NATIONAL LIBRARY FOR THE BLIND.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—May we ask you to allow us to appeal through your columns for assistance in carrying on and extending the work of the National Library for the Blind ? From a modest beginning over forty years ago the Library, which is free to all blind readers, has grown until at Westminster and the Northern Branch at Manchester there are some 92,000 volumes in Braille and Moon type. The bulk of these enormous volumes—fourteen inches in height, eleven inches broad and two inches thick, and each weighing five pounds—effectually precludes the blind reader, even if the cost were not a deterrent factor, from possessing an adequate
private library. Over a ton of literature is dispatched daily to readers in the United Kingdom, in the Colonies and even in foreign countries. Some 5,000 to 6,000 volumes are added each year, and this continuous growth forces the Library Committee to seek the means of expanding in order to house the additions which must be made now and in the near future.
It is in these circumstances that, for the first time in the Library's history, we are obliged to appeal through you to' the public, and to ask those who still have the inestimable gift of sight to help us to secure the £50,000 necessary for the work we have in hand. Her Majesty the Queen visited the Library on February 14th, and after her visit graciously expressed the hope that the efforts which the Committee are making for the extension of the Library may. meet with success. Donations should be addressed to Captain Lachlan Maclean, at the Library, 18 Tufton Street, Westminster, S.W. 1.—We are, Sir, &c., LOUISE, President ; SHAW OF DUNFERMLINE,
Chairman ; RANDALL CANTUAR ; COSMO EBOR ; FRANCIS CARDINAL BOURNE, Archbishop of Westminster ; J. H. HERTZ, Chief Rabbi ;. Wmnixnn PORTLAND-; GREY OF FALLODON.
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