Society's Other Activities Cohen P. B. Smith

Vol. 67, No. 7 JULY 1962 Sixpence m

Editorial

Locke on Liberty and Toleration Maurice Cranston

Arnold Bennett Richard Clements

A Short History of Austrian Freethought Otto Wolfgang

Divine Propagandist Denis Cohen

Christian and Humanist P. B. Smith

Conway Discussions South Place News

Society's Other Activities SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETY

SUNDAY MORNING MEETINGS AT ELEVEN O'CLOCK

July 1—R. STEPHEN SCHENK, B.Sc. Character and Conformity

Piano solos by JOYCE LANGLEY

July 8—DR. J. A. C. BROWN The Pursuit of Happiness

Soprano solos by DAPHNE SHANDLEY

The Sunday morning meetings will be resumed on October 7.

South Place Sunday Concerts South Place Sunday Evening Concerts (1962-63) will open on October 7, 1962.

The Objects of the Society are the study and dissemination of ethical principles and the cultivation of a rational religious sentiment. Any person in sympathy with these objects is cordially invited to become a Member (minimum annual subscription is 12s. 6d.), or Associate (minimum annual subscription 75. 6d.). Life membership £13 2s. 6d. Associates are not eligible to vote or hold office. Enquiries should be made to the Registrar to whom subscriptions should be paid.

The Monthly Record is posted free to Members and Associates. The Annual charge to subscribers is 8s. Matter for publication in the August-September issue should reach the Editor, G. C. Dowman, Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, W.C.1, by August 6.

We wish to inform readers that the General Committee have decided not to publish a Monthly Record fOr the month of August. August and September will appear as one issue.

Officers Secretary: J. HUTTON HYND Han. Treasurer: A. FervroN Hon. Registrar: Mrs. T. C. LINDSAY Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, W.C.I Asst. Hon. Registrar: Miss W. L. GEORGE Executive Secretary: Miss E. PALMER The MONTHLY RECORD Vol. 67, No. 7 JULY 1962 Sixpence

CONTENTS EDITORIAL .. . 3 LOCKEON LIBERTYAND TOLERATION, by Maurice Cranston .. 5 ARNOLDBENNETT, by Richard Clements .. 8 A SHORTHISTORY OF AUSTRIANFREETHOUGHT, by Otto Wolfgang .. 10 A DIVINE PROPAGANDIST,by Denis CabeI! 12 CHRISTIANAND HUMANIST, by P. B. Smith 13 CorAY DISCUSSIONS 15 'SOUTHPLACE NEWS .. 19 SOCIETYS OTHER ACTIVITIES 19

,The views.expressed in this journal are not necessarily those of the Society.

EDITORIAL

THE CONCERT GIVEN ON May 19 at the Royal Fegtival Hall to celebrate Earl Russell's ninetieth birthday was, indeed, a memorable occasion. Adulation lavished on him by a huge audience profoundly moved the man who had been so accustomed to obloquy during most of his long life. The Lon'don Symphony Orchestra under the conductorship of Colin.Davis provided "exquisite 'music, exquisitely played". Lord Russell's favourite , composers were performedStravinsky and Mozart. Mozart's Piano Con- certo in C minor played by Lili Kraus was, in itself, an act of homage made by a fervent admirer, and how brilliantly it was performed! After the Concert Lord Russell himself was brought to the platform to receive •a number of gifts and with him were the Duke of Bedford, actress Vanessa Redgrave and Victor Purcell, the latter is perhaps better known as Myra Buttle author of the clever satire, The Bitches Brew, or the plot against Bertrand Russell. The Duke of Bedford, giving him a copy of the programme of the concert said : "1 think, Cousin Bertie. that this is the proudest moment of my life, I realise that the reason for my being here is that I happen to be • the head of the Russell family. But as a family we have always stuck our feet in, and fought for what we believe." 3

A healthy-looking figure, Lord Russell-showed promise of quite a few more years to come. He was presented with a copy of The History of the World in Epitome in nineteen rords Whieh, it was said, he had written for history classes in Martian junior. schools. The epitome read : /-"Since Adam and Eve ate the apple, Man has:never refrained from 'any folly of which he is capable.- ' . , . The Tributes Lord Russell listened quietlY while his American secretary, Mr. Ralph Schoenman, read out a good, many of over a hundred tributes sent by individuals and organisations throughout the world. Tributes to the man -who has done so much -for humanity, most of which may not be recognised or many years to come. The leader of Canadian Nuclear. Disarinament movement, came in person to add to these tributes. When Lord Russell had mastered an excusable emotion he said : "My deepest thanks for this exquisite music, exquisitely played. I have a simple creed: that life, joy and beauty are better than dusty death. When we listen to such music, we must feel that the capacity to play such music and to hear such music are worth preserving.", Nuts in May - The concert given at the Royal Albert Hall on May. 28 was' quite a different affair. It followed the tradition set by the late Gerard Hoffnung and others in its clever merging of.,music. and humour. The programme described the concert as "an up-the-pole Musical parody and satirc devised as a tonic for tired music lovers by Fritz Spiegl". Antony Hopkins introduced the items in a .cultured voice' and •With the wealth of satire demanded by the occasion. We hesitate to- say ,that it was a prostiiution of goad music, althOugh we may say ihat most of the huge 'audience were, at times, prostratewith- mirth. - - - - - The concert was not without interest to -members of S.P.E.S.,'as -the Hon. -Secretary- and the assistant Hon: -Secretary- of the -South -Place -Sunday Concerts, Mr. and Mrs. George Hutchinson, had their place in Fritz Spiegl's orchestra, as did also Mr. Frank' Hawkins: It was noticed in the list of acknowledgements to the organiaers Mr.'Hawkins was featured "as organis- ing almost everything else".. A RiototFun • • . . We hal're not the space ta- itemise the whole concert yet We tc-iay be per- mitted .to note that Lord and Lady Montagu took pate in°,a- motdr-car concerto Sinfonia AhtOmoVilistica"; "The Barbdr Of Secrilld"gfies jo the 'Devil:" 'Wind P the'Handel's HOI-," "A Lisit-Wagher Twigi". Perhaps the piece-de-fesistance was R'ossini's overture: Serairamide for.eight Piarios, sixteen players, thirty-two hands. ,The•immacula:cy of -ihe pla:ying of this wonderful group of first-class pianists 'conveyed the sound effedt of a full orchestra and the precision of the performance was nearly incredible. We must congratulate Frank Hawkins for his imporlant :part in a Wonder- ful show. -- - • Religion . . There have . often been discussions at Conway Hall regarding .that debatable word "religion-, therefore it is mot surprising to find the Dean of St. Paul's in a dilemma when writing of it in his Saturday article in , The Daily Telegraph on- May 26. He quotes St. James: "To visit the father- less and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world." 4 -This does not completely satisfy the Dean, for.he says: "We eannot quote St. James as authorising us to sweep away all doctrine and theology together with all study of liturgy and the modes of Christian worship. This does not imply that his dictum on pure religion has no revelance to Christian thought." We think it safe to say that Conway Hall would support St. James rather than the accretions of theology and doctrine which have been attached to "pure religion" by the Church. However, it should be borne in mind that religion is a word which has'been commandeered by the Church over many centuries and, in this context, cannot now be divorced from the minds of ordinary men. DAVID LOW • Given our system of government, it was a happy decision for a knight- hood to have been conferred upon David Low. It was public recognition given at one and the same time to the art of the cartoonist and a man of great artistic ability, humanity and charm. The pencil of such men as Low or the ebullient Vicki -adds a subtle sense of life and gaiety to such brilliantly edited newspapers and periodicals as the Evening Standard, the Guardian and the New Statesman. The cartooniSt delineates for us, in clear and arresting pictorial form, an idea, a trend in feeling or fashion, or the traits of the public figures of the day. It is as if the artist lent us sight and vision to glimpse a •hitherto unperCeived world of interest and beauty lying at our door. Low is orie of the greatest political cartoonists of his'age. For example, when the-Evening Standard (2.6.62) reproduced his cartoon'All.Behind You, Winston, drawn at the time when Churchill became Prime Minister; it brought to life again, in the minds of all who saw it, the work and sacrifices, the miseHes and the splendours;-of the years of the Second World War. Then; in lighter vein, who amongst us can forget Colonel Blimp or dear old Nellie, the T.U.C. horse? New Zealand-born, Low elected to work in this country and, as The Guardian said recently, "he perfected his style and forged his most killing weapons- during his twenty-three years on the Evening Standard. Be Was at the height of-his influence'in the thirties, when he was indeed a political power in the land. He is remembered and honoured today in Britain bbth as a man and as an artist. - RICHARD CLEMENTS

