Editorial

the Middle East, and Italy, culminating in the award of the American Bronze Star for an act of heroism in the Italian Campaign—raised the St. Peter's C.C.F. to a pitch of efficiency which was frequently praised by the military authorities of Northern Command and won for us a position of eminence among the contingents of the northern Public Schools. The award, in the Army List of New Year's Honours of 1955, of the M.B.E. to Major Crews for services to the Combined Cadet Force was a tribute which was richly deserved.

Another change of which we learned last term was that Mr. A. D. Hart would succeed Mr. L. C. Le Tocq as Chairman of the Debating Society. Mr. Le Tocq has held this office for some eleven years, since he returned to us from war service in 1945, and he too has begun to find that the duties of House Mastership inevitably necessitate some curtailment of the many valuable contributions which he makes to the general life of the School.

At the risk of irrelevance, we would pause here to congratulate Mr. Le Tocq on the rapid improvement, under his enthusiastic guidance, of the School Shooting since it was elevated to the status of a major sport. The details of the success of the Shooting Eight are, of course, given elsewhere, and here we must limit ourselves to congratulating Mr. Le Tocq and his team on gaining ninth place in the severe test of the Ashburton Shield Competition.

The Head Master has frequently spoken of the great importance which he assigns to the Debating Society as a forum for the intelligent discussion of current questions and for the cultivation of that ability to speak with confidence before an audience which is so valuable in after life—a point of view from which few would dissent and which, incidentally, was strongly supported by Sir James Duff in his Speech Day address. If our Debating Society has reached, as it has, a high peak of excellence and is widely popular with all sections of the School, this is due in large measure to the untiring efforts of Mr. Le Tocq and his deep conviction of the value of the work he was doing. We are grateful to him.

One of the factors which contributed to making 1956-57 an annus mirabilis in the history of the School—a year of success, as the Head Master said in his Annual Report, in everything we had tried to do—was the outstanding season enjoyed by the 1st XI. For its success the XI, though it was by no means a one-man side, owed much to D. Kirby, not only for his notable performances with both bat and ball but also for his brilliant captaincy. We were pleased to read in the holidays of his successes in representative matches at Lord's for Public Schools' sides and of his appearances for Durham in Minor Counties Matches. There can be no doubt that Kirby, who will be with us for yet another season, has a notable cricketing future before him, and we wish him every success in the game he loves so much.