YOUTH CITY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 32, 8 February 1939, Page 20

YOUTH CITY

APPEAL FOR FUNDS

STUDENTS' LONDON CENTRE

COST ABOUT MILLION

(By Air Mail, from "The Post's" London Representative.) LONDON, January 5. A committee of former GovernorsGeneral, including Lord Bledisloe, with the Earl of Bessborough, formerly Governor-General of Canada,, as chairman, is planning a Youth City in London to accommodate 2000 students from Britain, the Empire, and foreign countries. Costing £1,000,000, the city will be. designed as a home for the thousands of young people who come to London annually from all over the world. Half the sum will be needed for the central building, and the remainder for Dominion and colonial dormitories. 'It is hoped that £250,000 will be raised from public funds, and the balance by individual subscriptions, donations from national organisations, educational trusts, city companies, and schools. • : EESULT OF JUBILEE IDEA. The proposal is the result of an idea ■ initiated at the Jubilee of King Geoi'ge j V, and developed at the time of the j Coronation, when a great youth rally . j was held in the Albert Hall. It is , hoped that the. Youth City will remedy : the shortage of suitable accommodai tion, provide easier means for students '> ! from the Empire to become acquainted ( i with their capital city, and offer means ; for foreign students to grasp the "essential friendliness of the British • peoples." • The Youth City will have its own . theatre, library, dining and common , rooms, with separate dormitory blocks . for the various Dominions and colonies. , It is hoped that the city will become, in the phrase chosen by the organ- < isers, "the home of an Order of ' Chivalry." Youth City is planned as a centre for all the ideals and under- ( takings of the .Empire Youth Move- ! ment. The many guilds which are a ] part of the movement will have their . home there. LORD BESSBOBbUGH'S APPEAL, j Appealing for support for'the pro- i ject at the conference of the Incorporated Association of Headmasters at ■ Guildhall, Lord Bessborough said: "If ' the Empire is to continue as a moral ] force in world affairs youth must be ■ given a much more important part to ' play." It must have an opportunity to : achieve what the older generation ■ failed to secure. Young people should now occupy responsible posts at a much younger age than was the case i in their parents'. day, because so much < of the previous generation was wiped out in the war. If youth were given a chance by corporate action to recog- ' nise the duties of Empire and the call to co-operation and sei'vice, there : would be hope that the youth of today, when it had the responsibilities of to- ; morrow, would find a solution of the many problems that perplexed British peoples in _all parts of the world. It ' was only a few months ago that the world emerged from a great crisis. I Now was the time, therefore, to start j building Youth City before a new challenge came to us. It was a major object of Youth City to provide a home for the youth movements within the Entire and strengthen their sence of unity. NOT A'RIVAL ORGANSIATION. This youth movement was not in any way intended, to be a rival of any of the existing youth organisations. On the contrary, it was hoped that it would come to be regarded as a home where all would be welcomed and even accommodated shouold they desire it. Youth City was designed first and foremost for boys, and girls of school age from all parts of the Empire who might visit London to study or on holiday. It would make it possible, to bring thousands of young people from oversea every year at a cost within the reach of a far greater number of parents than was possible at present. Secondly, it would provide accommodation for secondary and senior elementary students from within Great Britain and Ireland. Thirdly, it would be available for visiting students from foreign countries. Youth City, with suitable cultural facilities, might become a valuable educational centre, providing specially recommended studants with a brief "finishing'1 period at the end of their normal time1 at school. The idea of Youth City was at the very heart of the Empire youth movement, the centre from .which.-it would radiate and towards" which all would naturally he drawn. Here would be organised the activities the objective o: which would be to enable youth to play its part in the building of a new world where the harsh clamour for rights might be stilled by\ the common call of duty.. COST THAT OF A DESTROYER. The cost of the scheme would be no greater than that of a destroyer. A total of £1,000,000 should be ample. For the central building was it too much to expect that for such an undertaking ." quarter of that amount should be provided out of public funds, on the understanding that a similar amount raised privately? The executive committee for Youth City, as now constituted, was composed for the most part of men who had had the honour of representing the King oversea and who wero, for the first time in history, being invited as a corporate body to undertake an important Imperial task. A Youth Committee for Great Britain was being formed, and Dominion and regional .committees were also in process of formation. On all . these committees every section of opinion and every shade of thought would be represented. Each committee would be presided over jointly by a chairman in London and a chairman resident in the part of the Empire concerned. Every regional committee would consist of two groups of men and women, one serving in London and the other in the Dominion or colony. It would be most important to obtain the cooperation of educational bodies on all the committees. Youth City, then. Lord Bessborough concluded, symbolising the spirit of unity among the young members of a family of free peoples constituting more than a quarter of the human race, would in itself express the Empire's confidence in the qualities of the younger generation. Representatives of Great Britain and the' Dominions on the executive committee are:—Great Britain, Lord Lloyd; Canada, the Earl of Bess-1 borough;. Australia, Viscount Stonehaven, former Governor-General; New 'Zealand, Viscount Bledisloe, former Governor-General; South Africa, the. Earl of Clarendon, former Governor-' General; India, the Marquess of Willingdon, former Viceroy, and Malik Sir Firozkhan Noon, High Commissioner for India in the United Kingdom; Burma, Sir Charles Innes, former Governor, Southern Rhodesia: Mr. S. M. Lanigan-O'Keefe, High Commissioner in London; Colonies.and Dependencies, Mr. L. S. Amery, former Colonial Secretary. -. *