THE COMPLETE BOY MESSENGER

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 120, 18 February 1928, Page 22

THE COMPLETE BOY MESSENGER

Next year will mark a change in the syllabus of history set for the British boy messengers’ general examination, which will no longer be the dry recital of battles, kings, queens and dates (says the “Manchester Guardian”). It will begin, not from 1066, but from 1760, concentrating upon outstanding movements,, events and personalities. The Civil Service Commissioners have decided to include also the industrial changes—the industrial revolution, changes in manufacture, transport, communication, agriculture, and in the distribution of population. As if this were insufficient, they have added political and social reform, both as regards Parliament and local government, trades

unions, and employers’ associations, the abolition of slavery, religious toleration, criminal law, prisons and police, the Poor Law, national insurance, the factory laws, the Corn Laws, the welfare of the worker, and the development of education. The British Commonwealth of Nations has a separate section, and in Britain and modern Europe a place is found for the causes and effects of the Great War and the League of Nations.

It seems a pretty exhaustive syllabus and tile youth of 18 who presents himself fully equipped for examination ha? at least laid firmly the foundation of a political education that is not likely t© be put off or taken in by parrot cries.