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humanly possible to get them off, and they were completed in a very short time, but the delay in that case was not really our fault.
If we may take it for granted that the two new sets will very shortly be pro- ceeded with, we should be prepared to put a set in hand for stock, of the "India series, believing, as we have said, that in that case the sales would improve.
36499/10
We remain, &c.,
No. 130.
NEWTON AND COMPANY.
MR. H. J. MACKINDER, M.P., to SIR C. LUCAS.
MY DEAR LUCAS,
(Received 20 August, 1911.)
25, Cadogan Gardens, London, S.W., 19th August, 1911. As I shall probably be in Scotland at the time when the Visual Instruction Committee meets at the end of September, you have asked me to submit a short memorandum as to the future policy of the Committee. I have read your discussion of the question on pages 7 and 8 of your memorandum, Misc. 265, and broadly I agree with There are great advantages in the connection of the Committee with the
you. Colonial Office, and there are also some disadvantages. Could we not preserve the advantages and remedy the disadvantages! The prestige which we enjoy for the purpose of collecting material and of obtaining official revision for our publications would be lost if we parted from the Colonial Office. Our Committee is undoubtedly a strong one, but if we ceased to be official the official members serving on it would probably have to resign. On the other hand, a Government Department must obviously study dignity and reserve, and is, therefore, not the best body for the purpose of pushing our wares in the country. Could we not, therefore, separate our two functions, retaining the first for our official Committee, and handing over the second to some other body working in harmony with us?
The problem is to find this second body. There are five which have been sug- gested, and I think the best plan will be to set down for our confidential information my frank opinion in regard to each of them. The five alternative bodies are:-
(1) The Board of Education.
(2) The Royal Colonial Institute.
(3) The Imperial Institute.
(4) The Victoria League.
(5) The League of the Empire.
The Board of Education makes it a policy not to back any particular book or apparatus, and it seems to me in the highest degree desirable that this policy should be persisted in. I think, therefore, that it is not likely that the Board of Education would take over the work.
The Royal Colonial Institute, though powerful, is not intimately related with the educational system of the country.
The Imperial Institute is rendering excellent service in connection with Pro fessor Dunstan's laboratory, but it is certainly open to the same criticism from our point of view as the Colonial Institute.
The Victoria League and the League of the Empire suffer from the fact that they attempt to cover in regard to education very much the same ground, and that they are sharply competitive. I am afraid that under present circumstances it is hopeless to look for their amalgamation. It is true that there is the Imperial Education Trust in connection with the League of the Empire, which administers a certain fund, but I do not think that the Trustees have at their disposal an organisation of the active and persistent kind necessary to push our lectures. In my opinion the Victoria League would be the more effective of the two Leagues for our special purpose, and there is this further advantage in connection with it, that the patron of it is Her Majesty the Queen, and we are bound to bear that fact in mind, since a considerable part of our work is due to Her Majesty's initiative. On the other
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hand, I doubt whether the Victoria League or for the matter of that the League of the Empire has at the present moment the necessary funds for the purpose. A small further point to be borne in mind is the fact that some conditional promise was, if I remember rightly, given by Her Majesty to the Victoria League in regard to a set of slides.
In regard to the courses of lectures now in process of preparation, I have come to the conclusion that as you and Sir Everard im Thurn have very kindly offered to take an active part in the work of revision, the undertaking would be greatly strengthened by the acceptance of your and his assistance. At present there is tou much the appearance of a one-man undertaking. For the purpose of advertisement and for communication with the Colonies, and indeed for many other obvious reasons, the importance of the lectures is increased by their being the work of a battery of men. Two courses there will be wholly from my pen, namely, the United Kingdom and the India. I will very gladly co-operate in detail with Mr. Sargent in regard to the course on the Imperial stations. What I would suggest would be that Australasia and Canada, now being written by Mr. Sargent, should be revised by you and Sir Everard, and should be so advertised. It is not merely that I think the work would be more rapidly completed in this way, but also that it would gain in strength in the eyes of the public.
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DEAR SIR CHarles,
No. 131.
Yours sincerely,
H. J. MACKINDER.
SIR P. HUTCHINS to SIR C. LUCAS.
(Received September 9, 1911.)
The Royal Palace Hotel, Kensington, London, W.,
8 September, 1911. I UNDERSTAND that one of the proposals to be brought before the Visual Instruction Committee on the 28th instant will be that our work be made over, wholly or in part, to the Victoria League.
As
s you are aware, as soon as the question of transfer from the Colonial Office had become imminent, I wrote to Lady Jersey suggesting that the Victoria League and the League of the Empire should act together in this matter, and I pointed out the evils arising from our present rivalry, and expressed the hope that, after we had worked for a time in such limited concert, and had thus become better acquainted, some further co-operation might be found possible. That suggestion is to be con- sidered by the Executive Committee of the Victoria League on the 21st instant, and until their views have been ascertained, it would be premature even to contemplate an arrangement inconsistent with it.
As, however, those views may be unfavourable, I wish to point out some strong objections to the work being given to the Victoria League alone. The present oppor- tunity of reconciling the two Leagues would, of course, be lost, but this is not all. for their differences would be aggravated and their rivalry accentuated; it is not to be supposed that the League of the Empire would give up its own lectures. Not long ago the League of the Empire made an application, supported by Lords Curzon, Selborne, and Meath, and others, for the King's patronage, but His Majesty had to refuse the request because of the rivalry between the two Leagues. He could not favour one before the other. That reason was unanswerable, and applies quite as strongly to the Colonial Office. If, however, the Colonial Office had to make a choice, I confidently submit that the time, labour, and money expended by the League of the Empire, on St. Helena specially, but also on Imperial education generally, in co-operation with the Colonial Office, gives it a claim on that Office beyond all com- parison with what has been done by its competitor. A reference to the St. Helena Department would clearly show this, and the Colonial Office has also recommended! the League's work on more than one occasion to the overseas Education Depart- ments. In fact, Imperial education forms the special work of that League, and it is to promote Imperial education that the lectures in question have been established.