'BUCHMAN KI JAI!'

Just when Buchman's acceptance of these invitations became known to his colleagues is not easy to ascertain. At any rate, news leaked out at Caux during August 1952 that Buchman intended to leave on 10 October. Meanwhile, discussions had been going on with various Indian 'experts' about the scale of the venture. Some suggested to Buchman that a couple of dozen people were the most who could be accommodated. Hicks, returning from two years on the sub-continent, advocated fifty, and received the reply, 'We're taking two hundred people and five plays.' In the event, only three MRA plays were taken, but these involved eight tons of equipment.

Things now began to happen fast. KLM offered a DC6, and the Dutch who were at Caux pledged the charter fare. The first planeload became largely a matter of 'spokesmen' and advance stage crew, and people who could answer in the affirmative the question, 'Have you been inoculated and can you leave on Saturday?' Thirty-five nations were represented.

The night before leaving Buchman gave a dinner party for the workers employed at Caux and their wives - masons, plasterers and cleaners - together with the postman, the station-master and an Egyptian cabinet minister who was still there. 'Buchman's speech characteristic,' Morris Martin noted. 'Humour, appreciation of the workers, more humour, the world outreach from Caux, plus a measure of personal challenge and leg-pulling.' Then he announced that he was giving presents to 'the good children', who turned out to be four recently married couples among his full-time workers. After that he called for 'the soon marrieds'. This provoked even more enthusiasm, as two couples had become engaged that day. Then Buchman said another couple were in the offing but that 'the young man is still upstairs proposing'. When the beaming pair arrived the applause was terrific.2

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