2 JANUARY 1953, Page 20

Manchester's "Forward Movement" SIR,-1 am sorry for the slip by

which I, beguiled thereto by a statement made somewhere in print, included Manchester among the cities which had had a universal mission in 1952, though to have claimed this adventure for it was not after all tantamount to an accusation of unrighteousness. For the rest there has been a misunderstanding, for which I must blame myself, not Mr. Sheild. I was using the word Manchester as a kind of generic term to cover any great industrial city. I might as easily have written Portsmouth or Cardiff, or even invented a name like Coketown. But Manchester came most easily to the pen as I had lived and worked there for a good many years. Certainly I never meant to read the Church there a lecture. I wouldn't dare ! And I owe that great city far too much so to presume. It is a real joy to know that the Church in Manchester is doing what I believe so strongly ought to be done everywhere. But I never supposed or intended to suggest that it wasn't. No doubt a great deal of this enterprise will fall to Mr. Sheild to guide and inspire, and, goodness knows, I wish him all the luck in the world in the name of