Locke on Liberty and Toleration

. MAURICE CRANSTON, M.A., BLitt. LOCKE WAS NOT QUITE- what he appeared to be. The portraits Greenhill, Kneller and Verelst all depict a -face not only handsome but romantic, indulgent, patrician: the face of a connoisseur. Locke was many other things —economist. sliplomatist, theologian, traveller, scientist, physician, peda- gogue. philosopher—but he was never a man of much artistic and literary taste. Hume was said to have looked like "a turtle-eating alderman instead of a refined philosopher"; Locke who had the looks of a "refined philosopher- write like a water-drinking Opposition councillqr, his style ungainly, his idioms commercial, his humour •laboured, his interests 'embarrassingly practical. -What is the use," he asked, "of poetry?" 5 His published writings lack, besides grace, the philosopher's prime virtue of consistency. Some of the important points he makes in his Essay Con- cerning Human Understanding are refuted by what he says elsewhere in that same book. Locke is not exceptional among philosophers in being boring; the problem in his case is to see how one so philistine and incon- clusive can have been so great. There are people who say that Locke was not great, not even a philosopher, but such are usually those who think only metaphysicians are philosophers; and Locke was assuredly no Leibniz or Spinoza; he offered no all-embracing system to explain the nature of the universe. On the contrary, Locke tried to show that the human understanding is so limited that comprehensive knowledge of the universe is beyond men's power to reach. He did not give the answers; his achievement lay in setting out the problem, in suggesting, as no one had ever done before, what questions philosophers should ask and how they should ask them. Two powerful streams in seventeenth-century thought, the semi-sceptical rational theorising of Descartes and the ad hoc scientific experimenting of Bacon and Boyle and the Royal Society, came together in Locke. Their union was not perfect, because the streams were so different, but his mind was the meeting point, a point which marked a new beginning, not only in philosophy, but in general ways of thinking about the world. Locke, one might almost say, had the first modern mind. Descartes, a greater man than Locke, was still in many ways a medieval thinker, his philosophy was still tied to theology; even Gassendi, who anticipated much of Locke, did not quite leap free; he gave God to the theologians and set the proper study of philosophers within the boundaries of man's small world; "Our portion lies only here in this spot of earth, where we and all our concernments are shut up." And yet Locke was not a religious man, and in his capacity as theologian he had views of his own about God to expand. He quarrelled with prelates and the orthodox, he maintained that a Christian need believe no more than the single proposition "that Christ is the Messiah", but to that bare minimum of doctrine Locke held with the deepest assurance. The New Testament was the basis, was indeed the sum of his moral philosophy, and his political philosophy is hardly intelligible unless it is seen as a Christian's philosophy. Locke was a man of humble birth. His grandfather Nicholas Locke was a clothier of Penford, Somerset; his father was a less prosperous lawyer and clerk to the magistrates of that place. His mother came from a family of tanners at Wrington. also in Somerset, and Locke was born there on August 29, 1632. His father was then twenty-six years old, his mother thirty-five; Locke was their first child. He was baptised by Samuel Crook, the leading Bible-punching Puritan of the diocese, and brought up in an atmosphere of austerity and discipline. The Civil War broke out when Locke was ten, and his father was mounted as a Captain of the Parliamentary Horse by Alexander Popham, a wealthy magistrate turned colonel. Apart from demolishing some Popish images in Wells Cathedral the two officers saw little action, but a grateful Alexander Popham became the patron of his Captain's eldest son, and when, a few years later, Westminster School was taken over by Parliament. the Colonel found a place there for his protégé. - At Westminster. Locke came under the Royalist influence of Richard Busby, whom the Parliamentary governors had imprudently allowed to remain Master of the school. When Locke up in 1652 became an under- graduate of Christ Church, he was all prepared to react against the rule of the Puritan Saints which then prevailed at Oxford. By 16591Locke was a right-wing monarchist; by 1661 his political views were very close to those of Hobbes. 6 Locke's principal biographer, H. R. Fox Bourne, who is generally reliable, although he had no access to Locke's papers which the Lovelace family then possessed (and which the Bodleian Library bought in 1948) spread abroad the idea that -Locke wias a life-long liberal. Finding liberal sentiments expressed in a manuscript entitled "Reflections on the Roman Common- wealth- and dated 1661, Fox Bourne concluded that Locke "had already arrived at conclusions in political science from which he never greatly swerved-. In fact, Locke did not write the "Reflections of the Roman Commonwealth-. The real author was a man named Walter Mayle. Locke did write on politics in 1661, but the sentiments he expressed were by no means liberal ones. Locke's religious views may be seen by his reply to Edward Bagshawe who argued that where the commands of God were not specific, the state should leave men free to worship as they pleased. His pamphlet was a plea for toleration. Locke's response was an argument against toleration. Locke maintained that "the civil ruler must necessarily have an absolute and arbitrary power over all the indifferent actions of his people." Locke's argument was based on the proposition that men were born by God's design "subject to the will and pleasure of another", the other being the ruler of the country in which they were born. In a preface to this pamphlet against Bagshawe Locke said "there is no one can have a greater respect and veneration for authority than I". He recalled he had been born in "a storm'', a political storm which had "lasted almost hitherto", and he said that the calm which the Restoration of Charles II had brought with it was so welcome to him that he felt obliged in duty and in gratitude to encourage obedience-. The influence of Hobbes, which was considerable throughout Locke's life, though he always denied it, was at this period most pronounced. In 1666 Locke met and made friends with Anthony Ashley Cooper, then Lord Ashley, later first Earl of Shaftesbury. Shaftesbury was already the outstanding politician on the left, the most forceful champion of religious toleration. Locke still aspired to uphold obedience, but at the time of their first meeting, if Locke had not already come over to Shaftesbury's side, Shaftesbury soon pulled him over the last few hurdles. A year later Locke went, at the age of thirty-four, to live at Shaftesbury's house in London. His career at Oxford had not been a particularly distin- guished one. He had been a temporary lecturer and a censor at Christ Church, he had made friends with Robert Boyle and helped him by collect- ing data, and he had studied medicine: but he had done no important medical laboratory work and he had failed to get a medical degree. After- wards Shaftesbury decided that Locke was far too great a genius to be spending his time on medicine alone, and work of other kinds was found for him. It was under Shaftesbury's patronage that Locke discovered his own true gifts. For one thing, he became a philosopher. At Oxford Locke had been as bored and dissatisfied as Hobbes had been with the medieval Aristotelian philosophy which was taught there. Reading Descartes opened Locke's eyes to a new sort of philosophy, and discussion with Shaftesbury and other London friends led him to write, in his fourth year under Shaftesbury's roof, the first draft of his masterpiece on the Human Understanding. Locke's political writings, being polemical rather than analytical, are less elaborately argued than his philosophical writings, but his method is the same. By getting away from the notion of absolute liberty explaining the sort of liberty men must have, Locke shows the sort of liberty men can have. The limits of liberty are set by the nature of political societies as such, by the necessity of protecting the life, property and freedom of each from 7 invasion by any other, and protecting the safety of all from common enemies. Once those limitations are understood, no other limitations need be borne, indeed no other limitations should be borne. Locke set men on the path to the greatest possible liberty with the same means by which he set them on the path of the greatest possible knowledge—by teaching them the impossibility of the absolute. (Summary of a lecture delivered on May 6)

