28 JULY 1950, Page 18

Father Douglass

Sta.—The Oxford Mission to Calcutta has decided that the most fitting memorial to the late Father Douglass will be a hostel at Behala for boys employed in Calcutta, which thus will perpetuate his memory on

the scene of his great work. In this place, a few miles south of Calcutta, he had for forty years devoted himself to the care and up-

bringing of Bengali boys. He lived not only the life of poverty required by the rule of this community but alio a life of peculiar simplicity and austerity. Yet its prevailing characteristic was not severity but joy. It was this which brought to his unwalled but by the roadside a stream of visitors, Indian, European, American, Australian, African, from all professions and conditions of life, and indeed of all creeds. They came to seek, and they always found, friendship, counsel and a new vision. In particular he loved to welcome during the war all ranks of the Forces, for he had served as a chaplain with the Forces in the first great war.

When he died last July a shoal of letters came saying with one voice and almost in the same words that the writers' contact with him had been the supreme influence in their lives. His memory will live long, especially iii India where memories are long. But it is fitting that there should also he a visible memorial to this great Anglican missionary priest. It is proposed to build this hostel at Behala for his older boys now employed in Calcutta and for their successors who, though they will not have known Father Douglass in person, will thus be helped to share the abiding inspiration of his work. The building of such a hostel would have pleased him much.

We believe that there are many who would like to share in this memorial. Those who wish to do so should send their subscriptious to: The Treasurer, Oxford Mission to Calcutta, 35 Great Peter Street, London, S.W.1.—Yours faithfully, HALIFAX, 44 G. C. HUBBACK (formerly Metropolitan of India), FREDERICK J. BURROWS (Sometime Governor of Bengal), A. P. BENTHALL (President of the Associated Chambers of Commerce of India), + S. K. TARAFDAR (Bishop), A. K.

SHAH (Formerly Principal of the Calcutta Blind School), KENNETH OXON (President of the Oxford Mission to Calcutta), 01•MAIUC CARPENTER- GARNIER, Bishop (Chairman), A. R. MACBETH (Superior of the Oxford Mission Brotherhood of the Epiphany).

The Office of the Oxford Mission to Calcutta, 35 Great Peter Street, S.W.I.