Report of League of Nations Society, Feb 1937
Courtesy of Merchant Taylors’ Boys’ School
The Society was certainly active from 1935 until 1939, but it is not known when it was formed. Staff members supported the Society, the Headmaster being President. Sixth formers took a very active part, giving talks on a variety of topical issues including mandates, armaments, Abyssinia, Germany and Ireland. They also organised debates on subjects such as the Spanish Civil War and the making of a Society Magazine on two occasions. The Society also had at least one external speaker per year. In 1934, Norman Poole spoke on USSR’s foreign relations and in 1935 Rev. H. H. Symonds discussed the Peace Ballot. Others included Mr Hayes on The Gordian Knot and Germany (1936, 1937), and Mr Archer of the League of Nations Union (LNU) on re-armament (1937).
The Society had links with the local LNU branch and also supported the Liverpool Peace Weeks in the summers of 1936 and 1937. However, by the Lent term of 1938 support for the Society had halved. This was attributed partly to the current political situation and partly to the demands of other school activities. The Society decided to widen its scope to include all matters of international concern, while still keeping a connection with the LNU. An article in the school magazine added that it hoped that boys ‘who realise that the fate of our generation is being determined by the political developments of today’ would support it. No further reports of the Society are available.
References/Further Reading:
Merchant Taylors’ Review, 1935-38. Merchant Taylors’ Boys’ School Archive.