Arnold Bennett BY RICHARD CLEMENTS

FROM THE BEGINNING of the eighteenth century down to our own time Staffordshire has been famous for its industries—coal, iron and pottery. Daniel Defoe records in his journal that its men were fine runners; that at Penkridge there were notable horse-dealers; that good ale was brewed at Tamworth; and, as elsewhere in those days, the state of the roads was execrable. He saw little that presaged the county's later prosperity and fame. But, as time went on, the mines were improved and made to yield good coal. Then, after the success of the early experiments. at Colebrookdale, in the neighbouring county of Shropshire, coal smelting of iron made possible new industrial progress. Then, too, small village trade of pottery was developed by the genius of Risiah Wedgwood into a great industry, which sent its wares into all corners of the earth. Soon the five villages where pottery was made evolved into the great towns of Burslem, Hanley, Stoke, Tunstall and Longton. These communities, together with the old borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme, constituted the World of the young Arnold Enoch Bennett, the future journalist, novelist and critic. "Who," as Frank Swinnerton once asked, "would have supposed that it could produce an artist who, without falsification, would give the county in the eyes of the world a new air of life, beauty and romancer' How this came about is what we have now to consider. Bennett was born at Shelton, Hanley, on May 27, 1867. He was thus six months younger than H. G. Wells, with whom—after I897—he was to become the friend, fellow- novelist and close associate in many public causes. Both belonged by birth to the lower middle class, and afterwards rose to wealth and influence as writers. Wells exploited with rare skill the public interest of the time in scientific and social subjects; and, on the whole, had been well schooled for this work. Bennett, who belonged to the second generation of the successful, had been educated at the Newcastle-under-Lyme Middle School, with a view to joining his father's law office and becoming a solicitor. The youth took the London matriculation, but failed to pass the Intermediate LL.B. examina- tion. It seems that he was lured into journalism and had already begun to contribute gossip paragraphs to a local newspaper. There may also have been some divergencies of outlook and opinion beiween father and son : readers of the novel Clayhanger will remember that Darius Clayhanger begrudged the payment of a living wage to the son who was to inherit his business. This may have been suggested by the novelist's own experience. It is important also to remember Bennett's nonconformist upbringing. He grew up in the Wesleyan Methodist faith. Later on he abandoned it for intel- lectual reasons, and in his Five Towns novels was satirical-in his treatment of religion. He described himself as an agnostic and later became an honor- ary member of the Rationalist Press Association. However, his contact with the world of nonconformity had an enduring influence upon his mind and 8 character. Walter Allen, for example, in his admirable.book, Arnold Bennett, says.tharour'anthor's "values remained those of a provindial nonconformist" and that this enabled him "to immerse himself in the socialworld of London without corruption": The nonconformisTconscience, as the years-went by, was supplemented by his. faith as a. stoic: a philosophical outlook he strengthened and, developed by his study.of Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius. These spiritual forces drove him to acquire' useful knowledge and to unre- lenting toil.as journalist and author. Thus, in thirty years, he published some eighty books and plays. Bennett left' the Potteries when he was twenty-one years of age; and, except for short visits, never lived there again. He was, no doubt, thinking of himself when he wrote the opening sentence of his first novel, A .Man From the North: "There grows in the North Country a certain kind of youth of whom it may be said that he is born to be a Londoner." The discerning reader can learn much about his early life in London from his novel A Man From the North and .his book The Truth About an Author: His experience was very similar to that of other unknown provincials arriving in London. 'A earned," he wrote long afterwards, -a scanty living as a shorthand clerk, at first, in a solicitor's office; but a natural gift for the preparation of bills of costs for taxation, that highly delicate and complicated craft., and an equally natural gift 'for advancing my own interests, soon put me in receipt of an income. that many 'admitted' clerks would have envied: to be exact and prosaic, two hundred a year." His oWn aims at the time were modest and he did not aim at more than newspaper work, which would earn him a living. But, later on, when he found himself living amongst artists in Chelsea, some of whom assured him he had the artistic temperament, he began to work as a novelist and critic to prove that they were right. Then, too, like the hero-of his first- novel, Richard Larch; he beithi.4o collect books. This experience he turned to good account when he came to write his book The Literary Taste: How to Form It. From what can be gleaned from these various sources it-is clear that Bennett loved money and had skill in .making his own way in the world. Years afterwards Lord Beaverbrook once remarked to him: "Arnold, you are a- hard man." Cer- tainly, thanks to his gifts. and a realistic exploitation of them, in the last ten years of his life he became 'the most highly paid writer and book reviewer working for the London newspapers. • • He was appointed assistant editor of the weekly paper Woman in 1893, and later on became its editor. This enabled him to escape from the drudgery of a solicitor's office and to exercise his talents as a writer Of book reviews, theatre notices, and even cookery hints and fashion notes. But this was not the whole story. In a sustained effort to Improve his powers as a literary artist he had come "under the sweet influences of the de Goncourts, Tur- genev, Flaubert and de Maupassant". He was thus inspired to plan and write a novel under the title A Man From the North. It was published in 1898; and, tWo years later, appeared the best of Bennett's first groups of novels, Anna of the' Five Towns. It is a moving account of the social and religious life of the Potteries. Then, too, he began in 1896 to keep his famous journal, which gives a warmer and 'more attractive piCture of Bennett both as a man and an author than do other of his earlier writings.* At the time of his death in March 1931 the various volumes of this journal contained more than a million words. The 'general reader will find the Penguin edition most useful for his purposes. - For some ten years Bennett lived in France. He fell in lover with an American girl, Miss Eleanor Green, but the engagement was broken off.

