ACT OF GIVING

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 72, 18 December 1937, Page 22

ACT OF GIVING

Difficulties Of Lord Nuffield

Lord Nuffield, who confessed that he had “not the foggiest notion” of the extent of his gifts to charity, except that they totalled more than £10,000,000, said recently that he had “got tired of giving away money and needed a rest.” He was discussing the announcement of his latest benefaction, his £1,000,000 gift to Oxford University for the creation of a new college and the endowment of Fellowships. “The idea that giving away money is an easy thing is the biggest fallacy,” said Lord Nuffield. “My responsibilities and worries have increased 500 per cent, over my business worries.” Explaining the reasons for his announcement that he could not consider any further benefactions at present, he added:—

“The worry from giving is too great; it passes all understanding. One can do so much harm by giving money away in the wrong direction. “After the announcement of any gift I am written to from all over the world. The requests for money come from individuals and organisations alike. I have had letters from Central Africa and from the East, many of them obviously written by professionl letter-writers. “When you have made a gift, you are the man to be shot at by everybody who thinks he would like some money. People with stacks of money themselves write to mo on behalf of causes for

which, if they wished, they could easily give enough of their own. “At the present time I have six people opening my letters. Much of my correspondence is marked ‘Persona!,’ ‘Urgent,’ and ‘Most Important.’ The work begins at 8.30 in the morning, but" I cannot get my own letters until 11.

“I never answer a letter from my own private address, and I never open a letter at home unless I recognise the handwriting. For the past 12 months, I have been getting an average of 200 letters a day, nearly all of them asking for money.

“I make a polut of rejecting these inopportune applications. Frankly, I am rather short with people who stop mo in the street.' I have been stopped many times by people who should know better.

“For these, reasons I must emphasise that from now onward I cannot acknowledge these requests, or answer correspondence which my present gift may provoke.” Lord Nuffield explained the motives which prompt his "generosity. “I just feel that it is up to anyone who has more than he requires to help those who are less fortunate,” he said. “In particular I like to help those whose health is not such as I myself possess. “It has been my lifelong ambition to do something for Oxford. Tht’te is no greater admirer of the university in the whole world than myself.”