Employment of Children in Agriculture.-In Circular 1541 attention was drawn to the need of all possible help in meeting the seasonal demands of agriculture, and ways were suggested in which older pupils might render such help. It is understood that some difficulty has been felt by local education and school authorities in regard to the suggestion made in paragraph 3 that parties of pupils should be organized under proper supervision to visit local farms on certain days in term time, and the following observations, which have been discussed with the Ministry of Agriculture, may be of assistance :

(a) Supervision. The importance of adequate supervision has been emphasized by a recent case, which was the subject of legal proceedings. Supervision by the farmers is obviously necessary in order to ensure that the work of the pupils is carried out on the right lines and to the best advantage. While such supervision should also assist in keeping order among the pupils, it cannot in any sense relieve teachers and, incidentally, school authorities of the general responsibility which they have for supervising the safety and well-being of children at all times, while they are in their charge.

(b) Size of Parties. The size of organized parties must obviously depend on local demands and is a matter for arrangement with County War Agricultural Executive Committees and farmers. For many jobs on the farm parties can be reasonably large and the necessary supervision by teachers thereby simplified. Where the circumstances call for smaller parties it is important that a prefect or senior pupil should be placed in charge of each group.

(c) Payment. It is expected that payment by farmers should be made at a rate not less than that fixed by the Agricultural Wages Board for boys under and over 16 respectively. The Ministry of Agriculture have advised that such payments should be made to a representative of the school, not to the pupils themselves.

(d) Insurance. It is unlikely that questions under the Workmen's Compensation Acts will arise. As regards insurance against accidents the farmers' liability is generally covered, and schools are advised to see that they are covered by the ordinary policies covering accidents. A special type of policy has been agreed covering personal accidents to school-children, copies of which may be obtained from the County War Agricultural Committees. Premiums on policies of the latter type might no doubt be paid from the payments made by farmers for the services rendered by the pupils.

Headmaster of Warwick School to Pay £814.-A 14-years-old pupil of Warwick School lost an eye when he was accidentally hit with a clod of earth thrown by another boy. Negligence on the part of Mr. A. H. B. Bishop, Headmaster of Warwick School, was held to have been proved by Mr. Justice Cassels, in the Nisi Prius Court at Birmingham Assizes. The Judge awarded the lad-Robert Alexander Camkin, son of Mr. W. A. Camkin, of Leamington-£750 damages. The hearing of the case occupied the greater part of two days, during which time legal authorities on the matter of the liability of headmasters of schools were the subject of exhaustive research by the judge and by counsel both for the plaintiff and the defendant. A feature of the case was that Mr. Bishop was in the witness-box for nearly two and a half hours, one and a half hours of which time was taken up by cross-examination by Mr. Arthur Ward. In view of this judgment, headmasters are not likely to show much enthusiasm in organizing parties for field work. No reasonable amount of supervision can prevent accidents of this sort, and the question of liability in such circumstances needs further examination.

War Savings at Schools. Some of the outstanding efforts made by school war-saving groups were recently quoted by Mr. J. Chuter Ede, Parliamentary Secretary to

the Board of Education. Some two and a half million school children were now members of these groups. A junior school of 120 pupils started a group in February, 1940, and by the end of the year had saved £5,800. A boys' central school saved £60 in 1939. It saved more than ten times that amount in 1940. A girls' school which in 1939 saved £51, now took over £100 a week. Some astounding results had also been achieved in schools during War Weapons Weeks. An isolated school of forty-nine children in Cumberland saved £6,000 in the week, mainly by the perseverance of the headmaster who tramped miles through 2 ft. of snow, canvassing. In the same week another school of seventeen pupils saved £2,200. A small school in Pembrokeshire saved £4,005 in its War Weapons Week.

Schools of the Future.-Mr. Chuter Ede, addressing the Somerset County Teachers' Association at Taunton, said that after the war the country would have a great opportunity for the planning of future cities, towns and villages. The builders of the nineteenth-century England had regarded the monotonous, ugly agglomeration of drab streets as suitable homes for the industrial population, and schools often conformed to the general dismal standard of the neighbourhood. Intensive bombing, and the consideration of the appropriate location of industry, would compel rehousing on a more extensive scale than had been considered feasible two years ago. In the planning of postwar Britain we must not allow the siting of educational facilities to receive the scant consideration hitherto bestowed on it. Playing fields must adjoin the schools. There must be freedom from external noises such as those coming from shunting yards, arterial roads, and industrial processes. The new school should not be situated next to the cemetery, nor near sewage works, nor in the neighbourhood of trades having offensive smells. Mr. Ede said he knew of many cases where it was not necessary to consult the weather-vane to ascertain the direction of the wind. "I was taught and have taught in schools having a busy railway line on one or more sides," said Mr. Ede. "My experience makes me determined to prevent others from having it."

