Celebrated Author Denied a Place at the Lectern by Union Busybodies
No stranger experience can have happened to Mr George Orwell than his reception at UC last Friday, when he was prevented from speaking at an event held by the Society for the Understanding of Hispanic and Similarly Swarthy Nations. Mr Orwell, whose recent work Homage to Catalonia has been well received, was due to deliver an informative talk on his experiences fighting General Franco’s forces in the Iberian peninsula, but the University College’s students’ union refused to offer him a platform to speak on.
Instead, the College’s union ruled unanimously that Mr Orwell should not be allowed to deliver his lecture due to a perceived risk that others may be encouraged to join the struggle. One Union representative told students that “on the whole Franco is probably a very sound chap, just slightly misunderstood. It’s the mediterranean temperament I suspect.” The Union wrote to Scotland Yard seeking their opinion on the matter, but after receiving no response by evening post it was forced to err on the side of caution and stop the event.
Some students believe that increased parliamentary pressure to discourage Communist radicals in universities may have also contributed to the union’s reasoning. When asked by this paper for a comment on the matter, Home Secretary the Rt. Hon. Sir Samuel Fyfe shouted “up the Blackshirts!” and clenched his visibly twitching right arm to his side.
Benjamin Towse, a fresh-faced first year student of biology with known pinko tendencies, described the situation as “absolute codswallop, and a ruddy fine example of the most egregious bureaucratic shilly- shallying to boot.” Miss H.C. Wilde of the UC Conservatives attempted to speak on the matter but struggled to make herself heard over a man of her society loudly describing the latest venereal disease afflicting his member.
Mr Orwell himself was not available to comment on the debacle, but was later seen walking into Senate House on Malet St. muttering about being watched by his older sibling. In the place of Mr Orwell’s lecture, a one hour presentation on the work of UC’s leading eugenicist Sir Francis Galton was given instead.