Victory for Nosey Parker SIR,-1 must apologise to Mrs Mary
Whitehouse for having used the phrase 'front organisation for Moral Re-Armament' when inquiring about the Clean Up TV Campaign and the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association.
I now realise that there is nothing clandestine about either of these organisations Both have clearly been inspired from the start by Moral Re- Armament. Their techniques are those of MRA, as is the language of their propaganda, although it is only fair to state that many of their followers are not themselves connected with MRA. Mrs White- house herself is on record as having said: 'My own ideals through thirty years have been inspired by the movement and without its ideals I cannot see that I would have been interested in starting this campaign.'
I am well aware of the subtle and deliberate distinction between Mrs Mary Whitehouse's two organisations. The first, the Clean Up TV Cam- paign, was started in January 1964 by Mrs White- house and another MRA supporter, Mrs Norah Buckland. Within a short time they had claimed some 500.000 supporters—mostly ordinary British housewives who were apparently anxious to have smut removed from their television screens. The volume of these supporters was claimed by signa- tures to a manifesto. It would be interesting to hear from Mrs Whitehouse the precise manner in which this manifesto was distributed: to whom and by whom?
Having established her cause publicly. Mrs White- house and her supporters then moved on to form a self-styled National Viewers' and Listeners' Asso- ciation, which has a paid membership and claims to .represent teachers, parents, doctors, the. Church, the police, etc. When this National VALA was formed in November last year, the launching was presided over by a Dr Ernest Claxton, the assistant secretary of the British Medical Association. The same Dr Claxton, at an MRA meeting in August 1963 in London, declared: 'Chastity removes fear of mixed liaisons, mixed marriages and of children of mixed blood that are becoming an increasing problem.' He also declared: 'As a doctor I can tell you that extra- and pre-marital intercourse is medi- cally dangerous, morally degrading and nationally destructive.'
Another founder-patron at V Al.A, and long- standing supporter of MRA, is the Rev Dr Benson Perkins, a former secretary of the World Methodist Church. The Rev Dr Perkins has followed the move- ment's line for some years. As far back as 1938 he declared: 'I do not believe in the Nazi govern- ment, but a new standard has been set up in Ger- many in domestic life. You rarely see in Germany today women smoking or using lipstick or paint.'
Does Mrs Mary Whitehouse suggest that the views of these two gentlemen, representing respectively the medical profession and the Church, are fortuitous when included within the membership of her organi- sation? Or are they, along with the teachers, parents. policemen, etc., to be among those whom she would like to see protecting the British public from the 'nihilistic amorality' of BBC TV?
Now I come to perhaps the most curious and revealing part of Mrs Whitehouse's letter. She claims that 'of those who have supported our work financially, 1.25 per cent are known to be asso- ciated with MRA and these people have between them contributed just under 2 per cent of the money
sent to us from any source.' As Mrs Mary White- house knows very well, Moral Re-Armament has no official membership. It has no listed donators or patrons. Its finances are secret. How, then, is Mrs Mary Whitehouse able to arrive at these amazingly exact figures?
ALAN WILLIAMS
10/52 Elm Park Road, London, SW3
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