El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1915-01-09
Universities
IHENGLANIAR
GENTER50F WAR
Cambridge and Oxford Are
Drawn Upon Heavily
For Army Officers.
BOTH HAVE LARGE
HOSPITALS IN USE

ONION, Eng, Jan. 9.-No one
place in England, probably, has
H. the war wrought such changes as
upon oxford and Cambridge. Neither
university had been "militarlst IN
tone. though each had its OFFICERS
training corps, Cambridge taking hers
perhaps a little more seriously lhah
oxford Yet. no sooner had war broke
ont than each headquarters was rife
with applicants for commissions for
past and present members. Hundreds
Of commissions were obtained before
term began; and there have been some
enlistments, although enlistment is dis
couraged among men who could serve
their country better as officers
OF those who should have come up as
freshmen many went from their pub
lie school o. T. c. into the army; ana
one arrived at the Cambridge base
hospital as a wounded officer Just
about the time that he should have
reached his college as freshman.
The result was that both universe
ties began term with less Ihan nan
the usual number of junior members;
and that quantity has been steadily
shrinking, as the war ottice granted
more and more commissions cam
bridge has lost 230 men during the
term. Many more will be drawn away
during the vacation; and next term
Pembroke, Cambridge, expects to have
some so men in residence out Of 23O,
and Magdalen, oxford, will have per-
haps % out of $50
Those Left Are Drilling.
or those who are left, at least half
are drilling full time and waiting for
commissions. There remain only the
unfit those who, like students from
neutral countries, natives Of India, and
Indian civil service probauoners, are
prevented from taking arms, students
who have come to Oxford and Cam
bridge because Germany is closed to
them, and the medical students who
have been recommended to finish their
course that they may serve the army
medical corps to the best purpose
There are also a few whose religious
beliefs or principles bar them from
military service; and theirs is not the
least heroic of tasks at the present
moment. Of mere ''slackers' there
seem to be none.
THE generous youth Of England has
rushed to arms: and the effect upon
oxford and Cambridge is strange. AT
II or noon the street is not now a fiut-
ter with gowns hurrying 70 lecturesi
at / o'clock the groups in the gate
ways are scanty or none. The motor
BICYCLES are all at the front, carrying
dispatches. By night and by day there
is a hush over the colleges, where set
upon set of empty rooms seem to stare
at the empty quadrangle in surprise.
Then there is the hospital work. The
military hospital at Cambridge began
with the cloisters of Nevile's Court in
Trinity: now the Kings and Clare
gro. d is covered with an openair- base
hospital, the first of its kind, a place
of 1000 beds, whence many Of the con-
valescents are taken to a Red Cross
rest house.
At oxford the new schools and the
town hall have been turned into hos
pitfalls: and New College gardens are
full OF convalescents. Work for Bel
gian refugees, for the relief Of dis
tress for the Red Cross. has been ef-
ficiently organized and is actively car
ried on. The women Of oxford and
Cambridge are playing their part as
eagerly as the men.