* A useful edition entitled The Journals of Arnold Bennett was edited by Frank Swinnerton for Penguin Books. Price 3s. 6d. 9 Then, in July 1907, he married a French woman, Mlle Marguerite Soulit. The couple set up house at Fontainebleau and Bennett settled down to write The Old Wives' Tale, which was to become his literary masterpiece. It des- cribes the lives of two women, Sophia and Constance Baines, the first being something of a venturer and spends many years in France, while her sister works out her fate in time in the more familiar settings of the Five Towns. There are some poignant pictures of life in youth and old age in the pages of this great novel. Indeed, it seems to the reader that Time itself is being depicted. The climax is reached when we are shown Constance at the end of her days. "Constance never pitied herself. She did not consider that Fate had treated her very badly. She was not very discontented with herself. . . True, she was old. So were thousands of other people in Burslem. She was in pain. So there were thousands of other people. With whom would she be willing to exchange lots? She had many dissatisfactions. But she rose superior to them. When she surveyed her life, and life in general, she would think, with a sort of tart but not sour cheerfulness : 'Well, that is what life is!' " What are we to say of his work as a whole? It was, of course, uneven in scope and quality. Some of it is today almost unreadable. The "fantasias'', as he liked to describe them, were thrown off to earli money, and are doomed to oblivion; and only a few of his plays are likely to be remembered. But The Old Wives' Tale, The Card, Clayhanger, Riceymans Step and These Twain are for all time. Some of his short stories and a condensed version of the Journals will also survive. (Summary ol an address delivered on May 20) - A Short History of Austrian Freethought BY OTTO WOLFGANU UNDER THE DECEIVING TITLE of "People's Parties" the Roman Catholic Church maintains political parties as well as cultural and sports organisations. As a result, the socialist parties in their militant era also set up mutual aid, sports and cultural bodies on socialist principles; one of these cultural organisations was the League of Austrian Freethinkers (Freidenkerbund Oesterreichs. or FB0e), a proper mass organisation, considering that the whole population of Austria was only 6,500,000. When Dollfuss in 1953 singled the FBOe out as the first body to be prohibited, it had 57,000 members all over the country organised in 333 branches and nine District Committees. They had a printed monthly journal with an edition of 60.000 and assets of about 140,000 pre-war value, which were stolen and never restituted. Whatever the varying political colour of the rest of the country, Vienna, with one-third of the Austrian population, remained staunchly "red". The Gemeinde Wien—the equivalent of the London County Council—with its secure social democratic majority, may have been a capitalistic concern, but it had to maintain a socialist facade. Thus, besides owning the Municipal Brewery (Brauerei der Stadt Wien) it also ran a Teetotallers' League: As a protest against the reactionary rule of the Church in the guise of a government, the FBOe had become a mass organisation; to counter-balance its influence, the Social Democratic Party (SP) set up and fostered a Christian Socialist Group. Finally, in order to decapitate both Freethinkers and Teetotallers, they decreed that all lecturers and officers had to be official members of the SP, with merciless expulsion of dissenters. Now let us for a moment consider what sort of people .get on tortuous and 10 costly ways into Parliament to don the mantle of People's Tribune, pretend- ing to represent the opinion of the whole country: first of all there are the big landlords and industrialists with_ their retinue of ecclesiastical wire- pullers and managerial directors. They are the ones who really own and rule the country, irrespective whether or not they form the visible government. To their lackeys and paid underlings such as legal advisers and company solicitors falls the role of acting the Opposition; through bungling of the thoughtfully devised rules of the play (e.g. calculated carving and reshaping of constituencies) it sometimes happens that a leftist doctrinaire is thrown up, yet in what is considered a "sound democracy" he is. quickly contained by his leaders who by dint of the political safety regulations are right wing. The more the• Austrian reaction forced the pace towards a show-down, the more the.SP retreated in the vain hope to salvage, not the basic civil rights of their electors, but their own foothold in Parliament. In this rear- guard skirmish with the Church-made-Government the existence of a Free- thought League was nothing but an embarrassing nuisance. The establishing of the "Closed-Shop- rule made it possible to reduce the Austrian Free- thought movement to a sterile debating club from which political questions were strictly debarred. Thus it had been a corpse before fascism rendered it the coup de grace. When on April 2, 1948, a few old stalwarts revived the FBOe on the basis of its former statutes minus the "Closed-Shop- rule, this proved a particularly difficult uphill road : they had inherited the record of political inactivity for the benefit of purely scientific -enlightenment- and the inexcusable gagging of militant activists; the SP had become respectable and the coalition partner of the political Church (Rosa Luxemburg already had warned that any pact between right and left must of need be to the detriment of left); and the Communist had been invoked by the notorious Stalin Constitution not to "insult the religious susceptibilities of believers" but to limit themselves to "persuasion" only. Today the reconstituted League has c. 600 members, nearly all of them also members of the Labour Party (to make up for the tacit dropping of Marxism and class struggle, this Party now calls itself the "Socialist" Party!). The new Executive Committee is composed of ten "Socialists", two Communists and two Independents; one of the latter, a well-known arts expert, is nominal Chairman, whilst an SP-man, F. Kernmeier, Privy Councillor, is the acting Chairman. An ex-professional officer and Civil Servant (Ministry of the Interior), he had been politically persecuted by both the black and brown Fascists. There are still three Old-Timers on the E.C., and one of the lecturers, Professor Rigler, is a Communist. In 1955 circular letters were occasionally sent out, deveroping later into a duplicated monthly broadsheet; for a few months in 1961 the League tried to have a small monthly journal printed but could not keep it up. Needless eo say that they have to fight for their bare existence against left and right and that the official newspaper of the SP, the Arbeiterzeitung even refuses to advertise their meetings. Nevertheless, with the aid of excellent lecturers they are now, once again, on the ascendancy with well-attended meetings. High-school teachers and upper-grade Civil Servants, mostly of the "German-Nationalistic- persuasion, formed the "Kirchenfreien" in Graz and Salzburg; these are not necessarily freethinkers, but dissidents from organised (i.e. Jewish-Christian) religion, slightly comparable to the Humanists of the RPA. All three groups have, however, joined forces in a Co-ordinating Committee to postulate the civic rights of 350,000 citizens without religious denomination. II A Divine Propagandist BY ' DENIS COBELL. SUPPoSE ALL THE CYNICAL and sarcastic remarks that could be made about Lord Beaverbrook's new book, The Divine Propagandist, have already been made; I do not propose to add any more at the moment. It is inevitable Mat most reviews should concentrate 'upon the character of the Beaver as opposed to the actual content of the book—subject and author seem so diverse. However„1 think Lord Beaverbrook has made a good job of aligning his own character with that of Christ; not that this task is beyond the capacity of most of us—the accounts of Christ's life are various and capable of numerous manners of interpretation. One point emerges quite clearly in the second chapter of this short book: Lord Beaverbrook accepts only the words uttered by Christ himself. Neither St. Paul nor John the Baptist are recognised as the voice of God. John the Baptist is dismissed as the last of the old prophets who inadvertently slipped into the New Testament. St. Paul is criticised more vehemently: "His epistles lay down many 'taboos' which he imposes on the early Christian communities—whereas the things which Jesus forbids are very few and simple and plainly wrong" (p. 11). While we may not wholely accept this passage, 1 think many of the prejudices against which humanists strive today stem from St. Paul rather than from Christ himself. Lord Beaverbrook speaks of Jesus as the greatest propagandist the world has ever known. This is a humble statement from one who told the Royal Commission on the Press that he runs his papers as a means of propaganda —and who can fail to know .the wide area that those papers penetrate? A small section of this book, is devoted to the criticism of current com- mercialism in the Holy Land--"dependent on vast fleets of American- and German-manufactured motor cars, carrying sightseeis" (p. 39). Many of us will sympathise with Lord Beaverbrook concerning this aspect of civilisation. Lord Beaverbrook believes in Heaven and Hell. Some reviews have suggested that this book is an eleventh hour recantation—but the parable of the foolish virgins is cited to affirm that the writer does not believe in this form of salvation. The teleological argument is advanced, to purport the view that life continues beyond the grave, but only secondarily to the doctrine of Jesus. "It is the very strength of this desire for perpetuation which is the best proof that the promise of Jesus will be fulfilled". (p. 55). There are only a few passages in this book that would be offensive to a Billy Graham—for what Lord Beaverbrook has to say, the Bible has already said; the interpretations are very shallow. Hell-fire and Lord Beaverbrook seem to be on nodding termsat any rate he thinks the "Gentle Jesus" concept has been over-rated, and regards Jesus as a "stern propagandist bent upon the utmost efficiency" (p. 32). A parallel which he may like to draw with himself. There are certainly no new arguments for Christianity put forward in this book; it merely reveals that one of the press lords also believes the myth that has made and marred Western civilisation. Lord Beaverbrook is the chief propagandist of Three nationally circulated newspapers, and it is against this background that he must finally be judged as a hypocrite, or not, in the writing of this little book. I shall quote from the last paragraph and leave the reader to decide. "The Kingdom of God was opened by Jesus and the race is slowly entering into it. If we are more humane, more charitable, more enlightened as one generation succeeds another, as I believe we are, the debt is due to the life and death of Jesus" (p. 77). 12 . My verdict—if people 'who live in glass houses must throw stones, they should be careful where they aim. - Christian and Hurnanist BY P. B. SM IT FI tHE HUMANIST I am talking about is an 'agnostic because it is the relationship of such a humanist to the Church and the Church's relationship to such a humanist that I want to discuss. I think, too, we should aisume that he has got an average quota of religious feelings; after all, it is generally accepted that it is natural for. people to have religious feelings, by which- is meant, more or less the following: a feeling that- morality has a reality of its own, that some things are right and some wrong, whatever we may think about it; a feeling that we are part of something much bigger and more permanent than ourselves; and a feeling of spiritual existence, that our mental. emotional; or psychic selves have an existence in some ways distinct from our bodies. These are all feelings and I think we can identify them, whatever we may have come to think about them intellectually. A Christian, believing that some aspects of God have been revealed to us, is liable to direct his religious feelings towards God, and so, for him. morality, or the distinction between right and wrong, derives-its reality from the will of God. Also that greater reality which we feel we partake of is explicable as a relationship with God and spiritual reality becomes part of God's spiritual world. A humanist must believe in a different origin for his religious feelings, presumably believing that they are rooted in the complex nature of man. But whatever he thinks about their origins they are still'there as a fact of life; his moral or ethical code does feel as if it has a reality of its own. even if he thinks that reality may be no more than an instinctive -acceptance of the greater importance of the group than of the individual or some -deep endorsement of what is natural; he does feel part of something greater and more enduring than himself, even if he thinks this may be only a reflection of the biological fact that he is a small part of a species existing before him. after