Notebook Spectator's
CHRISTMAS Still works. The opening of the Berlin Wall—not just for twelve, but for eighteen, days of Christmas—may prove a memorable act : it is going to be far more difficult afterwards to justify its monstrous existence. But, even if the Wall is closed. again for the rest of the year, the fact remains that, for a brief spell, grim political values have been forced to submit to something that has proved even stronger than them: Christmas. Here, at home, Oxfam is bringing to an end its glorious anniversary year with what can only be described as a riot of a campaign. It has just been able to announce that, for the first time, its income exceeded £2,000,000 last year, and its chairman, Canon T. R. Milford, was fully justified in claim- ing that it has become 'something like a national movement.' It now has 200 local groups all over the country which carry on its work throughout the year. But the spontaneous Christmas bonanza from which it is now benefiting is, in its way, just as marvellous. Oxfam is a unique voluntary organisation, not only in its spirit, but in its efficiency : A Cause, but with what an Effect.
Previous page
