Letters to the Editor
THE LORD MAYOR'S FUND [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sia,—The Report of the Lord Mayor's Fund for the relief of the distressed mining areas in England and Wales," which has just been issued, sets forth in some detail the origin and progress of the movement, and the remarkable work which has been done. Certainly the organizing staff deserve all the credit that is due to them, but the Report is singularly unfortunate in its failure to appreciate the very valuable help which the several "Adoption Schemes" rendered, and the signal loyalty of the people responsible, in consenting to come in under the Lord Mayor's Fund. St. Martin-in-the- Fields led the way in the " adoption " of Mountain Ash, and Wallasey soon followed with the adoption of Ammanford with the most happy results to both parties. "The best thing that has ever happened to Wallasey," sums up the opinion of the leading people in Wallasey! The " adoption " movement, of which these two are admirable instances, both of which were well at work in early December, before the Government had decided on its subsidy of 11 for every 11 given to the Lord Mayor's Fund, is lightly dismissed in the Report as a movement which had been tried and found wanting ! More remarkable than all is the omission of all reference in the Report to the part which the Spectator and its readers played, and to the outstanding success of the Spectator's "adoption" of Aberdare. Over 112,000 in cash, and gifts in kind to the value of at least 15,000, sums up the material contribution of the readers of the Spectator for the relief of the distressed community of Aberdare. But there were other benefits to which no monetary value can be attached, since they can be. measured only by the priceless values which belong to the sphere of the spiritual. And the fellowship might well have continued as it had begun, had it not been for the loyalty of the Spectator and of Aberdare ia preferring the advantage of all others to their own pre- dilections and happy experiences. Certainly the writer does not acquiesce in the easy adverse conclusions which the Report arrives at in its references to the principle of "Adoption," and one particularly regrets that no room could be found for a word of appreciation of one of the most unique and remarkable events in the whole story, and that is the splendid achievement of the Spectator and its readers.—I am,
Vicar of Aberdare.
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