him and all around him; and he does feel a spiritual existence even if he thinks this may be only an illusion arising out of the mind's conscious- ness or self coupled with its habit of abstract thought and feeling. Naturally, finding out about God, learning what is His will and striving to get and keep in a satisfactory relationship with Him must be most important objectives for a Christian. But so. one may suppose, must be the objective of living this earthly life in accordance with God's will. Naturally. I do not expect Christians to set out with certainty and without fear of con- tradiction what is God's will in a list of particular circumstances. but I assume that some general principles are acceptable to all Christians. In particular that it is God's will that people should regard each other as neighbours, that we should regard all other people, Christian •or non-Christian, good, bad and indifferent people, as children of God. That we should take seriously this family relationship bearing in mind the statement "inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me". That the command to love our neighbours as ourselves refers to all other humans and is a command which we should make some real effort to fulfil. Also, as the natural result of loving someone is to want to see that person happy and satisfied, that an endeavour by people collectively to live full, satisfying and happy lives is in accordance with God's will. It seems to me that anyone who believes in a God of love, who is our. Father 13 and who has enjoined us to love Himself and to love one another would find it hard indeed to reject these principles. Whatever his beliefs about the origins of religious feelings, a person is unlikely to call himself a humanist unless he has oriented himself to the whole human race; thus ruling out any philosophy of narrow selfishness or of the superiority of any group, and ensuring that his ethical code applies equally to all and that the greater whole of which he feels a part will be believed to encompass at least the whole human race, fle is thus likely to find himself in close agreement with that part of the Christian's attitude to his fellow humans outlined above and he is very likely to find many state- ments in the Bible forceful, well put and apt. lie will naturally interpret the references to God as metaphorical and so the Christian may well believe in his heart that the humanist is missing the point; but, nevertheless, a humanist can readily regard all mankind as one family and desire passion- ately that people should treat each other as if they might really be brothers and sisters, and he can believe that the most important thing for people is to live at peace with their fellows and to promote full, happy and satisfying living which must include satisfaction of religious feelings or what I think may fairly be called "spiritual life". It may be that a Christian considers that a humanist's aims, though in many ways the same as his own for this world, are impossible and his efforts futile without a belief in and help from God. In so far as a Christian believes that all good things, love, inspiration and all the virtues come directly from God, then he must be right in thinking that without His help a humanist will not get very far. But, in fact. few Christians would claim that God gives virtues and inspiration only to those who acknowledge Him, which, indeed, is manifestly not so. Nor would one expect the spiritual Father of all mankind and the Creator of the world to withhold his help on such petty grounds. However. this still leaves the possibility that non- Christians, although loved by God, fail to take advantage of all the spiritual help that is available to Christians. If this is so, Christians will surpass non- Christians in living up to the ideals of both, treating all others as if they might really be brothers and sisters, creating conditions in which everyone is helped to feel he belongs as a wanted and important member of the human family, making life in this world peaceful, secure and satisfying. I would not like to speculate on whether or not Christians do surpass non-Christians in this respect, but I think that Christians will freely accept that non-Christians have made, and are still making, an important contribu- tion. This fact poses a difficult problem for the Christian Church; should it treat non-Christians as full members of the family of mankind participating freely in such of their ventures as conform With the temporal objectives of the Church, even though in the Church's opinion the motives of the non- Christian may be inadequate; or should the Church concentrate on its own venture and wait until it has converted people to Christianity before regarding them for practical purposes as members of God's family? If the Church believes that all humans are children of God and that He wants us to live together as one family I hope that it will consider it more effective to do all it can to live in close harmony and co-operation with all people without waiting to convert them first. To do otherwise must be to wait too long, as it is quite apparent that a large proportion of people are never going to bother very much about religious or theological questions and are going to be satisfied to remain in the religion, or lack of it, of their parents, and others, after careful consideration, are going to choose a non-Christian answer. Yet there is a crying and urgent need for everyone to recognise themselves as, and feel themselves to be. members of the whole human family, which is partly a spiritual and partly a political matter. In so far as 14 it is spiritual, then the present lack of recognition in the world of the family claims of the rest of the world must be a standing challenge to the Christian Church or any other institution with similar ideals. The challenge is so great that there is a real danger of race suicide unless all people of whatever creed who believe in the essential unity of the human race can combine to make this unity a spiritual reality, so creating one of the necessary pre- conditions of world peace. Can the Chinch give a lead in this effort to create one human family out of people of all religions and of none? Even if it can, or even to the extent that it already does, are humanists willing to co-operate with the Church? Obviously they are, to some extent at least, as there must already be co-operition by individual humanists at parish level and the variety of government and voluntary bodies co-operat- ing with the Church in one way or another must include many humanists. But there is certainly a lot of resistance and hostility to the Church by humanists, many of whom, as a matter of principle, would not work closely, or associate, with the Church. To quite an extent' this appears to be because if they do there is likely to be a tacit assumption by the Church and the public at large that any close association implies an acceptance of the doc- trines of the Church and a submission to its spiritual authority. An open willingness on the part of the Church to co-operate on practical projects with persons of other religions and with humanists should go a long way to overcome this difficulty. Humanists on their side must be broadminded enough to co-operate with enterprises of the Church with which they agree without trying to undermine or attack the Christian's faith. Another difficulty is that humanists are often afraid that the Church will claim some special or superior knowledge as to how the common aims are to be achieved and the Church seems afraid that the humanist will dis- regard its traditional values. If there is to be full co-operation, Ihen the Church must be prepared to discuss its traditional attitudes, including its attitude to sex, marriage and divorce, in the light of modern knowledge and social.conditions. On the other hand, humanists must not expect a revolu- tion overnight, nor forget all that is good in the long tradition of moral guidance, spiritual help and social work of the Churches: But, even if these difficulties are overcome, do humanists really Want to co-operate with the Church? No doubt some would prefer to wait in the expectation that religions will all die a natural death, but others accept that many people who agree with humanist aims also believe, however vaguely. in a personal God and need a religion within which to accommodate their religious feelings. Such humanists will be very glad of co-operation with the Church. The spiritual unity of the human race, by general acceptance of family responsibility, between all its_ members, has a long way to go as a purely secular movement; as a movement of one of the world's Churches alone it has an even further way to go, as it is impossible to imagine any of the world's Churches superseding all the others in the forseeable future; but as a combined movement on the religious and secular fronts with the full weight of the world's Churches and of humanists it becomes a sufficiently attain- able goal to be worth going for with optimism and determination. Conway Discnssions THE ETHICAL BASIS OF ANARCHISM ON MARCH 6 in the Conway Discussions series, Mr. Ian Leslie spoke on "The Ethical Basis of Anarchism". • The word anarchy, he said, from the Greek roots meant simply "without 15 government", but had acquired-the connotations of -"disorder, strife, chaos". Andrchists,thought.of it rather as- the condition of natural order, where the needs and interests of the various members of society were in harmony. We ought to be clear Mal government was. not an abstraction embodying the - general interest, endowed with the attributes of reason, justice and equity. Government cbtlisted simply of the aggregate of those who govern, using the collective power of society to. coerce. Why should the members of a socieiy abdicate their power to governments? Even if ,it could be supposed that the best, the most just, the most beuehcent,of men would be elected, even so their efforts must to a great extent -be. dissipated in the exercise of power—for this was the essence of government—and the specific task of maintaining their position. In fact., governments were selected .on a very different basis: originally, by simple strength of arms; in early forms of parliamentary:government,. as representing a particular class or stratum of society against the interests of the rest: -and with universal suffrage, the criterion .of selection became the-ability to, take in the massss, by whatever means. If the process Of government embodied such disadvantages why did we accept it? The theory justifying its continuance generally assumed that the interests of-the „various members of society were essentially and fundamen- tally opposed, so that an external power. was needed. to hold the balance; that the liberty of each required that the liberty, of others be limited.-The fact, anarchists:believed, was that government starts as despotism and con- cedes as little of its powcr as it must from time-to time to secure a measure of stability, adding to its activities/certain public services; partly to -divert attention from .its basic functions, the exercise of power, and partly 'because if too much were left to corporate non-governmental .agencies, the com- munity might realise how little need it had of ,government. Mr. Leslie pointed out; that governments invariably took over only such services as had their foundations already well laid by private or local initiatives, and then by over-regulating and institutionalising they frequently diminished the truly social functioning of these ,services. We ought io learn to realise.that the basic humantdrives were social, the destructive, anti-social ones decondary. There was' an ample and groWing body. of psychological, historical and-anthropological evidence to support the assertion, and in any case, if the contrary were true;.mankind must- by now have perished. All progress was made , through co-operation. The liberty of others Was not ,do. much a limitation on one's own as a comple- meM to. it, for no-one could be really free ,except in association with others equally free. Early in man's history on earth he had learnt to co:operate in; conflict against the external dangers which threatened his existence. In the evolved conditions of today, conflict was an anachronism. - In -order to understand how. society ,could. function without government, it was only necessary to look at how it actually functioned from day to day. Many of the most important social functions were in fact carried out -with little or no intervention from the central. government_and such bodies as medical and scientific associations functioned with full intercommunication and co-operation on the very widest—even world-wide scale on an entirely voluntary basis. A lively and wide-ranging discussion followed- Mr. Leslie's address, the most significant dialogue being between those who thought anarchism an impractical utopian idea and those who asserted, on the contrary, that it was the only philosophy which offered the chance to work, here and now, directly towards the sort of society one wanted. Seen thus, it did away with the conflict between ends and means which characterised "political" action.

