25 DECEMBER 1936, Page 2

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Lord Nuffield and the Special Areas Lord Nuffield has once again shown his discrimination, generosity and public spirit, -by his gift of £2,000,000 to form a Trust fund for the assistance of the Special Areas. The trustees, Mr. Seebohm Rowntree, Lord Portal, and Mr. Nigel Campbell, are given the widest discretion in administering the fund, which is to be used for initiating or supporting "measures likely to -give employment," as well as "measures designed for the social betterment of those areas." It is particularly to be hoped -that the fund may be used to promote some of those industrial schemes, ignored by the GovernmEnt, in which Mr. Malcolm Stewart's reports have been so fruitful. Lord Nuffield, announcing his gift,- spoke of his conviction that the Government has done all that is posSible in its legiti- mate sphere. If that statement were as true as it is generous Lord Nuffield's gift would be less opportune ; there are few others who hold the conviction, even among the Government's own supporters. Their new Bill is an -admission of past failure. Lord Nuffield's gift should inspire them with a spirit of emulation rather than com- placency and on no account be taken as an excuse for thinking that Government action is any less urgently necessary.