The Curia

Finally, that the Library continues to grow and prosper is shown by the increasing use which the School makes of the Library, and by the addition of the following range of new books :-

The Second World War, Vol. III (2 copies)—Churchill. Rommel—Young. Oxford Junior Encyclopaedia, Vol. IX. Christianity and History—Butterfield. A History and Political Geography of Europe—Pounds. The English Revolution, 1603-1714—Jones. The Pacific Basin—Wood and McBride. Introduction to Practical Organic Chemistry—Maun and Saunders. Recent Advances in Physical and Inorganic Chemistry—Stewart and

Wilson. Sound—Mee. Science since 1500—Pledge. The Concerto—Culshaw. J. S. Bach, Vols. I and II—Schweitzer. History of Yorkshire County Cricket, 1924-49—Kilburn. The Young Cricketer—ed. John St. John. Cricket Campaigns—Yardley. Farewell to Cricket—Bradman.

It is with mixed enthusiasm and reserve that we publish this first report of a new School Society which is yet in its infancy. We feel, however, that some record of our activities will be of interest, and will perhaps dispel some of the possible misconceptions about us. We must first of all make is clear that we are not in any way a secret society. This misconception has possibly arisen from the fact that membership is by election, and is therefore competitive; but any member of the sixth form may ask to be considered at any time, and there is nothing secret about our activities. Our aim is to further the interests of culture and the intellectual arts by discussions, play readings, talks by invited speakers and visits to places of interest outside the School.

In the past term we tried to do one of each of those things. For our first meeting we invited Mr. Geoffrey Staines, the Director of Productions at the Theatre Royal, to talk to us on theatrical production. Introducing amusing anecdotes from his wide experience of production, he expounded with feeling the problems of the producer of plays. Afterwards he answered questions put to him. We heartily thank Mr. Staines for a most enjoyable and successful first meeting. Our second function was a reading of Shaw's "Pygmalion". Play reading always affords plenty of good entertainment, and "Pygmalion" proved the right choice. We hope this will be the first of many such readings. Our two discussions were conducted quite informally, and they seemed a very successful way of obtaining the freest possible exchange of ideas, and we were able to tackle topics which could not come within the scope of the Debating Society. For our last function—for