The Olympic Games and the Duke of Westminster's Appeal

THE OLYMPIC GAMES. 21 never have gone in for t he Olympic Gnmes at all, he Go.mes of Ancient Greece in support of these modem might find many to agree with him. But, things imitations. The old Olympic Go.mes ha.d their being a.s t hey are, I would ask him to consider the very grave drawbacks and ultimately fell into a. courses open to us. One is to retil'e in the face of well-earned distL~e : b ut a.t any rate they had grown defeat and to leo.,·e the Colonies to put the Union up sponto.:ieously and were intertwined with the Jo.ck at t he top when they can. As o. good sports· whole life of the Hellenic world. It is difficult man I am sure l\Ir. Frederic Harrison could not to see any Yitai connexion of these modern cosmo- tolero.te that. A second is to continue with ow· politan meetings with the real life of modern nations, present haphazard half-hearted methods, and to see oxcept in so for as they are a. branch of the a.rt ourselves sink lower and lower from that third place of ad,·ertisement. They were started, if I remember which we now occupy. Surely that would not rightly, merely to advertise that ambit ious people satisfy Mr. Harrison. Thero only remains one other which many of us, for sentimental reasons, have course of action, and t hat is to do the thing thoroughly lately rejoiced to see winn.ing a more durable reputa- o.nd well, to find out what talent we have, and to tion on the sterner fields of war o.nd sta.tesman- b ring it to t he scratch in the best possible condition. ship. If Mr. Harrison will look a.t the names of those who "(2) Ho.,·o these semi-professional modern athletic have t he matter in hand he w~ll! I am sure, admit t hat go.mes and contests anything to do with the 'prestig,:i' t hey a.re very capable of d~v1smg !neo.ns .to tlus end, in sport of which we h1w _een....so- proud- ? Surely and that such mono as _!i!...J:.eq.u.1..i:c l~e- sp~nt-~ 0 urcl:is mct1on ay in this-that Englishmen in their - l-------..w-,,1sely an m a manne~ wluch '':111 be consistent with leisw·e devoted t hemselves con amore to field sports t he best am~teur tro.d1t10ns of tlus C<?untry. What our of all kinds, and in doing so developed certain quali- rep~esento.t1ves could do when uno.ided by adequate ties of pluck, resource, self-control, good fellow- 1;at1ona.l support _was shown last yc:ir at Stock~1olm. ship, o.:1d what not, and went a.bout the world as Surely l\Ir. Ha~r1son would not. Wish to see it re- -with all t heir fo.u.lts-conspicuously hea.lthy- peated at Berli~. Can he den se any_ method. to bodied and healthy-minded men. But what has pre~ent such o. IJ?-Isfortu~e sa~•e systematic and pams- this to do wit h these Olympic Games or with cup takmg prepo.ro.t-ion, which m t he end must mean ties, or even with county cricket ? J ournalists money ? " may pay lip-service to the old ideas of sport by OJlJECTIONS FROill THE HEADMASTER commenting so.rcastico.lly on t he cigarette-smoking OF SHERBOfu'i'E. crowds at the Crystal Palace ; but the whole weight of their profession- almost the only one t hat counts On the other hand, Mr. Nowell Smith, the H ead- nowadays-is thrown in fo·,our of the system which master of Sherborne, wrote to The Times (August they deplore. Why ? Because under their daily 27) in something the same strain as l\fr. Harrison. ministrations sport has become no longer the per- He said:- sonal recreation of the male population, but : '.h,7 vicarious efforts of a small and almost entirely " I feel sure, and my feeling is confirmed by casual - directly or indirectly-professional class. It is conversations with different men, that this ' humble ridiculous, as Punch has found no difficulty in illus- remonstra.nce.' which I venture to entrust to your trating, to pretend that heavily-financed efforts invariable readiness to give both sides a hearing, t