BORN TODAY: In Lowestoft, Suffolk, England – (Edward) Benjamin Britten – ” central figure of 20th-century British classical music, with a range of works including opera, other vocal music, orchestral and chamber pieces” [Wikipedia].
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Britten
Troubled times on the playing fields of Eton:
~Britain’s “Spectator” reports on Oxford University’s attempt to fix its sporting rules so that true Oxford “freshmen” (for example, Old Etonians) are not disadvantaged by having to compete against foreigners who have come to Oxford from other parts of the Empire. The Spectator, and the Daily Mail, clearly disapprove:
“Oxford would seem to be guarding her own English-born alumni against the invaders from oversea, while accepting the help of those invaders against the sister University.”
~ Several pages later the Spectator explores what the impact of Civil War will be on the “United” Kingdom if -as is widely expected- the imminent partitioning of Ireland brings war to the Kingdom:
“Civil war is an unspeakable evil, but the evil that comes next to it, or is, perhaps, equally great and dangerous, is disaffection in the Army. Anything which approaches mutiny, that is, the refusal of soldiers to obey orders given them by a competent authority, tends to shatter the whole fabric of society. In the last resort society is held together and saved from anarchy by force, and that force is again in the last resort the rifle and the bayonet of the soldier’.
http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/22nd-november-1913/5/what-civil-war-means-for-the-army
Arts and literature: Collier’s, the American weekly magazine, publishes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s 46th Sherlock Holmes story: “The Adventure of the Dying Detective”. British readers will have to wait until next month to read the story in the Strand magazine, published in London.
http://www.sshf.com/encyclopedia/index.php/The_Adventure_of_the_Dying_Detective
onehundredyearsagotoday 