Schooling in London. Mr. Chuter Ede, speaking at the S.E. London Branch of the London Teachers' Association at Lewisham, said that 425,546 children had been evacuated from London under all the evacuation schemes. Many children had been evacuated privately and in recent weeks, for every child going with a party, three were going privately. There were 93,000 elementary school children now in London, nearly 84,000 of them were on the school rolls, of whom 2,300 were on half-time. 2,576 teachers were employed in the re-opened schools and 600 more were required for the efficient running of the schools now in use. The number of children receiving meals and milk had risen rapidly since Christmas. While recognizing the good work being done by the teachers in the London schools, Mr. Ede said that the Government had never altered the view that the proper place for London children in war-time was the reception area. Mr. Ede announced that a new scheme for providing clothing to evacuated children had the active support of 600 billeting authorities, 81 education authorities, numerous W.V.S. depots and other organizations. Welfare work in the reception areas had been continuously expanded and over 900 requests from local authorities for help in arranging welfare work had been met by London.

Cleanliness in Children.-The Ministry of Health and the Board of Education have asked public health and education authorities to review their organization for examining children for head lice, and to submit proposals for improving their arrangements. The circular sent by the two Ministries says that, since the complaints which were made at the time of the first evacuation of children in (Continued on page 208)

September, 1939, much has been done by local authorities to ensure greater cleanliness; but much still remains to be done, particularly in the industrial cities. While it is hoped that the steps now to be taken will bring about a substantial further improvement, the permanent eradication of head lice will only be achieved by education. Mothers should be told the dangers of lousiness, and simple ways of avoiding them. The older girls should be regularly and thoroughly instructed. Publicity in the matter, states the circular, should be frank, and the euphemism uncleanliness" when lousiness is meant should be abandoned in favour of plain speaking. Local authorities should make continuous and persistent use of their powers.

Machine Tool Equipment.-Neither new nor secondhand machine tools can now be purchased by local education authorities without the prior approval of the Controller of Machine Tools. Consequently, any proposal for new buildings should be accompanied by a detailed statement of the prospects of acquiring the second-hand machine tools which are required. One important source of supply is imported machine tools, a proportion of which is at the disposal of the Ministry of Labour for training purposes. In spite of certain disadvantages in using this source of supply, the Board have thought it worth while to make a provisional arrangement with the Ministry of Labour by which certain of the tools from overseas which appear from their specification to be acceptable to colleges would be set aside in a Government Training Centre and provisionally allocated to technical colleges which the Board knew were in need of them. Arrangements would then be made for the tools to be inspected by the college staff, who would decide whether they were suitable for their purpose. Removal from the Government Training Centre to the College would have to be arranged by the Authority. The cost of the tools would be communicated to the Authority by the Ministry as it was known. It will be open to an Authority, at the end of the war, to submit a claim for special payment in respect of a certified deficit. The Board would be glad to receive at the earliest possible date from any Authority which is prepared to accept the financial conditions, particulars of the number and types of machine tools which they require to complete the equipment of existing colleges in order to make their training courses fully efficient. Authorities which have machine tools on order from normal suppliers should include these with appropriate details in the statement of their requirements.

Board of Education Estimates.-The estimate of the net expenditure of the Board of Education in 1941 is £54,915,639, being an increase of £2,250,666 over the vote for 1940, including the Supplementary Vote of £120,400. Among the increases are grants to local education authorities, £1,821,000; pensions to teachers, £407,560. The latter is due to the automatic growth in the number of pensioners. School meals and air-raid shelters are partly responsible for the increase in grants to local education authorities. The provision included for grants to approved voluntary organizations to encourage the preservation and development of facilities for the social welfare and physical training and recreation of young people is £136,000 (as compared with £84,900 for 1940).