16 (Summary. of a Talk -by 'Dr.• Douglas Gibson, aSc., entitled . NATURE—"MYSTICAL MOTHER", "DOORMAT" OR WHAT?, •! THE s'PEAKEii briefly reviewed past attitudes to nature, showing ticnY thgV had varied from regardine it as d "MysticarMother to a "doormat-. to build a rational "way of life" based on firm' foundations, it was impOrtad thM our outlook and' opinions should be as nearly as nossible in accordance with the verified fact's -of nature. When men believed the earih was flat, they dwelt mentally in a small three-storeyed universe, with heaven above and hell beneath. Now that they increasingly realised that they lived in a fathomless immensity in which the earth was but as a speck of dust, many fell like a lost ,child, lost in a soulless machine, and retreated from reality into 'a dreatii world based on irrational mythologies. This was largely the result of our faulty educational system. By propel- education man could be brought to the realisation that nature represents neither a mystical mothei: nor a doormat, but a neutral time- space-energy continuum, into which, as a sentient being he can weave whatioever pattern he win: by his: ovin self-conscioua self-determination. - While the lower animals".and. primitive man 'evolved, conditioned in the rnain by their reactions to environment, we can toda'y, said the' Speaker, by the full' utilisation of our ,knowledge of nature in the realins of ,cfienfistry, biochemistry, phyiolody, jpsycholdgy and sociology, oursaves .dondition our environment and thereby'condition our -own further evolution.: If we wished man to transcend-the ape 'and wolf, then ethical, standards were Of viial importanee, .for, lacking these man could only, toO , readily revert to the leYel of the jungle from' which he had but so lately risen.

