Saturday, May 08, 2004
Oxford Union Theft
Found this interesting; it was sent to me via the UChicago Parliamentary Debate mailing list:
I think the conclusion that Hitler was encouraged to go to war by the resolution is going overboard, but the resolution itself was quite historic in a very sad way.
That said, it should still be returned.
The last remaining evidence of what many see as the darkest day of the Oxford
Union has gone missing.
A framed copy of the order paper for the King and Country debate, in which
students voted by 275 votes to 153 against fighting for the nation, used to
hang behind the bar. It has been stolen, along with a large portrait of
Gladstone, a former president of the Union.
The vote, on February 9, 1933, ten days after Hitler became German Chancellor,
caused reverberations around the world. An irate Winston Churchill denounced it
as “that abject, squalid, shameless avowal”.
He continued: “One can almost feel the curl of contempt upon the lips of the
manhood of (the German, Italian and French) peoples when they read this message
sent out by Oxford University in the name of young England.”
The police may be called in by the current generation of Oxford Union leaders
if the order paper is not returned.
Georgina Costa, the Union president, said: “We are desperate to sort this out
and for it to be returned.
“It is a hugely important document. We just hope that this is a drunken jape
gone wrong. But if we cannot resolve this internally I will have no alternative
but to call in the police.”
Five former prime ministers, William Gladstone, Lord Salisbury, Herbert
Asquith, Harold Macmillan and Edward Heath, have been officers of the Union,
which was founded in 1823 as a forum for discussion within the university. The
1933 vote may have “encouraged Hitler in his decision to invade Europe”, the
Oxford Union says on its website.
Costa is distraught: “It is a nightmare. We must get it back.”
*According to what I have been told the suspicion falls upon an Irish team at
the IV but the Union are allegedly investigating. It's so funny considering the
rest of the carnage at the IV.
I think the conclusion that Hitler was encouraged to go to war by the resolution is going overboard, but the resolution itself was quite historic in a very sad way.
That said, it should still be returned.
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