Evening Classes in the Summer.-The response of authorities to the Board's Circular 1526 relating to the provision of evening classes during the winter session 1940-41 has shown their determination to maintain this service so far as possible. Many persons wish to take advantage of recreational facilities, including physical activities of all kinds and hobby' work, while there will be some who wish to carry on their vocational studies and make good some of the time inevitably lost during the winter. Again, the War Office have advised the Board that they hope that, so far as conditions may permit, classes for soldiers

will continue to be provided. It is suggested, accordingly, in Administrative Memorandum No. 283, that the extent of the possible demand should be ascertained and that a sufficient number of Evening Institutes should be kept open to meet the various types of demand which may be found to exist. Those authorities who, during the winter, have been obliged to substitute week-end classes for evening classes will no doubt usually revert to evening classes while the longer hours of daylight make this possible.

Adult Education in Scotland.-The number of continuation classes and adult education courses organized in Scotland during the past winter was nearly double that of the previous winter. In making this announcement and paying a tribute to the Education Authorities concerned, the Scottish Education Department encourage the provision of such classes during the spring and summer months. "As past experience shows", the Department state, "the adult education movement, in particular, has no seasonal limits." The value of spring and summer courses will be to provide cultural or vocational facilities for many students whose interests and needs go beyond the opportunities they have had under winter conditions in war time. It is hoped also that classes for soldiers will continue to be provided. During the past winter the number of physical recreation classes has also greatly increased. Bodily fitness is of great importance to every one, and it is hoped that open-air classes will form a feature of the spring and summer programmes, without, of course, interfering with out-door activities connected with food production and other forms of war effort. A movement mentioned as worthy of special support is the food education campaign, in which the education authorities have already played a big part. It is suggested that war-time cookery classes and demonstrations carried into the summer should do much to promote the health and well-being of all classes in the conditions they have to meet to-day.

Conditions in Reception Areas.-The Ministry of Health have issued the report of the Committee which, under the chairmanship of Mr. Geoffrey Shakespeare, M.P., has been considering this matter. There are a large number of recommendations, covering, amongst other things, provision of premises where parties can stay a few days to rest and clean up; closer co-operation between civil and military billeting authorities; provision of communal welfare facilities, including mothers' clubs, nursery centres and week-end hostels where husbands can stay when visiting their wives; more premises are required for the housing of large families, unbilletable cases and those in need of special attention; a declaration by the Minister of Health, on the advice of the Senior Regional Officer, that saturation point has been reached in a certain area; wider extension of the District Medical Service; a careful watch on water supply, sanitation and sewage disposal where the influx of population has proved their inadequacy; a weekly kit inspection of the clothing of the children by the teacher responsible; and the establishment, wherever possible, of advice bureaux to give evacuees all the necessary information about their district. (H.M. Stationery Office, 3d. net.)

Carnegie United Kingdom Trust.-The Earl of Elgin, in moving the adoption of the Annual Report of the Carnegie United Kingdom Trustees at Dunfermline, said that, in shaping their war-time policy, they were influenced by the desire to prevent any slipping back in the field already gained, and to conserve their own resources, in as fluid a condition as possible, for the vast reconstruction with which they would be faced when hostilities ceased. They had classified their grants under three headings, Policy, War Maintenance and Emergency. They had lent £25,000 to H.M. Government, free of interest, and had authorized a further loan of £30,000; continued their support of the Land Settlement Association ; given help to rehabilitate village halls damaged by enemy

FAITH FOR LIVING

By "E. K. S."

THIS is that account revolutionary in many of its

HIS is a remarkable book, deeply religious in tone,

proposals. In the earlier part of the book the author deals with the various tendencies which, in his view, have led to the dissolution of the sense of moral values, and so have paved the way to political, economic, and social collapse— the illusion of security, the love of comfort, the curse of shallow optimism, the de-moralization of economics, and the cult of power. The whole book is a plea for the restoration to pride of place in our human society of moral values, and a challenge to democracy to resist with all its heart and soul and mind and strength the barbaric onslaught of the slaves of the machine. "Some common agreement as to what life means, what is worth living for, and for what in extremity we must die quite cheerfully, is the first step to a restored national morale. . . If we cling to the cargo we may lose the ship." Only so far as these values are fostered-through art and religion and science and love and domestic life-can man effectively use the machines and powers that have enabled them to tame nature and secure human existence from the worst outrages and accidents that forever threaten it."

