THE. OXFORD AND BERMONDSEY CLUB AND DONALD HANKEY.
- [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—It has been brought to our notice that the Oxford and Bermondsey Club will be compelled this autumn to close two out of its four clubs for boys unless the number of annual subscribers is increased. The work of the 0. and B.C. has a claim on all who care and think for their brothers. The boys' clubs are"managed by a group of Oxford and Bermondsey laymen, who spend their evenings there when their day's work is done. No administrative salaries arc paid. Service and fellowship are at once the inspiration and the reward. Oxford and Bermondsey have found that comradeship grows along the road of common service. The clubs are a training- place for lads between fourteen and eighteen. While our houses and open spaces are so inadequate, and our education ends so abruptly at fourteen, these clubs are a vital necessity. Their foundation, their impulse and their aim are frankly Christian, and the growing lad is faced with the greatest of all ideals, set in the simplest forms of teaching.
To readers of the Spectator the club makes perhaps a special appeal, for it was among these boys that the " Student in Arms " worked night after night, a beloved brother, finding beauty and 'truth in the smaller streets. " In the O.B.C. I believe ; through it I hope," he writes in a letter to a friend. His memory compels attention. The men engaged in the work of these clubs are busy day and night : some have given many years of unbroken service. They cannot run about and talk of their work. For them and for their lads we make this appeal. Leases have ended, and their renewal or the securing of alternative premises will cost another £500 each year. The subscription list must be increased by this amount or the four clubs will be reduced to two. The secretary may be found at the Oxford and Bermondsey Club, Hankey Place, Long Lane, S.E. 1. To him subscriptions should be sent.—We are, M. P. A. HANKEY.
ADA SALTER, Mayor of Bermondsey.
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