THE PETERITE Vol. XL II
JUNE, 1950
No. 324
EDITORIAL The coming term will see the fifth post-war Commemoration, and only a small proportion of the boys now in the School will be able to recall the make-shift substitute to which we were restricted by the exigencies of the war years. Our annual gathering then consisted of a brief ceremony of speeches and prize-giving on an afternoon in the Christmas Term, before an audience of parents whose composition and numbers were strictly defined by the difficulties of travel in those dark, depressing days. That seems long ago, and by now we are habituated to the fuller and more satisfying conception of Commemoration as a reunion and a congregation of all those—boys, parents, and Old Peterites—who have the interest and well-being of the School at heart. To us in the School there can be no more welcome guests than O.P.'s of all generations, since their presence is the best possible testimony to the enduring vitality of St. Peter's. We hope, therefore, that they will gather in large numbers to renew old contacts and to join us in welcoming the Earl of Scarbrough, whose presence at Speech Day we shall regard as a signal honour. The arrangements for the three days follow the usual plan, and a detailed programme will be found elsewhere in these pages. New ground was broken in the early part of the Easter holidays with the visit of a party of boys of varying ages to Paris. The experiment was a great success, and much is owed to the two members of the staff who organised and conducted the tour. To embark on so arduous and exacting an undertaking immediately after the rigours of the term argues a commendable public spirit. The diary of the tour, published in this issue, shows that little was left unseen that ought to have been seen. To suffer the extremes of misery on the homeward crossing, as we understand one of the two gentlemen concerned did (with many another), seems a poor reward. Had the culmination been that which is invariably anticipated by those in the throes of "mal de mer", he would indeed have been butchered to make a schoolboys' holiday. We notice from the diary that after educational excursions, to the Louvre or Versailles, the boys not infrequently sought relaxation in the evening at the cinema. "Caelurn non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt." We congratulate D. J. Wilson, one of our Editorial staff, on his successful venture into commercial journalism. We reprint in this number an article by him which was recently accepted and prominently featured in one of the York papers. Perhaps he has been