o win more events than Germany or America are will voice the sentiments of many of that class of going to foster sport throughout the population. Britons whose love o.nd cultivation of outdoor sports Every one knows that o. very few carefully selected have for many yea.re formed a prominent feature a:id trained athletes will " recover our prestige " in any picture of the British national character. or not (as the case may be) whether the ordinary " Some of the men I have spoken to have been British boy or man plays games or not. The only old Blues ; others, like myself, without having question is, how long the ordinary British boy attained to any athletic distinction or devoted an<;! man will think it worth while t o pa.y. The more than moderate time and attention to sport, nr~ which /we lost at Stockholm is after all have nevertheless hu.bituo.lly ta~cen pa.rt in al,l ~ectly, I ,grflt you, but none the less really sorts of outdoor amusement with thorou$h enjoy~ --a · question of money; and when it h!l.9 gone ment and passable proficiency We are Just ordi;' 'for good, along with our Old Masters, to the land =Y, though I fear rather old-fashioned·, Britons; of the almightY. dollar, perhaps we shall begin to and .ve think these modem pseudo-01Ymf)ic Games value ,again, o.nd recover, our prestige as a ' nation _ __.______~ar.e ' ot ' nd- the- newspaper-a.~,e~em:en .of~ f,;PP.Qry8.~13iff .. ~hem and tl?,~ £100,000 f':1Jld for buymg v1ctor1ea._· .· ·\;.•i:CIH ·~~. ~?e~o.ster I am not a little bewild~red m them pos1t1vely degrading. We shall no d.oubt. · ·'"'·\>Y.' ·~ .-t '\1,o ·:;v.~l!!J·•of·..the Press on the subJect be brushed asi~e as old !ogeys; and ~old that we · "·of •11tJi!etiii~·- }P~&.''iL'y,ear at least my colleagues must :movl? Wlth the t1IDe~ ; · a~d smce .11_\tterly . ."11.d:t·~Ft'·:-se~~ ~ {ectur~ for the undue at hleticism 7:he Time., i~elf, ~o our gr_owmg _di~ay, has shown . :pf .,~,~J?.ubp9,.'llli},~<,W::,.: Lika. all other heo.dmasters ~ugns of movmg ~~h the t1IDes too, 1~.stead of len_d~,·_. ·•.~ ~.l'J?:t:.~ qu,(Wl~n9~; .t.,aw pilly aware of the dangers mg them or res1Stmg ~hem as occas1on demand~,! ·~·'!li\undl,16,~~thle~101sm ,' and-.:attempt, ns far as in me we shall soon hove little hope of support. Ana .,,;·.Ji(i!i; .to see,thtit·a,.due m~'n 'is at.ruck between athle– yo~is there not something ·in our .P~int ~f vie:w .T ~;,/~~i<i:'·a.t¥f ot\'ier';.PU!s'l~i:~s: : ,Like them nlso, I kn_ow There ~me. to. me so .m:uch that 1t 1s .diffiqu:Jt .toi,.:- ; 9'nly·~O? ~ell~tli~t it : lll.,tl~e.c~eap supply o.f ' sporting exprellll it Within the limits of ~ lette~; but l i,or&, _.-\:,,:mtelµgence·': whicll. 1s .the real.enemy of mtellectuo.l at any rate are two or three conB1de~nt10~: '·'. · . _.-'..:~\::P~~El\!8 '}rr public .licJ;lools far.. more than excessive "(1) Is it not undignified to remmd :us from day!._::,~. tiqie' Of energy.·allotted.. to.:gBl'.Jles. But the yearly to .day that £100,000 a.re wanted to ·~reco.ver: ;:-,. ·1¥.tqre '-<iO!Des· You ! yourl!(llf, administer it from the prestige which we ~ost at . Stockhe¥. ,'. ?·. I~:·:_~A,~..:~t~t~e, t;hough hit~erto·'·p,o~ without a saving is admitted that the public~ lutherto ~own.m:4!6t'.· . ,,:r1i(eqw,.~e,_t~; -~n,f aana in. corpore san(?, . And yet 'apathy' a!>out these Olympic. Games. ·Is _it·~!).•:·.· · h,!?~.. -~~~:,yo~:,.:~!).d : how,- mucfl· more . the others! pollllible that for once the public has t.aken.. a ..~ /. . -ev~n·. Y,,ou 1, . Sir, OOJ~e.1,us. to iiubscr1be £100,000 JJl8a8Ure of their value 1 . I do not suppose ~t,eyeni. . to .wm }>:~1' .0~1athle~9 p~,ist1ge,and talk as seriously the young or elderly lions of the sporting Ptesll..,. : of these ;atlilet~o ~ont4lsts ·as ·of the contest for the will have the hardihood to appeal to the real Ql;y.mpi~ '\ ·supremaey '<?frt\i,e.~ -or of the a.ir ! I see that some . ' . ~:·: ~ .. . -': _;: . •.