To restore these ideals we need a renewal in faith and in deed of our belief in family life. "The family is more important than the factory: life only avails, not the means of living." Wages and hours, our methods of financing and building houses, and of town planning, must all be adapted to meet the needs of the family. We must recover our belief in the dignity of manual labour. We should establish youth service groups, an adaptation of the labour camp movement in Germany, initiated by Dr. Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy and not by Hitler. Men from the country and the city, the intellectual and the manual worker, the mechanic, the peasant, the student, must be brought together in a close working comradeship. The discipline of manual work is a necessary part in the training of the individual, while participation in works of public utility will help in the culture of the social man.

The author in his preface to the English edition pays a fine tribute to the British people. "But, as it happened, the first response to Faith for Living came from the British people. It came in the form of that cool courage, that resolute action, that high magnanimity and selflessness, that tough endurance of German terrorism, which during the last few months has given the world a spectacle of collective heroism it will never forget. No one could be more humbly aware than myself that the publication of Faith for Living in England is a carrying of coals to Newcastle. You have proved your faith; and you have given an example of what free men throughout the world must demand of themselves, if any life worth having is to survive. No matter what further trials you may have to bear, you have already risen above the very possibility of defeat." * Faith for Living. By L. MUMFORD. (7s. 6d. net. & Warburg.)

A MATHEMATICIAN'S APOLOGY

By Professor J. B. DALE

Secker

T is frequently suggested that the responsibility for the horrors of total warfare lies at the door of science. Physics, chemistry, and their applications in engineering have created the wireless by which nations are deceived and the aeroplanes, bombs, poison gases, and other weapons by which they are destroyed. And behind science and technology, actively assisting by calculation, direction, and prediction, stands mathematics, which must therefore be regarded as an associate in crime.

Of course the complete and sufficient answer to such charges is that no ethical element enters into science or mathematics. The good or ill which flows from them is solely due to their use or abuse, and this depends upon the human will.

However, Prof. Hardy appears to be somewhat uneasy, and hence he has penned this apology for mathematics and for himself as a mathematician.*

His defence of mathematics takes a somewhat unexpected turn. He admits that some branches of mathematics are of great service in science and technology, but asserts that these branches are of an elementary and trivial character. On the other hand, the 'real' mathematics of the 'real' mathematicians is almost entirely useless. As far as his own work is concerned, Prof. Hardy writes: "No discovery of mine has made or is likely to make, directly or indirectly, for good or ill the least difference to the amenity of the world! Judged by all practical standards, the value of my mathematical life is nil."

The apology is primarily addressed to non-mathematicians and considerable space is occupied with an attempt to explain the nature of 'real' mathematics, what its value is, and why it is worthy of cultivation even though it is so entirely useless. But we fear most readers will hardly gain any clear idea how the 'trivial' and potentially harmful branches of mathematics are distinguished from the ‘ real', useless, and therefore entirely harmless. Incidentally, some statements are likely to provoke lively dissent. For example, while claiming that the work of the mathematician is creative and akin to that of the artist or poet in possessing an aesthetic value, it is maintained that it is much more enduring, for the mathematician makes patterns with ideas and these last longer than those made with words, colours, or forms. Archimedes will be remembered when Aeschylus is forgotten, because languages die and mathematical ideas do not."

It may be so, but we imagine that many will continue to accept as no empty boast the line written by another poet : Exegi monumentum aere perennius. Further, the mathematician does not work with ideas only nor the poet with words only. Both work with ideas and methods of expressing these ideas, and the form of expression used by the one may be as durable as that used by the other.

Not the least interesting part of the apology is the autobiographical section. It suggests that Prof. Hardy has reaped from mathematics those advantages which a famous Oxford Dean assured his congregation would be derived from a study of Greek.

Finally, a hope may be expressed that the professor will find some opportunity for elaborating his views on mathematical reality'. In spite of his modest disclaimer of competence to deal with this matter, it is certain that any contribution he made to the discussion of this difficult subject would be of great value.

* A_Mathematician's Apology. By G. H. HARDY. net. Cambridge University Press.)

ΤΗ

(3s. 6d.

SEARCHLIGHTS ON THE WAR HESE three books* are both interesting and provocative. The Lesson of London is a first-hand account by a distinguished journalist of the effect of the first heavy air raids upon London. He condemns the failure of the Government to build deep shelters, to equip shelters with the necessary sanitary and medical facilities, and to provide accommodation and food on a sufficiently large scale for the *The Searchlight Books.-1. The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius. By G. ORWELL. 2. Offensive Against Germany. By S. HAFFNER. 3. The Lesson of London. By R. CALDER. (2s. net. each. Secker & Warburg.) (Continued on page 212)