210 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 
University Grants Committee ; at this point, however, I should like to 
say a few words about its general influence. 
There will be general agreement that the establishment of the Univer- 
sity Grants Committee was an event of first-class importance. So far as 
I know, it has no counterpart in any country. By a stroke of administra- 
tive genius, most of the fears with which universities naturally regard any 
suspicion of interference by Government departments were dissipated. 
Everything that has happened since has strengthened the relations between 
the Committee and the universities. We read the reports of the Com- 
mittee with profit, look forward to the visits of its members with pleasure, 
and welcome their criticisms and advice. We find ourselves masters in our 
own houses ; untrammelled by political influence; trusted guardians of 
public money. Weareso used to this happy state of affairs that it needs a 
convulsion in a foreign country to make us realise our good fortune. 
Universities owe a great debt to all the distinguished members of the Com- 
mittee, and especially to the two Chairmen and to the late Secretary, Mr. 
A.H. Kidd. 'The sudden death this year of Sir Walter Buchanan Riddell 
came as a great shock to many of us. ‘That deeply loved and trusted man, 
Sir William McCormick, set a standard difficult for others to live up to ; 
but when Sir Walter Buchanan Riddell, who was the first Secretary to 
the Committee, was appointed to succeed him, everyone felt that the 
happiest choice had been made. The few years that have passed since 
his appointment have been all too short for the full exercise of his con- 
structive influence, though long enough for universities to realise that in 
him they had a worthy successor to Sir William McCormick. Mr. A. H. 
Kidd, who died a year ago, was an old friend and contemporary of mine 
at Oxford. He was a man of rare distinction of mind and charm of 
character, who was prevented only by continuous ill-health from reaching 
one of the highest positions in the Civil Service. He used his great powers, 
quietly and unostentatiously, to promote university education. I feel 
sure that I shall be forgiven for digressing a little from my subject in 
order to express, very briefly, our gratitude for the work of these men. 
I have already referred to the high cost of teaching science at universi- 
ties. I find it useful to look at problems of education from a financial 
point of view: it clears my mind, without, I hope, clearing it altogether 
or destroying my ideals. ‘Take the position of the public schools as an 
example. ‘There is much criticism of the public schools. We hear that 
they do not win a fair proportion of scholarships at the universities in 
comparison with grant-aided secondary schools ; that their hold over the 
higher division of the Civil Service is disappearing ; that altogether they 
are behind the times. Consider, however, their financial position. Most 
of them get no grant from public funds : they have to rely on endowment 
income (often small) and on the fees paid by parents. Many of them 
doubtless have their financial anxieties ; but at least they are solvent. It 
is indeed remarkable that through these years of serious industrial de- 
pression the public schools have remained full to overflowing ; tens of 
thousands of parents have thought it worth while to sacrifice a large part 
of their income, or to diminish their capital, in order to give their boys the 
benefit of a public school education. It may be said that their action is 
