31 AUGUST 1956, Page 6

I AM INDEBTED to the Hull Daily Mail for recalling

in con- nection with the Shaw centenary that, in a Spectator com- petition twenty-six years ago, GBS was chosen as the man with the best brain in Great Britain. The competition was to select the five best brains; and the results in retrospect look odd indeed. Shaw gained 214 votes; Sir Oliver Lodge, 183; Lord Birkenhead, 162; Winston Cludrchill, 95; Dean Inge, 91; H. G. Wells, 86; Lord Melchett, 62; Lloyd George, 50; Philip Snowden, 48; Sir John Simon, 45; Sir Josiah Stamp, 39; Lord Reading, 35; the Archbishop of York (William Temple), 32; Sir J. J. Thomson, 28; J. B. S. Haldane, 23; Julian Huxley, 20; Sir J. Jeans, 20; G. K. Chesterton, 17; Sir J. M. Barrie, 15; Sir Arthur Keith, 14; Stanley Baldwin, 13; Gilbert Murray, 13; Sir R. McKenna, 12; Sir Ernest Rutherford, 12; John Galsworthy, 10; John Masefield, 10; Bertrand Russell, 10. 'A reappraisal,' the Hull Daily Mail cautiously suggests, 'would show some alterations.' I am sure it would ! But where would public favour now lie? I have pre-empted space on our com- petition page this week in the hope of finding out who are considered the best brains among Britons living today.