British Voluntary Service
J. E. Woodrofie, E. R. Chadwick, M. M. Elliott
Sense of Purpose Lord Boothby The Common Market
Correlli Barnett, J. E. Martyrs
'Don't Bank On It
Sir Anthony Wagner. W. H. D. Gad.sby
`Public Odium,' the Press, and PROs Cyril Ray likITISH VOLUNTARY SERVICE
SIR,—Others share Mr. Edinger's concern about re- cent developments in Voluntary Service Overseas. To virtually every boy, every parent. every head- master, overseas government and mission, VSO has over the last four years meant one man—Alec Dick- son, the founder. 1 know from personal experience the misgivings now expressed by volunteers who feel that they owe to him the most formative year of their life. They find it, difficult to understand how and why the organisation he created should come to Part with his services.
Mr- Edinger has remarked on some of the matters that give returning volunteers anxiety about the pre- sent administration, particularly the reliance on the duplicating machine. It will no doubt he argued that the sense of personal responsibility that penetrated the scheme in the first four years was bound to diminish with expansion. But was this inevitable? There are ways and means by which growth can be secured without loss of concern for the individual: if this is missing, no amount of wall charts can com- pensate.
There appears to be some confusion about respon- sibility for the organisation today. A press release earlier this year stated that as Viscount Amory was now' UK High Commissioner to Canada, his place as Chairman of Council was being taken by Viscount Boyd. But VSO's pamphlet gives General Sir Archi- bald Nye as Chairman. That seems a little vague and leaves one wondering to whom the Council of VSO is itself accountable.
Like most, 1 would like to see hundreds more of our young people sharing this experience and making their contribution where it is needed. But there needs to be vision at the heart of the organisation, too.
3 Taviton Street, WC/
* J. a, WOODROFFE
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