A special committee of the Council of the British Medical

Association was appointed, in 1954, to examine the whole subject of divine healing: its verdict was We can find no evidence that there is any

type of illness cured by 'spiritual healing' alone which could not have been cured by medical treatment which necessarily includes considera- tion of environmental factors.

The Committee agreed that as there are 'multiple factors which conduce to the restoration of health,' and as 'the emotional life of an individual has a direct bearing upon his physical well- being,' religious ministration 'may have an im- portant bearing upon the emotional and spiritual life of the patient and so contribute to recovery' But it left the clergy—for whose benefit the cccm- mittee had sat—in no doubt that theirs was t be the subsidiary role. Put bluntly, the reinort's verdict amounted to the assumption thai. the profession would provide the cure; the clergy- man's task would be to speed the convalescence.

Some clergy simply do not believe this: they feel that in certain circumstances cures can be effected by faith, or divine intervention alone. But the Churches have not been in the mood for a head-on clash with the profession; and so far, as a result, their healing missions have tended to have a rather half-hearted air about them, compared to other kinds of spiritual heal- ing—though this does not apply to Roman Catholics. They accept miraculous intervention in illness as a part of their faith, as the numbers of pilgrims from this country to Lourdes and other such shrines attest.

Christian Science

Spiritual healing and Christian Science are two systems which have, at least superficially, a great deal in common. Of the two, Christian Science is organised much more formally as a Church, with a far more specific theology than has been developed for spiritual healing.

Christian Scientists will never ask to become part of the National Health Service—despite the growing amount of healing work they do, the nursing they undertake and the nursing `houses' they are opening—because, as adherents of a religion that sets out to heal, they believe that the State ought not to regulate or interfere in matters of faith. They hold that God and His universal love alone are 'real,' and that the way to health and healing is to bring individual human thinking into tune with the divine Mind. More thoroughgoing than any other of the challengers of monopoly medicine, they forswear every form of medicine—surgery, inoculations, blood transfusions and pain-killers.

It is one of the by-laws of .this Church, laid down by its Founder Mary Baker Eddy, that its members shall turn away from 'personality and numbering of the people'—in other words, from trust in statistics—concerning their religious activities. This makes it difficult to assess the numerical strength of Christian Science in this country. But there are many pointers to its re- cent growth. For instance, instead of the one Christian Science House (nursing home) with sixteen beds before the war, there arc now four such Houses, with room for one hundred patients, established under Section 193 of the Public Health Act, 1936.

'District nursing' services for Christian Scien- tists have recently been inaugurated in several cities to enable believers who need dressings changing, bed baths and similar attentions to be visited in their homes by women fully trained in Christian Science nursing; the service 111 London is currently responsible for 3,500 visits a year. Those whom the Christian Science Church recognises as 'practitioners' combine the func- tions of ministers of religion and of doctors.

THE SPECTATOR, OCTOBER 28 , 1960 As Director of Studies to the Institute of Public Relations, I can assure Mr. Ray that a professional attitude to the press is not treated lightly by those responsible for training entrants to public relations, and it is unlikely that he is ignorant of the relation- ship that has been built up over many years between Fleet Street and Hastings House.

Mr. Ray should be grateful he is not living under Queen Anne, when he would have had his handouts from Defoe and have had to mend his manners. MY student waste-paper basket used to be full of rejection slips, but these have now given way to direct mail from America with reply-paid postcards ffourllyposting within the US. So what?—Yours faith- Teddington. Middlesex UNILATERALISM SIR,--The following statement has been signed by °ver 200 university teachers and research workers, including sixty-three professors, readers and people of equivalent status.

'The undersigned members and supporters of the Labour Party wish to express their agreement with the policy of unilateral nuclear disarmament adopted by the 1960 Labour Party Conference, and believe that such a policy is best capable of ensuring a Positive British contribution to the reduction of world tension.

Among the signatories are Professors M. Aber- crombie, FRS, G. A. Barnard, J. M. Cameron, C. F. Carter, H. D. Dickinson, P. G. 'Espinasse, D. V. Glass, ass, Mrs. Ruth Glass, Professors L. Hawkes, FRS, P , 3. Hilton, L. Hogben, FRS, A. C. Lloyd, K. Muir, " - E. Newell, A. C. Offord, J. Pilley, Dr. Antoinette r, ride, Dr. N. W. Pirie, FRS, Professor C. M. Robert- s.3°, Mrs. Joan Robinson, Mr. A. J. P. Taylor and Professor A. N. Tucker.

Copies of the statement and the full list of signa- tories have been sent to Mr. Hugh Gaitskell and Mr. Harold Wilson.—Yours faithfully, R. MILIBAND J. H. WESTERGAARD

liosecroft Avenue, NW3

LABOUR AND MR. LEVIN bale 1 would like to point out that Glasgow's Labour Corporation spend annually some £3,136,000 ,°° housing and yet in this city the most appalling !living conditions of any in the British Isles, if not m the civilised Western world, persist. Of affairs is the fact that far too many people who could well afford to pay economic rents are living in council houses heavily subsidised by ratepayers, A serious contributory cause of this shocking state reply to your correspondent Mr. B. W. themselves, of whom are far worse off than they are toemselves. Many Labour councillors enjoy this Privilege.

ROGER W1MBUSH