A RACING ZEPHYR.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 85, 1 April 1914, Page 4

A RACING ZEPHYR.

The meeting of the Stratford Racing Club held last evening proved a somewhat lengthy one, drawn out with not a little unnecessary oratory. Generally speaking, however, members capable of looking at the whole question without bias or personal feeling—and we are assured that practically : the whole of those who were present at the meeting come under that category—arrived at the sane and proper conclusion that the Committee, as a whole, had in every way acted in the Club’s best and most solid interests; that they had given the most careful regard to the financial aspect of its affairs, and that they were quite ready and willing to do as they had been directed, when convenient, by the General Meeting, providing they were not imperilling the Club’s position. Some rather loose and windy talk was indulged in about the desire to “hang on to office,” but it was merely talk. Finance is, at any time, a ticklish matter for the average, everyday man to deal with, and it is so easy to find oneself in a blind alley without realising where a well-meant and apparently perfectly proper action has led. As President of the Club and Chairman of the meeting, Mr A. W. Budge very properly pointed out that the Committee had always been willing to dispense with the guarantee, providing they could have seen their way to do so.' The letters road amply proved bis statement, and the fact that at the eleventh hour those gentlemen who at first desired to abolish the guarantee and wipe it out in favor of a flat mortgage—or something ©lso saw that the President was right, speaks for itself. We have no doubt that, as Mr Kirkwood stated, the matter can be arranged. • The Stratford Racing Club is too strong a body and its property is far too valuable to make any serious doubt possible as to its future, unless th is gross mismanagement, but merely from a business standpoint it does not appear to be a most” excellent example of prudence to burn one’s boats, so to speak, before reaching land. To temporarly suspend banking operations by shutting down on the first guarantee before another is arranged, almost appears to indicate that, as a great English statesman once ex-| pressed it, some of those ardent advocates for reform must have been slightly “inebriated with the exuberance of their own verbosity.” We hope, however, that all will go well. There is not the slightest need for any feeling to be shown, and if the members, as a body, really thought that the Club, however well it was being conducted, was not being conducted on the truest principles of democracy, they will remedy this by withdrawing all special powers from guarantors. All we hope is that the years to come may prove as progressive and as free from mistakes as the past few years have been. In conclusion, one word as to last night’s meeting: Members,

whatever their personal views may have been, on the questions at issue, could not but deeply appreciate the admirable conduct of the meeting by the Chairman and his supreme tolera-

tion and forebearance. The perfectly friendly discussion of an alleged principle might easily, under less wise have degenerated into a bitterly personal wrangle. The Club’s members have to be thankful for many things—not least of all for its Chairman at last night’s meeting.