THE -LORE AND LANGUAGE OF- SCHOOL CHILDREN ON APRIL 3, Misd Kathleen Johnson gave a deview of:The Lffie and Lan- guage of School Children-. by Iona and Peter Opie. She sdid that- When you open' the book it "takes you back". It affects you. in this waY wheiher you ffre twentyffir seventy years old, or even, according to the Opie's, research, if .yOui are older than thnt. . "Adam and Eve and Pinchme Went down to. the river to bathe , . Adam and• Eve. were drowned • • Who-do you think was saved?" • This was. known as: a schoolboy's catch for the innocent neW boy and our unwary sisters in 1855. For fifty years or more millions of schooLchild- ren, respectors neither of- persons nor property, have dashed about the nation's playgrounds preserving a silly rhyme-like "Pig snout, walk out" as carefully as if it were a magic .incantation. From I. and P. Opie's collection of children's rhymes and sayings Miss Johnson picked out three particular aspects which seemed to her to be worthy. of- deeper study : first, the significance of language, secondly, children's social attitudes, and thirdly, children's beliefs. The rhymes, she said, are more than playthings to children. They seem do be one of their means of communication With each other. Language is still new to them and they find difficulty in expressing themselves. Through quaint ready-made formulas of meaningless words (like "meeny miny mo") the ridiculousness of life is underlined and the curiosity of language itself is savoured. This savouring of language is a prerequisite of the ability to think. "Language is the basis of the thought whether vocalised or un- vocalised,- says Ashley Montague, an American psychologist. When we look at the lore, as compared with the language, said Miss 17 Johnson, it was interesting to see that certain virtues were prized highly and certain vices were condemned outright. Physical courage, loyalty to friends, justice and fairness were understandingly valued because they ensured the solidarity of the group, and the feeling of being a part of a group contributed a good deal to a child's sense of security. Humility, moral courage, and some of the subtler adult virtues were outside the range of children's experience. How then would they ever gain admittance to the closed world of childhood? The answer to this, thought Miss Johnson. was a complex one, and brought in the whole concept of education. Education, she said, was like weaning. When you wean a baby you don't suddenly stop one form of diet and start another, but you make the change gradually over a fairly long period, so that the baby doesn'f experience any sudden change. So with education. When it is conscious education such as toilet training or learning arithmetic, the educator takes care of the weaning process. If it is unconscious education, as with the child absorbing the values and the social climate of the society in which he lives, the child weans himself by acquiring attitudes and values When his own inner development makes him ready for them. Children of six to fourteen don't only need each other. They need parents also. They need parents who will give them love and affection when they occasionally slip back to an earlier infantile period of development and who will act as guides and models (using the word in its psychological sense) when they stretch forward to reach into adolescence. Turning to the section on beliefs and superstitions one of the disquieting things about this study of the Opie's, Miss Johnson thought, was that with so-called normal children as with many so-called normal 'adults, fear of punishment, fear of retribution on the part of fate should be so prevalent. "If you see an ambulance, it means you will go to hospital. What you have to do to break the curse is to hold your collar until you see.a. dog." If you tread on the lines in the pavement many • disasters May follow. "You will fall down stairs"; "Your hair will fall out"; "Tread on a line and you'll marry a swine". If you see a funeral or a cross-eyed woman or a chimney sweep or a man with a wooden leg and many other things, you will have to go through various rites or Nemesis will get you in some way. Is it strange, she said, that children should so often feel the need to punish themselves. What seems to happen, is that when, in the process of growing up, an instinctive drive cannot be indulged or redirected the child turns his anger and aggression against himself. Sometimes he finds a scapegoat. So do adults. "There is a green hill far away Without a city wall Where the dear Lord was crucified Who died to save us all" Where the need to find a scapegoat, persists into adult life it can have disastrous consequences. How quick people are to assuage their own guilt and say of the offenders against society "hang him", "punish him", "bring back the birch-! Even more sinister is the result when the scapegoat is a group of people. Hitler used the Jews. In this country it was once the Germans. Now it is the Russians, or the Communists; br the Atheists. The discussion which followed Miss Johnson's review and interpretation of the Lore and Language of SehoolChildren brought out the fact that the book is a sociological as well as a psychological document. One speaker suggested that the collection of rhymes might have been different if con- tributions had been received from fee-paying private schools (including Eton and Harrow!) instead of from state schools. There was a good deal 18 of reminiscing from people's own past experience. On the whole, the general conclusion seemed to be that, while economic influence on environment cannot be denied, the main preoccupations of children are with even deeper issues—birth, death, group behaviour and control of instincts—that, in fact, the things that bind men together are stronger than those which divide.

