,SItt,—May 1 comment on the letter from Mr. George Edinger
in your issue of August 24? 1 do not ques- tion for a moment the historical part of his letter: and I have no doubt that Mr. Edinger did play the role he relates in assisting Alec Dickson, whose founding and energy were mainly responsible for lounding and building up Voluntary Service Over- Seas.
,a Where Mr. Edinger goes wrong is in suggesting thatthe spirit of VSO has changed. He is equally wrong in thinking that relations between the con- trolling staff in London and the boys and girls in the field have changed. The spirit of VSO is the say',
as ever—the youth-to-youth contact, the
identification of volunteers with the occupations and aspirations of those with whom they work, the absolute devotion of volunteers to the people of their Projects, the personal friendships between British boys and girls and the boys and girls of forty-eight other Countries, the complete absence of political strings and any trace of bureaucracy or paternalism.
s to personal relations between London staff and volunteers in the field, these are as happy as ever. We carry on a regular personal and individual correspondence with every volunteer. Here is what one of them wrote to us on July 1, 1962: 'With over 175 volunteers to write to every month at least.
think it is wonderful to receive any letter at all, let alone regular and thoughtful replies to every letter However you manage to write to so many people and yet retain a personal note in each letter is beyond me! I really took forward to writing to you and am never disappointed in your replies.'
Mr. Edinger mentions 'correspondence by circular.' This is additional to our personal correspondence with volunteers. We send out, whenever we can manage to, a Newsletter consisting mainly of extracts from volunteers' letters, with a few other items of general interest. This Newsletter is intensely appre- ciated by volunteers, who want to know what their friends are doing. The Bishop of Norwich, one of the founders of VSO, also sends out a 'pastoral letter' to volunteers each year: and occasionally we issue circular instructions. Otherwise all our letters arc personal.
I do not ask you to take this on trust. Why not send your representative to our office? He could look at our files and see for himself what we say to our boys and girls and what they say to us. At the moment we are snowed under with the herculean task of getting 250 new volunteers posted, briefed_ visaed and transported to forty-eight different countries, and of helping 175 now in the field to come home safely—August and September are our busiest months. But we will gladly make time to pilot your representative through our somewhat congested offices and show him just what is going on. J think he will agree that Mr. Edinger, happily, is mistaken.
F. R. CHADWICK
Acting Director Voluntary Service Overseas, clo The Royal Commonwealth Society, 18 Northumberland Avenue, WC2
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