"Not So!"

Last week, the American Club of Oxford University held a meeting, its first since last spring. It turned out to be a long meeting. When the minutes were read, the members were surprised to hear embodied in them certain sentiments toward England expressed last May by the Club's president, W. C. Greene, at a dinner attended by some 400 Rhodes Scholars and a scattering of British notables--Viscount Grey, Viscount Milner, Rudyard Kipling. It seemed that Greene had given the impression that, to all Americans attending it, Oxford was a disappointment; that all were eager to be home again; that the Fabian Society (Socialist) was the British ideal most acceptable to Americans; that Ramsay MacDonald was to Americans the ideal British statesman. A heavyset, earnest young man arose, addressed the chair. Soft-voiced, but serious, this was one Edward Egan, Yale Rhodes Scholar at New College, incidentally the amateur heavyweight boxing champion of all Britain. Egan begged to inform the chair and its occupant that the sentiments thus expressed were not shared by other Americans at Oxford and must not be allowed to stand, as they then unfortunately did, as representative. Other frowning members backed up Egan's objection. Mr. Greene explained that it had not been his intention to speak before the Rhodes Scholars for all the Americans at Oxford. The Club thereupon reflected Greene as its president, but voted not to accept the minutes as read, that Oxford and England might know a decided error was abroad.