South Place News

Sunday Social Miss Gladys Farnell has so often charmed us with her coloured slides of many countries that we find it difficult to find new words .of praise for her scintillating performance on May 20, when she delighted us by showing pictures of the Middle East. Her camera responded so well to her dis- criminating eye that we were once again suitably.rewarded. Three cities were interestingly dealt with--Damascus, Palmyra and Baal- bek. and most beautiful of all Petra, the rose-coloured city which is a perfect boon for the colour photographer. We were reminded of Sir Julian Huxley's colourful records in his fascinating book, Front an Antique Land. It is obvious that Miss Farnell thoroughly enjoys these talks herself, and can we say more than thank you, M iss Farnell, and please entertain us again.

Humanist Conference The Rationalist Press Association and the Ethical Union will be holding a joint Conference this year at Nottingham University from September 7 to 11. The. subject is "Youth in Revolt? the Conflict between the Older and the Younger Generation", and the speakers will . be Dr. Ronald Fletcher, Dr. Howard Jones, Mr. D. A. Feasey, and Mr. J. H. Wallis. Mem- bers of the S.P.E.S. are invited to attend at the teduced rate available to R.P.A. and EU. members: £8 for the full Conference or £2 per day for a shorter period. Further particulars may be obtained from either the R.P.A. (40 Drury Lane, London, W.C.2) or the EU. (13 Prince of Wales Terrace, London, W.8).

Society's Other Activities

Rambles with the Forest Group July 1—Central Line to Epping. Meet there at 11.30 a.m. Lunch at Forest Gate Inn 12.30, after which an address will be given by Richard Clements on "H. G. Wells and Arnold Bennett". Tea at Bell Cottage 4.15. July 15—Central Line to Loughton. Meet there at 11.30 a.m. Lunch, refreshment at Hut near Robin Hood, 12.30, after which an address will be given by M. L. Burnet on "Humanism in Personal Life". Tea at 4.15 p.m. August 12—Central Line to Loughton. Meet there 11.30 a.m. Lunch at High Beech, Turpins Cave, 12.30 p.m. Afterwards an address will be given by Mrs. Orr on "The Work of the Citizens Advice Bureau-. Tea at 4.15 near Volunteer Inn, Honey Lane. South Place members are cordially invited to join these excellent rambles. 19

SOUTH PLACE

rHE South Place Ethical Society is a progressive movement dating from 1793 which today advocates an ethical humanism, the study and dissemination of ethical principles and the cultivation of a rational religious sentiment, and believes that the moral life may stand independently in its own right. We invite to membership all those .who have abandoned supernatural creeds and find themselves in sympathy with our views. At Conway Hall there are opportunities for participation in many kinds of cultural activities, including Discussions, Lectures, Concerts, Dances, Rambles and Socials. A Library is available and all members receive the Society's journal, The Monthly Record, free. The Sunday Evening Chamber Music Concerts founded in 1887 have achieved international renown. The minimum subscriptions are: Members, 12s. 6d. pa.; Associate Members (ineligible to vote or hold office), 7s. 6d. p.a.; Life Members, 613 2s. 6d. Services available to Members and Associates include: The Naming Ceremony of Welcome to Children, the Solemnisation of Marriage, Memorial and Funeral Services. The Story of South Place, by S. K. Ratcliffe (2s. from Conway Hall), is a history of the Society and its interesting development within liberal thought.

OFFICERS:

Secretary: J. Hutton Hynd Hon. Registrar: Mrs. T. C. Lindsay .

Hon. Treasurer: A. Fenton Hon. Asst. Registrar: Miss W. L. George

Executive Secretary: Miss E. Palmer Editor, "The Monthly Record": G. C. Dowman Address: Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London, W.C.I. (Tel.: CHAncery 8032)

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