BROTHERHOOD OF ST. LAURENCE ^ ^ 7 - ^67 B^owS-vlCK SYREEI, HYZROY

ARCHIVES

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REPORT TO THE BROTHERHOOD OF ST. LAURENCE

BY THE CHAPIAIN, REVD. P. H0LLIN&7F0RTH

AFTER HIS VISIT OVERSEAS (20th March 1967

to 12th September 1967)

CONTENTS

Section A. Index of P ro jects , In stitu tion s, Conferences and People v is ite d

Section B. Some threads which indicate what is talcingplace throughout the world in socia l development.

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SECTION A.

I N D E X

of Pro jects, In stitu tion s, Conferences and People v is ited between 20th March and 11th September, 1967*

( i t should be mentioned that th is is not a complete l i s t , as some places were outside the scope of Church and socia l work, while other interviews are b etter l e f t anonymous.)

1. , INDONESIA

(a ) Djarkarta

( i ) Agencies.

Pharma Kasih C lin ic - a p i lo t pro ject of the Indpnesian Council ofChurches Commission on Health andSocial Service. This is set within the framework o f the "T jik in i" Maternity Hospital and a mother and child, welfare centre. The socia l wbrker,Miss Flora Wenas, is working out from that base to the v illa ges to provide b etter a fter-care and fam ily-tra in ing services.The project is also t ied in with the Winduri Christian Socia l Academy, whose academic s ta ff are consultants to the p ro ject.

Setia Pudhi - Kebon Nanas in Kebajoran, a new Djarkarta suburb. Here, an Indonesian Protestant Church, "E ffatha", is serving

people wbo have come frpm the tr ib a l areas o f the islands of Indonesia and who have been uprooted to become the urban work force of the c ity . Church members, who are mostly laborers, have b u ilt th e ir own Church building in th e ir spare time.

Waskito Children's CreQhe. This was p riva te ly established by Mrs. Fasti and is fo r the care o f children of working mothers in the same areas as above. As the education system is so inadequate, many o f the children attending the creche are up to 12 yrs. old. Thus a tra in ing programme in soc ia l education has been established fo r them and a new junior high school is projected fo r the fu ture.

Kebon Nanas C lin ic . This is another private p i lo t d is t r ic t nursing project run by S ister A. Senduk. O rig ina lly i t arose out of the work of Dr. T ilaa r and is now a "p o ly -c lin ic " caring fo il maternal cases, old people, babi.es and providing mother and ch ild welfare.

There is also a tra in ing aspect of the programme fo r junior high-school g ir ls and elementary school g ir ls , both of whom are receiving basic tra in ing in preparation fo r e ith er a f u l l nursing course or the nursing aide course.

Dorcas Orphanage. Another autonomous agency with the backing and support o f the Dutch Reformed Churches.

Pharma Kasih. This is another independent Christian (Reformed) Maternal Hospital and C lin ic fo r outpatients from the surrounding v i l la g e s .

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' ( i i ) Consultations. These were many, and the ones l is te d wererelated s p e c if ic a lly to socia l work.

Ministoi fo r Social A ffa irs and his soc ia l vork s ta ff

Drs. &o Ge Siong. Dean of Winduri Christian Socia l Academy

Dr. and Mrs. Ihromi, s ta ff o f the United Theological Seminary.

: j Hi*. Chris Rudolph. Chairman o f the Dept, of Social Vfelfare,h University o f Indonesia

Mr. Go liean King. Chairman cf the Dept, of Criminology, University of Mndonesia

Mr. Labuason. D irector of the Academy fo r Socia l Yt'ork Education

t; Drs. R ijan to . Head o f the Municipal Social O ffice administering: the National v il la g e soc ia l committees (Lembaga Sosia l Desa)

' * (b ) Bandung

( i ) Agencies

Visma Sidjahtera StudentCentre at the Padjarjaran University.: TheChaplain to students, the Revd. Ian Calms, discussed his

U YJork in lay train ing re la ted to students

Pangdjebolan, a demonstration project on cropping, live-s tock ,, under the d irection o f Mr. Athol Kilgour^ This is a demonstrationU in coutour farming on steep h i l ls to lo ca l v illagers ,and , on a

national le v e l, a witness to the heed fo r land refoim .

( i i ) Consultations. These took place with many individuals in tro­duced by Dr. Herb Feeth in the course o f his work.

(c ) Suka bumi, an Ecumenical lay train ing and conference centre under the d irection c-f Drs. Habandi.

