We feel that we must explain through this column the reason for the absence from the CRIMSON of all but the most meagre and unsatisfactory scraps of 'varsity crew news. The closing of the rowing room in the Carey Building was only a preparatory step to excluding all news of the crew from the daily papers and the college world. But news still leaked out from those who rowed on the crew until even such communications were forbidden peremptorily. Mr. Watson's ultimatum was that no news of the crew should be printed unless with his direct consent.

Now against all this it might be urged that such secrecy in regard to the crew will not affect Yale's movements in the least. Again, it may be submitted that the absence of any news concerning the coming out of any new men to try for the 'varsity, or of the shifting of the order of the crew, shuts off the whole institution of rowing from the eyes of the University and from popular opinion and enthusiasm; that our crew is no longer a University organization, in the success of which we all feel a personal interest. It is instead a secret society - a clique. In spite, however, of such a possible construction of appearances, we think it only right and just to submit to the better judgment of the coach. We must know that all Mr. Watson's secrecy is with a purpose - a purpose which we do not know, but which we may implicitly trust is for the best interests of the 'varsity crew.