§ MR. JOHN ELLIS (Nottinghamshire, Rushcliffe)To ask the Secretary to the Board of Education whether his attention has been drawn to the fact that the secretary of an association called the Navy League is in the habit of writing teachers of public elementary schools, with copies of leaflets and pamphlets, urging their reading and circulation as part of the curriculum of the schools; and whether this practice has the sanction or approval of the inspectors or the Board of Education.
(Answered by Sir William Anson.) In November last the Board received a letter from the Navy League stating that they had been issuing a circular letter to the headmasters of elementary schools, together with a copy of a lecture on the Navy, inquiring whether, if the master was in sympathy with the object, he would have the lecture given to the boys in his school. The League at the same time asked for the co-operation and sanction of the Board for the work they were trying to accomplish. In reply, the Board stated that, while they sympathised with the general object of the League, and would raise no objection to instruction on these lines being given in any school where the managers and master desired it, they were not prepared to prescribe lessons on the Navy as part of an obligatory course for all schools receiving Government grants, nor could they recommend or allow their inspectors to recommend any particular books or maps.