Sir, – my name having appeared twice recently in The Daily Mail (in connection with the new BBC Orchestra) with what I might mildly call an unjust inference, I shall be greatly obliged if you will allow me space to refute the suggestions made.

Now, if an official (as stated by Dame Ethel Smyth) told ‘Musician’ that ‘Sammons and Tertis can at once recognise the sex of a concealed player’, I, for one, did not know I possessed this peculiar X-ray faculty. Neither was I ‘safely guided’ by any question or answer.

In adjudicating for the new BBC Orchestra I had no interest whatever as to whether the candidates were male or female. My sole and unbiassed purpose was to judge of their efficiency.

As a matter of fact I was, with regret, unable to pass a single candidate I heard (and in most cases I did not know their sex). Their performances were, unfortunately, all below the standard required for a first-rate orchestra.

The suggestion that the candidates were made fools of is childish. I undertook the auditions with a full sense of the responsibility laid upon me, and no indication was at any time given to me that only one sex would be acceptable.