Toe H World Ceremony Starts In Central Africa

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30312, 12 December 1963, Page 11

Toe H World Ceremony Starts In Central Africa

The Toe H world chain of light, through which the

movement each year expresses its international nature and unity, began in Central Africa at 9 p.m. on Tuesday and moved ■ westward until it neared its end at the and Australia last evening. The Christel lurch branch erf Toe H has received a message from the branch in Salisbury, where the chain was initiated. Members there give a reminder that their city is the capital orf the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland until the end of tliis month—a country of more than 450.000 square miles with a population less than Greater London.

Salisbury members include Rhodesians, Britons, South Africans, Africans, and Asians. ‘‘Both in membership and in jobs we are nonracial,” the branch says. Central Africa asks for understanding in the solution of its problems and expresses the hope that its example will be followed as Toe H lamps are lit in turn round the world throughout Africa, Europe, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Malaya, India, and back to East Africa. Toe H House in Salisbury, where the chain began, was used from 1939 to 1945 as a

rest house for the services in much the same way as the original Talbot House in Poperinghe. The branch describes itself as non-racial. rattier than multi-racial. It mentions problems of outside pressures when Europeans, Asians, and Africans join its members. In Christchurch, the original Christchurch branch, the Women’s Association of the Avon branch, and the Metropolitan branch of senior men gathered at their headquarters to light their lamps at 9 p.m. The occasion marks both the anniversary of the founding of Toe H in Poperinghe during World War I and the birthday of the founder (the Rev. P. B. Clayton), who will arrive in Christchurch on New Year’s Day.