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The Debating Society
from Feb 1947
by StPetersYork
Ambassador on Special Mission—Viscount Templewood. Plastic Moulding—D. A. Dearle. Games and Sports in the Army, 1-946/47. Early Victorian England, 2 vols.—Edited by G. M. Young. Britain's Structure and Scenery—Dudley Stamp. Lord's—Sir Pelham Warner.
Chairman : R. CALDER, Esq., M.A. Secretary : P. R. SYKES. Committee : J. DOOK. F. J. CHADWICK. J. H. AMOS. J. H. 0. PARKER. C. P. LASCELLES. R. T. W. MdDERMID. W. S. SAMUELS.
Four meetings of the Society were held this term. The first of these took .the form of a "Brains Trust" and proved to be enlightening and very amusing. The Trust consisted of the Rev. P. P. N. Fawcett, E. P. Piers, Esq., J. Dook, F. J. Chadwick, J. H. Amos and J. H. 0. Parker. P. R. Sykes acted as question master. From a vast selection of questions, twenty peculiarly fiendish ones were chosen and fired at the unsuspecting Brains Trust, who, however, dealt with all but two of them briskly and competently.
The second and third meetings of the Society took the usual form of a debate and produced some very interesting opinions and, occasionally, some rather heated arguments. For the first of these debates the motion before the house was "That Shakespeare's age was better than Bernard Shaw's." Proposing the motion, P. Jenkins considered the aesthetic aspect of the question rather than the practical point of view. He lamented the decline of the courtly manners of the Elizabethan era and bewailed the desecration of the countryside by the many factories that had sprung into being since Shakespeare's day. Jenkins was ably seconded by J. H. Amos. W. S. Samuels, opposing the motion, spent some time minutely dissecting the proposer's speech, and concluded by pointing out the obvious advantages of a mechanical age. R. Ham seconded the opposition. After several interesting speeches from the house the motion was carried by a majority of two.
The proposition for the second debate was "That International Sport is a menace to Peace and Security." As was to be expected, this produced some violent opposition from the house and also a good deal of level-headed support. Speaking for the motion were R. T. W. McDermid and P. Thomas, and against were R. L. Hutchinson and
