THE OXFORD GROUP

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26198, 8 July 1946, Page 2

THE OXFORD GROUP

Sir, —Your contributor “ Civis,” in the Daily Times of Saturday, September 29, refers to the Oxford Group and Dr Buchman —that great leader of the Moral Re-arma-ment Movement. Having seen it at work in various parts of the world (India, Australia, England, and America—A.H.H.) we should like to state some facts. The aim of moral rearmament is to provide a revolutionary answer to the revolutionary materialism which has invaded our thinking and living. How far this is being accomplished may be indicated by those qualified to judge. The Hon. C. J. Hamboo, president of the Norwegian Parliament and last president of the League oi Nations described Frank Buchman, in December. 1944, as “ the catalyst who made possible the united Church front in Norway in this war.” President Truman (then Senator), heading up over a period of two and a-half years a special Senate committee investigating the war programme, stated when the M.R.A. play, " The Forgotten Factor,” was performed in Philadelphia: “There is not a single industrial bottleneck I can think of which could not be broken in a matter of weeks if this crowd were given the green light to go full steam ahead.” George Light, cabling from the National Trades Union Club, London, of which he is chairman, to the Australian premierev of " The Forgotten Factor ” at Geelong in May, said: “The most outstanding drama I have seen! All Labour and trade union comrades in Australia must see it.”

A secret official Reich document, recently discovered, denounced the Oxford Group for “ uncompromisingly taking up a frontal position against National Socialism,” and of its influence it said that ” the group breathed the spirit of Western democracy. . . .” “It supplies the Christian garment for world democratic aims.” The Isis, organ of undergraduate opinion in Oxford University comments: “It is particularly significant that they (the Gestapo) identify the group with the Christian idea behind democracy.”— We are, etc., A. H. H. Wellington, July 2. r.b. M.