1932

The Society has had a very successful season. The debates have been of high standard of excellence, and a great company of new speakers have shown that they can speak well, and, at the same time, think clearly. If these people come up to expectations, next year will be a record year for the Society.
We have the pleasure of announcing three new appoint-ments: the Headmaster has been elected President of the Society; Mr. Ellis, Vice-President; and P.G. H.Hopkins, Committee-man.
At the ninety-eighth meeting of the Society, G.A.Barnard proposed the motion that "Socialism is preferable to Capital-ism." He argued that the immense power possessed by an owner of capital should be co-ordinated and controlled by the community, not left in the hands of private individuals, who were compelled to do their worst for the community, not their best. A. E. Gibbins replied that Capitalism had benefited humanity in the past, and would do so in the future; he argued that Socialism was impracticable. There were many other speakers who contributed little thought to the discussion. The motion was lost by 38 votes to 17.
The ninety-ninth meeting was a debate in which the principal speakers were Old Monovians. The motion before the House was that "Progress is a Lie." A.E.Holdsworth spoke first, L.W.Day second, D.Thomson third, and K.E.Robinson fourth. The debate was a brilliant display of rhetoric, but no reasoned arguments were raised by either side. A welcome feature of the subsequent discussion was the participation of two masters, Mr. Ellis and Mr. Morgan. The motion was both carried and lost, two counts being taken.
At the next meeting, the motion was that "Disarmament is Desirable." The chief speakers, in order, were G.M.Stitcher, D.A.Finch, E.W.Scott, and G.A. Barnard. The pro-posers argued that armaments were an incentive to war and were wasteful. The opposers contended that in the present state of the world, waste was a good thing as it alleviated over-production; also that disarmament would remove no in-centive to war. A very large number of new speakers engaged in the discussion, which maintained a strikingly high level of intelligence throughout. The motion was carried by 21 votes to 17.
"S.O.S." was the unusual title that failed to do justice to the 101st meeting of the Society. The audience was re-quested to imagine the six speakers to be in a balloon, the bag of which was leaking, thus necessitating the throwing overboard of one of the six. The six speakers, whose names are in the first column, impersonated six lesser lights, whose names are in the second, and tried to justify their continuance in the balloon:-
E.W. Scott ...
C.S.Bayes ...
G.M.Stitcher ...
P.J.Hopkins
D.A.Finch
G.A.Barnard ..,
The audience decided, by a large majority, that Lord Beaverbrook should "git the push," as AI Capone put it.
The Society looks forward to a debate with Wanstead High School to conclude a most successful season. .
.. Al Capone.
.. Amy Johnson. .. Beaverbrool<. .. Greta (iarbo.
.. Charlie Chaplin.
.. Bernard Shaw.
G.A.B. (VI. Sc.).