INTERNATIONAL RULES.
THE BRITISH PREROGATIVE.
The new council of the Lawn Tennis Association has held its first meeting, and a not unnatural interest has been manifested in its decisions. When a governing body is unconscionably large, and when its members, drawn from all parts of the country, have no definite programme on which to concentrate there must be a tendency to take the line of least resistance. In regard to “internationalising” the rules of the game – an aim which, theoretically and in sentiment, has everything to commend it – the new council, like the old, would appear to have committed themselves to a policy which does not stand a searching examination. The lessons of the past, present-day developments, and the needs of the future, have alike been overlooked.
The laws of lawn tennis, like the game itself, were fashioned in England. Other countries, notably America and France, and especially the former, have instigated various amendments, but the framework of the legal code has been built up in this country. We were the pioneers of the game as well as its inventors; there is a natural pride in this birthright. Some three years ago the council in power (and its leaders then are virtually its leaders now) proposed to surrender the prerogative of British law-making to the “International Federation,” launched in Paris without the co-operation of America and without any definite mandate from the players of this country. That policy, when submitted at the annual general meeting of the association, was negatived in no uncertain voice; there was an overwhelming majority against its pursuit.
Since then there have been developments. America’s attitude of conciliation has been appreciated and her active participation secured in the formation of an International Rules Board, which held its first meeting in London last December. The conference then convened was wholesome and harmonious, the spirit of give-andtake was abroad; but the decisions tabulated were subject to ratification by the respective associations of Great Britain and America. This fact appears to have been overlooked by the secretary of the British Lawn Tennis Association in his circular letter to foreign lawn tennis associations. He makes no mention of the important qualification agreed upon at the full conference. On the contrary, in anticipating the next meeting of the Board, to be held in Paris in March, he says: “It is essential that at this meeting all delegates shall be invested with full powers, so that finality may be reached, and a new code of rules put into shape and submitted to the International Federation, which will immediately ratify them without discussion or amendment and then publish them to the world.”
Why is it desirable to attempt to disturb this act? In the first place, the International Rules Board as set up on Dec. 21, has not yet confirmed “the complete text of Rules of Lawn Tennis” which a sub-committee meeting the following day agreed upon. There was no time for this necessary confirmation.
Secondly, even if the British, and American associations were to ratify the new code of rules in general meeting, and the International Rules Board was to adopt them, it passes my understanding why any delegate at the subsequent meeting of the “International Federation,” which it is proposed to make the supreme authority, should not be allowed to discuss or propose an amendment to any of the items in the code.