast he has provided—Ibsen and Coward, Shakespeare, Shaw, Ballet and Boxing, Carpentier and the Circus, Robey and Revue, Bernhardt and Duse, Barrie and Pinindello, Maeterlinck, Offenbach, Reinhardt and Hackenschmidt, " Jessie" and " June."

"Nothing was done because it was ` the thing ': Nothing was done in avarice or haste.

Beauty was Queen, Efficiency was King, And over all there ruled the god of Taste."

The world, but not Sir Charles, I fear, is richer for the Cochran Show.

HILAIRE BELLOC

PROPOSED BY D. 1. BEAUMANOIR-HART

The Order of Merit is to the twentieth century what the Golden Fleece was to the sixteenth—the most exclusive royal Order in Europe. For that reason the number of candidates of high distinction must necessarily always outstrip the rare vacancies which occur.

Forty-five years ago, three famous men were making a unique contri- bution to the culture of the age in which they lived. They were Gilbert Keith Chesterton, Maurice Baring and Hilaire Belloc. Of that gifted band only one survives. In his gorgeous prime he was a lyric poet of grace, wit and felicity: no anthology- is complete without " The South Country." He was a master of nervous, masculine descriptive prose ; in The Path to Rome he wrote a masterpiece of the literature of travel. His, satiric and epigrammatic verse is brilliant. He was, moreover, artist, historian, novelist and, for a time, a Member of Parliament. He shared with " G. K. C." and Maurice Baring a knightly and chivalric quality which died with them.

In the evening of a day which these three illumined by their genius, may we not acclaim the choice of Mr. Hilaire Belloc to be the latest member of the Order of Merit ?

Mr. R. Kennard Davis was not really doing what I meant com- petitors to do in advancing the claims of the Ordinary Man ; but he did it so charmingly that he must be rescued, in part at least, from the waste-paper basket and printed as a representative of the Also Rans.

THE ORDINARY MAN PROPOSED BY R. KENNARD DAVIS Dear Sir, I feel that, nowadays,

When levelling is all the craze,

'Twould be a democratic plan To make an Ordinary Man The next 0.M....

The sort that trod, in years of strife, The path of ordinary life, Serving, perhaps, as Air-Raid Warden, And then retired, to till his garden ; Who pays his taxes, with a grouse, And does his chores about the house; Who keeps the law—such laws except As seem too foolish to be kept!

Who drinks, to help the revenue, His daily pint of beer, or two, And smokes, our welfare to abet, His patriotic cigarette ; A man of inconspicuous worth, And yet (no doubt!) the salt of earth ;

A man, in short, like you or me— Or not like you ? Well—possibly!