A BRITISH SCHOOL IN CONSTANTINOPLE. rTo THE EDITOR OP THE
"SPECTATOR.']
SIR,—It is not many days since an appeal was made in the columns of the Times by the British Ambassador at Con- stantinople for funds to assist the building of a British commercial school in that place. Amidst the conflicting views regarding the comparative values of one commercial system or another there is, at any rate, general agreement respecting the urgent importance of extending, wherever possible, the facilities available for the commercial training and education of British subjects abroad, and the opportunity now occurs for those who are anxious to see an improvement in our foreign trade to aid the efforts which are being made to provide such a training for the children of British residents in Turkey. No one who has not bad personal experience of the cosmo- politan atmosphere of Constantinople, the Levant, and, indeed, of the Middle East, can fully appreciate the importance and necessity of such an institution, nor can he adequately realise the educational difficulties that confront British subjects of narrow means in Turkey. What prospect, for instance, has an English clerk or small merchant in Turkey to provide an English education for his son ? Unable as many of them are to send their sons at an early age to school in England, they have no option at present but to get their education either in German, French, or Greek schools, where the children hear little of their own language, learn nothing of British history or its associations, and gradually lose their national instincts, and even habit of language.
One of the most important conditions of British trade and commerce in the East is that the British trade communities resident there should be active, robust, intelligent, and patriotic. The secret of the success of the Levant and East India Companies in days gone by lay largely in the character of the men who did their business, and the same qualities which are needed to-day for British interests in Turkey and Western Asia are not to be obtained by denationalising English children at an early age, but rather by bringing them up as far as possible in a British atmosphere by implanting with their education a knowledge and admiration of the past history and present aims of the country to which they properly beloag. It is to fill this need, and to make the British school in Constantinople one which will attract the beet elements, both amongst Turkish and British families, that the appeal is issued. Germany and France are great trade rivals in the Middle East, to say nothing of America ; each has her schools and educational propaganda; only England, who, though hotly pressed, is still leading in the struggle for Eastern markets, makes practically no provision for the proper education of her colonists. By the generosity of his Majesty the Sultan and the Ottoman Government a site has been obtained for the school, and £10,000 is immediately needed for the construction of the building ; £3,000 has already been raised in Con- stantinople itself, and the remainder must be collected in England. It is especially hoped that all traders and merchants in Manchester and elsewhere who have so large an interest in these markets will recognise the importance of the plea, and afford their generous support.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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