SERVICE TO MANKIND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22719, 4 November 1935, Page 15

SERVICE TO MANKIND

DR ALBERT SCHWEITZER’S WORK Dr Albert Schweitzer has been described by Bishop Barnes, of Birmingham, as one of the three greatest living men in the world. In the course of a luncheon address recently the Rev. R. 0. Clack, of London, who is a personal friend of Dr Schweitzer, paid tribute to the work he has done. He was a Doctor of Philosophy and a Doctor of Music at the age of 28, said Mr Clack, and was one of the greatest exponents of Bach’s music. He became a Doctor of Theology at 30, and, in the spirit of the decision he made when a student of 21, he took the most direct path to the service of mankind. This, according to his lights, led him to serve the primitive peoples of French equatorial Africa. He studied medicine and surgery, and at the age of 34 devoted two years to lectures and recitals to supply him with the necessary means to establish a hospital on the River Ogowe, In 1913 he left Europe to undertake his •work. Mr Clack spoke of personal incidents revealed in his conversations with Dr Schweitzer, which showed that while he was a great internationalist, a citizen of the world, and a man of massive, intellectual attainments, he was also a simple, sincere servant of his fellow-men. Mr Clack will leave by the Maunganui to visit Dr Harry N. Holmes, who was at one time general secretary of the Y.M.C.A. at Wellington, and is now field secretary in New York of the world alliance for promoting international friendship through the churches.