2. SINGAPORE

The Singapore Faipily Planning Association. Contacts were Mrs. Belinda Brphier'andDr. Maggie Dim.

The Singapore Council o f Socia l Services. Miss Goh Choy Yap the secretary, gave a good run down on the statutory and voluntary system of socia l services on the island.

Consultations were held with various people, ch ief o f whom was Mr. Gerald P il la y , an economic and sociology graduate who gave a broad outline of Singapore development since 1959 in the publication of "Tasks Ahead".

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3. INDIA.

(a ) Bangalore - Consultations.

S t. Mark's Cathedral and the Industria l Team Service. This is a f u l l time team m inistry of clergy and la i t y which is involved in both urban and industria l mission, soc io log ica l research and p o l it ic a l dialogue. The outreach is from the base of the Anglo-Indian Cathedral congregation. The team leader is the Revd. Harry Daniel. As a resu lt o f consultation and research, a number o f publications is ava ilab le .

The StudentChristian Movement of Ind ia . Contacts were with the secretaries, Mr. Fred Karat and the Revd.Vernon Vischart.

The Christian In stitu te fo r ,th e Study o f Relig ion in Society .The contacts were Dr. Herbert Jai Singh andDr. Mark Sunderan.This i s an important centre o f p o l i t ic a l , soc ia l, economic and educational dialogue. Croups are brought together onmatters o f common concern and the information emerging from the dialogue is published in booklets and pamphlets by the in s t itu te .I t s purpose is to provide information and a sound orientation to p o licy makers ip the development of Indian Society. The purlications are also helping to c la r i fy the im plications of rapid soc ia l change in India.

The Ecumenical Christian Centre. The contact was Dr.Edgene Ten Brink, in the Absence cf the Rev. M.M. Thomas. This is a conference centre in the f in a l stages of construction. However, conference programmes t ie d in with the In s titu te ,C .I.S .R .S . and th$ I.T .S . h4ve been in operation fo r some time.

The United Theological C o llege .^ Contacts were the Revds^ Russell Chandran and David W ilcox. A consultation was also attended on i t s Layman's Training Course.

Dept, o f Planning. Health and Socia l Welfare in the Mysore State. Contact was the D irector, Mrs. Vankatishan, and the D irector of Socia l Welfare, Mr. Ahmed. These contacts came through the Secretary to the Chief M inister, Mr. George Moses, who is a member of S t. Mark's congregation. The in terview provided a valuable overa ll view o f the main soc ia l work projects and emphases undertaken by the Government of Mysore State. At present, the work focuses Upon "denotified and scheduled tr ib e s ", and "scheduled castes".Thus, much o f the soc ia l work amongst the poor continues to be done in the v il la g e s .

Study Group sponsored by the W.C.C.. D.E.A. on the "New S tyle of L iv in g ".. Thesb consisted b f a series of case studies ofd ifferen t types of people l iv in g in tension in contemporary Indian society.

(b ) Madras

The Madras Christian College. The co llege is serving the nation by tra in ing under-graduate students. No d istinction is made be­tween Christian and non-Christian. Contacts were the Revd^P.0.Shaw,.Bursar, and Mr. Ian Manning.

(o ) Calcutta

the Sudder St. Methodist Church. The contact was the Revd.John Clapham, the M inister. This is an old c ity congregation in the heart of Calcutta's wealthy business section. They are planriing the demolition and re-development of Church property in order to build an urban service centre.

This is also the Calcutta headquarters fo r the Dhuragpur In­dustria l Mission (70 miles north ). and is under the d irection 6f the Revd. Keynon Wright. This s ign ifican t work goes underthe name of the Ecumenical, Socia l and Industria l In s titu te , which ha^ublished gome Useful information about i t s work.

Abho.y Ashram Balarampur ( a CA supported p ro je c t ). The contact was Mr. Roy Choudery, with whom many in teresting discussions were held. IheAshram s td ff also made v is it s possible to three v illa g e s related to i t s work, namely Kashba (Caste Hindus), Soladahor 'Untouchables) and Tharia Bagmafi (a "scheduled t r ib e " ) .

The Mennonite Extension R e lie f Committee. S p ec ifica lly , a v is i t was made to a youth hostel in the suburbs fo r apprehtices who are also trained on the spot in mechanical job s k il ls .

Service C iv il In ternational. The contact was Mr. Niranjan Halda. This agency organises voluntary service groups, who are involved in various prqjects in the v il la g e s . These are aimed at both economic development and breaking down cultural and re lig ious barriers .

