A thoughtful Captain like David Mason (1966) believed that the Prefects’ Meeting would be accepted if ‘it functions with the right intentions and in the right spirit’/ The prefects must be dignified, and refrain from sarcasm or jokes in the presence of the offender. Nor should they take ‘any delight in the actual infliction of the corporal punishment [which] itself is not the most important thing; it is the interrogation and reprimanding before the punishment that often has the most effect; and in some case, it is not necessary to use the cane at all’.