OXFORD CHANGES

Marlborough Express, Volume LXVIII, Issue 148, 25 June 1934, Page 2

OXFORD CHANGES

• T SOBER UNDERGRADUATES. NO WILD NIGHTS NOW. LONDON, May 23. Beer, beer, glorious beer, Fill yourseli right up to here. No more is this roistering old chorus heard in many of the halls and the great coilege dining rooms at Oxford. Undergraduates to-day are more sober than at any time in the history of the University. In several of the colleges restrictions have been placed on the drinking of beer in Hall, but there has been no outcry. In Pembroke the maximum is one pint per person. At Trinity Coilege there is a similar rule and "compliments" — the age-old practice of undergraduates treating each other to drinks in Hall — has been prohibifced. If a student wishes to treat a friend to a pint, he gives up his own drink. Now it is rumoured that St. John's Coilege is to follow the lead of Pembroke and Trinity, but the undergraduates are not worried.v Residents have always been strict^ ly forbidden to drink at bars in public houses, and a regular patrol of these institutions is carried out under the instructions of the coilege authorities, but it is seldom nowadays that this rule is violated. Drinking in rooms and in clubs, where theie are no. restrictions, is also on the wane. "At one time coilege room parties used to supply us with the major part of our trade, but not now," a prominent wine merchant said. "Then undergraduates were connoisseurs of wine. They bought the best and lots of it. To-day it is an unusual thing to get an order for even a dozen bottles. "The one time the undergraduate lets himself go is on the night of the Boat Race, and then most of the celebrating is done in London. "There is practically no call for spirits, either whisky or brandy, from any of the colleges, and hectic nights are a thing of the past." 1 -