In London, too, Buchman received his fourth decoration of the tour, this time from the Philippines Government. While appreciating the spirit behind these honours, he commented wryly, 'They certainly weigh me down.'

Back in London Buchman's emphasis, according to Campbell, was 'to restore a commitment to the changing of individuals as the primary expression of Moral Re-Armament'. Roland Wilson writes, 'It was at this time that Buchman dealt faithfully with my own sense of satisfaction at large-scale results. I went to his room and described to him the theatre queues for The Vanishing Island and the enthusiastic response. "Yes," he said "that is a good reconnaissance work. But remember our work is founded on the handful of men with whom I spent seven years at Penn State.'"16

'I was brought up to be property-poor,' Buchman said. 'People first; bricks and mortar later.' But the growth of Moral Re-Armament in America made larger provision inevitable. In 1952 Mrs John Henry Hammond offered her country home, Dellwood, in Mount Kisco outside New York, as a new centre - the equivalent in the East to the former residential club in Los Angeles, bought in 1948.

Mackinac Island continued to be the main meeting place for American assemblies but the available accommodation was still inadequate. From time to time Buchman would engage the whole of the Grand Hotel, and other buildings, on the island were rented, leased or bought, but the islanders lived from the tourist trade, and some claimed that their livelihood was threatened by MRA's expansion. To meet this Buchman began to think of building a permanent centre of his own and to plan its construction in the way most helpful economically to the island.

Buchman had many friends among the islanders. When their fortunes were at zero during the war through the ban on tourism, his conferences kept them going and brought the island good and needed publicity. He helped by providing work in the difficult times after the war, especially in the hard winters when, with the lake frozen and the snows deep, there was normally no work. He also concerned himself with the health service, and doctors from his team took over the year-round medical care of the island.

In the middle of the island there lived Indians descended from the original tribes of the area, alongside Americans of English, French and black extraction. Buchman befriended them especially. He would invite them to meals and, when he heard one or other of them was ill, would send one of his busy young men up into the woods with a hot meal for the sufferer. He was proud of his own association with the Indians as a blood brother of the Stoney tribe. Some of the Mackinac Island Indians, ashamed of their ancestry, called themselves French. Meeting some of them one day, he said, 'I hear you are French.'

'Yes,' they replied.

'That's very interesting,' said Buchman. 'I'm an Indian myself.'

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