From ‘News of the Week‘, The Spectator, 3 April 1915:
Some remarks made by Dr. Lyttelton, the Head-Master of Eton, in a sermon at St. Margaret’s, Westminster, on Thursday week have caused a storm in a tea-cup. Dr. Lyttelton argued that the Germans must be saved from the results of their own appalling venom by being made to feel that they were not excluded from the comity of nations. He used as an illustration of the kind of guarantee of goodwill which might be offered by Britain to somebody’s suggestion that if the Kiel Canal were internationalized Gibraltar should also be internationalized. We think that the suggestion is utterly futile, and if it were ever seriously proposed we would leave no stone unturned to defeat it. Further, this is a most unfortunate time to put forward proposals which, if they do not encourage Germany, may be misunderstood by neutrals and resented by our allies. Having stated our profound disagreement with Dr. Lyttelton, we are the more free to express our detestation of that sort of dull intolerance which causes many people to talk of Dr. Lyttelton as though he were a “pro-German” because he has made an inept and tactless suggestion. We dislike more than we can say all these attempts to intimidate a man who is sincere, if greatly mistaken. His encouragement of the splendid rally Eton has made to the service of the country is well known, and has called forth a chivalrous letter from the Captain of the Eton Society, the Captain of the School, and the Captain of the Oppidans, which was published in the Times of Tuesday.
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