A Factual Report

After a few odd matters like the Cafeteria had been polished off in much less time than it takes to stand in a queue, the meeting got down to business with a report from the Executive read by Mr. Batters by, which outlined the Association s dealings with WFDY during the preceding nine months. This report, based on extracts from the minutes, showed that matters concerning the WFDY had been discussed at almost all meetings of the Executive during their office. The interesting part of the report referred to the meeting at which Mrs. Bailey and Miss Lamburd were present to thrash out the question of Communist domination, which had been alleged in press statements by Miss Lamburd at that time. To quote from the report, "the impression gained by the Executive from hearing these two ladies was that Miss Lamburd failed to substantiate her former allegations." The decision to call a Special General Meeting was made last December, in view of the fact that a minority of the Executive were still not fully satisfied that WFDY should be supported. A sensational disclosure in the best Nash manner came with the statement that "in February last, the President and the Secretary reported that certain files had disappeared from the Executive room. One of these was a file containing the correspondence between WFDY and the Stud. Ass. between June and December. 1948. Up to now, no success has been made in recovering this file. Files of other correspondence . . . since affiliation was first made in 1946 have been kept available in the Executive room for perusal by students. Additional copies of material received from WFDY have been sent to Salient." This report was made even more sensational by the strange behaviour of a student in the corner of the Gym., which culminated" in a terrific flash of light in the middle of Mr. Battersby's speech. The following clouds of smoke caused someone to demand. "Is this an attempt to cloud the issue under discussion?" Not really deterred though. Mr. Batters by explained that the report (the one he was reading anyway) had been thought necessary as a factual statement of our dealings with WFDY. He went on to point out that Mrs. Bailey, who had been our representative at the conference at Prague, in 1917. was present, and the meeting decided to allow her to speak.