INTO THE POST-WAR WORLD

During a birthday dinner for Bernard Hallward, the Canadian who had repaid $12,000 to the Customs in 1932, the end of hostilities in the Pacific was reported on the radio. Buchman, his voice shaking, announced simply, 'The war is ended.' Then everyone at table said the Lord's Prayer together. In the evening they met in the barn. 'There is only one war left now - the war of ideas against materialism,' Buchman said. 'Now let us ask God to show us together our part in world reconstruction.' Then he prayed: 'We pray for the entire world, especially for Japan. Hold them in the hollow of Thy hand, and give them Thy peace and freedom. May future years be undimmed in God's Holy Spirit in Germany. Give her the answer of sound homes, teamwork in industry and a united nation. For the Allies we pray that they may be kept by Thy Holy Spirit pure and unsullied in victory. May the Lord bless and keep them all, and all of you, and give His peace, now and for ever.'

More and more friends and colleagues from Europe began to arrive. Swiss and French were the first, followed by Dutch, Danes and Norwegians. They brought news of heroism under Nazi occupation and in the Resistance. Buchman was keen as well to see some of his British friends, but travel from there was still strictly controlled by the Government. On 21 July word came of a Foreign Office cable to the Washington Embassy that a Member of Parliament, Sir George Courthope, had requested that a group might join Buchman in the States: 'In view of President Truman's well-known interest in this work, does the Ambassador see any reason why they should not come?' A cable had gone back from Lord Halifax, now Ambassador in Washington, that there was no objection at the American end, and permission had been given. Foreign Office minutes now available show that this was the conclusion of a rather devious delaying action in some sections of the Foreign Office. Halifax had, in tact, strongly supported a similar request made by Lord Salisbury to Anthony Eden the previous year. Eden had written across Salisbury's letter in red ink, 'Surely these are deplorable people? and it is staggering that Lord S should wish them well.' A minute of 3 August 1944 recording Eden's view added that since travel restrictions had been mitigated, 'the delegates would probably obtain exit permits if they applied for them' but 'there is no need to inform Lord Salisbury of that'. Permission had been refused.2 This time the weight of favourable American opinion evidently determined the Foreign Office to grant permits for a delegation of five.3

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