King v. Brains

Though His Majesty George II was deposed in 1924 as King of Greece, he is still a Royal Prince of Denmark, his fatherland. Therefore the press of Copenhagen was flustered and appalled, last week, by news that George II would appear in public debate at Oxford, England, before the famed undergraduate Oxford Union. Most unseemly to Danes seemed the subject to debate:

Resolved: that this house prefers athletic to esthetic education.

Worst of all, from the Danish standpoint, George II took in debate, st week, the affirmative side--exalting brawn over Brain. To joyous Oxford students it was a jolly, royal joke; but presumably King Christian X of Denmark was vexed to read that his George II had said in debate:

"I can't speak the King's English, but I can swear in the English vernacular. . . . I distrust the professor and the pedant. Give me a burly man of bone and gristle.

"Even if Waterloo was not won on the playing fields of Eton, every Englishman and every fair-minded foreigner will admit that the Great War was won on the football fields of the United Kingdom. Nothing strikes the foreigner more than your independence as citizens and even your cheek when abroad. The Englishman seems to have learned the restraint of leadership while boys in other countries are learning Latin and arithmetic. "There might have been no Great War in Europe had the nations played with balls of leather instead of balls of lead." When George II had spoken, that distinguished Spanish man of letters Professor Salvador de Madariaga rose and presented with serenity and wit the case for esthetics. By the decisive vote of 286 to 237 the Oxford Union balloted that vernacular George II had lost the debate. Were George II Roman Catholic, in stead of Greek Orthodox, his remarks would have deeply offended the many Roman Catholics who know that His Holiness (once a famed mountain climber) dis approves of certain modern excesses in athletics, especially where women are concerned. The Papal stand was again emphasized, last week, when Osservatore Romano, famed spokesorgan of the Vatican, thundered at Rome : "Gymnastic and athletic competitions for girls offend the Christian sentiments and the customs of our Italian civilization and of our people, and no historical analogies and no appeal to the traditions of other countries can justify them. The Roman Catholic Church has invariably and everywhere manifested its open and irrevocable opposition to such sports and it is backed by all people who entertain sentiments of gentility and Chris tian modesty."