24 NOVEMBER 1944, Page 4

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK

As to Malta. I consented, it will be remembered, to try to extract £2,000 from the readers of this page for the erection of a Shrine of Remembrance in the damaged Anglican Cathedral of St. Paul at Malta. I thought it could be done. I still think it can. I feel convinced there are still several hundreds of readers who (like myself) need at least a triple stimulus before they act. This, I may recall, is the third, though not necessarily the last, time of asking. So far I have heard from about 400 readers, and they have sent between them over L500. I should like very much indeed to hear—favour- ably—from 40,000 or so more. Then we should not only reach the target, but overshoot it. Meanwhile nothing has been more un- expected, or more warming, than the kind expressions about The Spectator, and about this page in particular, with which so many of the donors have accompanied their gifts. I wish I could acknowledge them all as they deserve ; as it is I can only say here how deeply they have been appreciated. Such things go far to lighten life's dull round (though, in fact, it isn't dull at all). Another welcome feature is that though the Shrine is to be in the Anglican Cathedral gifts have come from Methodists, Presbyterians, Quakers, and for

all I know members of other churches as well.

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