The Olympic Games and the Duke of Westminster's Appeal

12 THE OLYMPIC GAJJfES. opposition to the Ga.mes in an address to the boys at Highgate School :- Ho said they were pa ing t hrough a period of pessimism ~1 regard. to ~heir n~i.tio_m1l thews and sinews. He did not t lunk 1t was 3ust1ficd. It happened t hat · in the Olympic Games at Stockholm our track athletes had not done so well as those who ,vero trained on a peculiar system by another country. To do t horoughly woll in t hoso conditions they would have to make profoss1ono.l slavos of the boys or men who took part. Ho did not think so great an orgie of athletics, even a lt hough it only took place once in fmu· yoars, was really a good thing. . The simple and natural proceedings of thou· home sports among one another were far bottor. A few years a"O thore was tall, about " flannolled fools at the ,ricket and muddied oafs at tho g0t1l~." Now they were taunted with not being flannelled ,mough and not sufficiently muddied. Let t hem observe moderation in these things. He had been an observer of the youth of the country for many years and he was confident that th_ey had m~n still able to sustain the honour of tlus country m any sport so long as it was pursued, not on a pro· fessional basis, but. on the purely amateur system in which they all delighted. Subsequently, in an interview (published. in The Observer on August 4, 1912), Mr. Lehmann said :- · • "If England is to coutinue as a competitor in these Games, and I most sincerely hope she will not, t hen it is obvious that something must be done to put us on a plane of equality with the other nations. I understand it is proposed that a considerable sum of money should be expended during the next four years, in preparing athletes for the Games at Berlin. The methods of other nations, most notably America, are to be copied. Professional trainers are t o be em– ployed. Specia.lization will be rife, and sport will become a. yrofession. Mind, I do not say the com– petitor wil become a. professional, but he will make what hitherto wo.s a game so important that it will become a profession. " .The scheme that is being put before the public means specia.liza.tion, and I cannot l1elp saying that, in my opinion, sport would be ruined. The old idea of • games for games' ' sake would go altogether. And such training and team development could, I think, only result in • track tactics,' by which I mean the prevention of some one else winning when you ---------oannot--win-yolll'lleli,-eo-aa--to-allow- another-of- your own countrymen to win." The expreesion of his views by Mr. Lehmann called forth the following letter from Mr. Hugh Legge in TIM Timu of August 10 :- " I venture to assert that there is a large number of folk who would be heartily glad if we avoided the Olympia Games altogether, in the interests of amateur ~Many of the reasons for holding this view were admirably eet forth by Mr. R. C. Lehmann in a speech to the boys at Highgate School reported in The Timu. Apart from t.he questionable expedient of a aeneral pubµo subeoript1on to enable amateurs to inclulge freely in their favourite pl¥ltimes and the qumtionable methods which exyerience shows are oertain to be adopted on occasion ma. series of contests lib the Olympic, it ia Burely not g9()d tha.t the spirited oompetitiona between friendB and neighbours at home llhowd be nprded • teolmioal echoola for the pro– duction of llp8Cialiata who are to meet BpeCialistB o.broo.d, or shoLtld bo complicatod 1,y tho introduction of stro.nge pustimos, wh ich elongo.to tho programme without widening tho public interest in sport for its own so.kc. · " Imagine t ho \ucklc ·s ' Blues qommitteo ' o.t Oxford and Co.mbr1dge next terrn b_omg . confron~cd with the demand that di ·cus a nd 3avelm throwrng shall be included in tho an.nual match at Queen's 'lub, and a ' B luo ' conceded therofor ! (Tho latter amusomont, by the way, is forbidden by the un.iver– vorsitv statute· o.t Oxford, unless the proctor. can bo porsundocl that it i identical wit h carry ing a bow ,,nd arrows for fun. Titulus XV. § 10. ' Sto.tutwn ost quocl nu ll u · ncndomicus, m!t a li us intro. U:ni– versitatis ambitum, sive offens1va, s1vo defens1va 0,rma vel tola de dio vol de nocte gestot, oxceptis qui honostm rocrontions causa arcus cum sagit tis portavorint.') "Thoro aro, Sir, many who do not co.ro two straws who wins at tho Olympic Games, but t hey aro deeply concerned for tho interests of amateur sport, and they aro by no means convinced that theso interests will bo served if the proposals which are n ow being sot forth aro carried out. Perhaps this part ly accounts for ' t he great difficulty of public apathy ' a lluded to by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle." SUPPORT FOR REORGANIZATION . The great weight of sentiment was, h owever, obviously in favou r of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's proposals. Some of the principal letters p ublished in The Times may be quoted. On August 14 Mr . G. R. L. Anderson wrote :- " It is perhaps a little unfortunate that Mr. Legge' suggestion that Great Britain should withdraw / :or;, the Olympic Games was not made a monUt before instead of a month after this year's competi– tions at Stockholm. We might then have stepped gracefully aside to contemplate the younger nations striving in the arena which we had once adorned, and cried ' Bless you, my children.' ,, But now it is too late to stand upon our dignity and declare we are too grand t o play. It is too late to say tha.t we are old-fashioned, respectable people, who cannot b e expected to compete with foreigners in these questionable sports. We have competed ; and if we announce to the world in Mr. Legge's words that in the interests of amateur sport wo mean to avoid the Olympic Games in the future, we shall convince nobody, least of all ourselves. Nor is it fair to all concerned to explain that we dare not risk our athletes being contaminated by the doubtful -etlrods-cll"rtainto-be-a;c10-ptea-at-the Olympic Games, and that we do not wish our homely lit tle sports to be convorted into schools for the production of specie.lists, without first consulting the athletes them– selves. And any one of those who competed at Stockholmwill gladly admit that the average American or Swede is every whit as good a. sportsman as the average Englishman, while the attempts made by many English newspapers t o ascribe our failures t<i the unfair tactics of foreign competitors did not ma.ke defeat any the sweeter. He will go on to say tha.t we were beaten because athletes in Great Britain have not studied the technique of their sport in the thoroughgoing manner which ho.s been so successful in American athletics, and, I may ado, in English rowing, in the science of which there is no greater expert tha.n Mr. Legge himself. ••Whether or not we organize our athletics before the next Olympia.d, it is inevitable that British competitors will travel to Berlin in 1916 ; they cannot be expected to stay a.t home in deference to views with which they may not agree, or to be