Reporter 22/4/98: Fly-sheets reprinted

Fly-sheets reprinted

The following flysheets are reprinted in accordance with the Council's Notice on Discussions and Fly-sheets (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 117).

HONORARY DEGREES, 1998

The University Council have proposed Dr Helmut Kohl for the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Law, to be conferred by the Chancellor on 24 June. We strongly support the nomination of a man whom we believe richly to deserve the highest award we can confer.

Many compatriots of Dr Kohl have been so honoured over the years, including Helmut Schmidt and Richard von Weizsäcker in our own time. Dr Kohl is the longest serving leader of his country since the war and the senior of today's European statesmen. The peaceful reunification of Germany under his leadership is surely one of the outstanding settlements of the post-war years, a settlement which might so well have proceeded differently and dangerously, to the immense disadvantage of our own country and indeed the whole world.

As with similar - and we hope similarly unsuccessful - opposition to the honour received by Dr Kohl from the City of London last month, there may be a view that an award to Dr Kohl is an award stemming from government or political pressure. We believe that there has been no such pressure, and that the move for Dr Kohl's degree stemmed initially from a clear understanding and appreciation of the benefits that we as a University derive from close links with the Federal Republic. More students come to Cambridge from Germany than from any other country in the world save the United States. The existence of the successful and esteemed Kurt Hahn Trust is another mark of the central importance attached by the University to our relations with Germany.

To jeopardize these valuable links through seeming discourtesy is surely not what our colleagues intend. Cambridge is not just a British, but an international, University with a world-wide reputation. The University should not offer a rebuff to the leader of a country which is the UK's single largest trading partner and which has for forty years been one of our closest allies.

We urge members of the Regent House to vote placet in the forthcoming ballot.


CHRISTOPHER ANDREW	J. P. DOUGHERTY	DEBBIE LOWTHER	RICHARD STEINBERG
BRYON W. BACHE	J. L. EATWELL	JAN MACIEJOWSKI	DOROTHY J. THOMPSON
ALAN R. H. BAKER	SAM EDWARDS	MELVEENA MCKENDRICK	JOHN TILEY
P. J. BAYLEY	N. A. FLECK	STEPHEN MONSELL	ROGER TOMKYS
TIM BAYLISS-SMITH	LORAINE GELSTHORPE	ANDY NEELY	PHILIP TOWLE
R. J. BENNETT	D. A. GOOD	H. B. NISBET	S. TRUDGILL
ANITA BUNYAN	JAMES HICKSON	PERRY OF SOUTHWARK	PETER TYLER
JULIET CAMPBELL	S. HUOT	M. J. D. POWELL	HANS VAN DE VEN
CHRISTOPHER CLARK	DOMINIC JANES	L. A. QUAYSON	B. WATCHORN
JANE COLLIER	L. P. JOHNSON	RICHARD REX	MARC WELLER
ANTHONY DAVENPORT	DAVID KEEBLE	STEFAN SCHOLTES	JOACHIM WHALEY
NICHOLAS DAVIES	S. N. LANE	B. P. SIMMS	COLIN WILCOCKSON
SANDRA DAWSON	LEWIS OF NEWNHAM	GRAHAM SMITH	CHRISTOPHER YOUNG

HONORARY DEGREES, 1998

Conferring an honorary degree upon Dr Helmut Kohl, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, less than a hundred days before the German general elections and during the time of political campaigning, could be construed as active interference in the German election process and could appear to broadcast a political bias. The award of an Honorary Degree to any active, campaigning, politician, whatever his or her qualities, should be avoided. It is important that the University of Cambridge stands above party politics and honours politicians only after their retirement or at a neutral time in the political process. We urge that you vote non placet in the forthcoming ballot.

N. S. ADAMS	A. R. FERSHT	B. MORGAN	D. H. WILLIAMS
L. U. ANCARANI	F. HOLLFELDER	J. K. M. SANDERS	PETER WOTHERS
C. M. ELLIOTT	A. J. KIRBY	D. S. TAWFIK

Table of Contents