* * * I am a good deal interested in
the judgement given by Mr. Justice Finlay last Friday in the appeal of the Boner Law College at Ashridgc for income-tax remission on the ground that the college is a .charitable and educa, tional institution. It was admitted that lectures were given on Conservative Party organization, but not on Liberal or Socialist organization, and that vacation courses were arranged exclusively for Conservative M.P.s and their wives. The case for the Crown was that, in so far as the trust was educational, the purpose of the education was the advancement of the fortunes of the Conservative Party, and that this could not he considered a charitable object. With that contention Lord Finlay, who, it is interesting to recall, is the son of a Conservative Lord Chancellor, broadly concurred, declining to accept the view that this was a trust for education generally, the duty of carrying out the educa- tion being entrusted to a particular party. If that were so, he hinted, the " charitable purpose " plea might be sustained, but the fact that (as he held) the trust was really for the benefit of the Conservative Party made all the difference. It is a singularly nice point, but while the trustees might conceivably find it possible so to vary their curriculum as to meet tax-remission require- ments they could hardly vary the trust.
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