(d ) NewDelhi

Mr. R.W.Agarwal, CAA's f i e ld o ff ic e r , escorted ine to the fo llow ing -

The M inistry o f Community Development and Co-operatives. A d is­cussion was held with the D irector o f Social Education, Mr. Nanavatty, a trained socia l worker who was in terested in making contacts with the Australian Association of Socia l Workers. An in teresting analysis of the problems of i l l i t e r a c y and of Ind ia 's 5-year plans was pro/ided.

Socia l Studies Dept. U niversity of New Delhi. A meeting was arranged with the Chairman, Mr. Ranede. This in terview provided useful information on existing fam ily counselling services and student tra in ing.

The Servants o f,the People Society. This is a large Ghandian- inspired multi-functional soc ia l and educational agency.

The Municipal Corporation o f D elh i. Dept, o f Urban Community Development. The consultation was arranged with the D irector, Mr. Yadov, and his s ta f f . This Dept, has worked out a programme fo r community development in the c it ie s , which, in turn, has led to the formation o f "C itizens Development Councils", Vikas Mandals. These are lo c a lly run se lf-h e lp agencies of soc ia l change and development in the urban areas.

The consultation led to a v is i t to three lo ca l community centres and to several o f tie new housing estates.

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4. BEIRUT, JERUSALEM-JORDAN - No specific contacts.

5. JERUSALEM, ISRAEL. A stay at Maid Ha Hathisha Kibbutz.

6. CITIES of NAPLES, ROME, FLORENCE, ASSIgSI, VENICE,,INNSBRUCK, MUNICH No specific contacts.

7. (a ) Geneva

A V is it to the World Council of Churches Headquarters and meeting -

Dr. Paul L o e ff le r , Dept, cf World Mission and Evangelism Messrs. Ralph Young and C .I. I t t y , Depty on the La^ty Dr. Walter Hollenweger, the Secretary fo r the Studies on the Mispionayy Structure o f the Congregation.

These intepvipvys y ie lded valuable information about the new developments taking place around the world today re lated to the Church's Mission and some contacts to v is i t in the various countries.

(b ) Zurich

A V is it to the "Boldern huis" Evangelical Academy fo r Lay Training. The contact was the Revd. Patrick de Mestral.

8. BASBE, HEIDELBERG, COLOGNE, MAINZ, KOBLENS - no sp ec ific contacts.

9. AMSTERDAM and BERGEN. The Revd. Hans Vanderstadt, Chaplain to European Atomic Enqrgy Commission and Parish P r ies t o f Bergen. The la t te r pro­vided very in teresting information about the Reformation o f the Roman Catholic Church in Hplland and elsewhere and a general picture of European culture and thought.

10. BRUSSELS and PARIS. No spec ific qontaots.

11. UNITED KINGDOM

(a ) London

Agencies

The Blackfriars Settlement, WardehMr. Alan Markham. This was one o f the trad ition a l socia l service settlements situated on the south bank. The area has undergone complete urban re­development in the form of h igh -rise f l a t estates. The agency has now re-structured i t s programme in an in teresting way. Of special in terest was the use of volunteer fam ily counsellors, in two groups of 12, under the casework guidance of Psych iatric Socia l Worker MrS. Eve Road. In th is situation , the volunteer workers are, in fa c t , the case workers although they are required to attend weekly group meetings and personal in te r­views with the soc ia l worker.

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Children's Dept: Borough of Is lin g ton . Contacts were Mr.Rees Jones, the D irector, and Mr. John Rea-Price, Senior Child Care O fficer. The time here provided a good overa ll picture of how the soc ia l work. and other community services have been restructured in the new London Borough system.This Dept, is the main statutory agency where extensive and intensive fam ily casework is being done. Is lin gton has a po licy of gradually withdrawing a l l i t s children from in stitu ­tiona l care, b r ib in g them lack in to the lo ca l setting with the fam ily and supporting theA with intensive casework. The other aspect of i t s p o licy is to ensure that children are not placed in care in the f i r s t place, and i t does th is by simply not re fe rrin g them to the Court fo r care and protection.

Borough of Hove and Brighton. Contact here was Miss Frances Channell, Senior Child Care O ffic e r .

The Probation Service. This remains under the d irect control o f the Home O ffic e . The Old St. M agistrate's O ffice was v is ite d where the contact was Mrs. .Angela Chronnell o f the soc ia l work s ta f f . Some attempt is made to work with fam ilies , although l i t t l e more can be done than to work with probationers themselves as most workers have very heavy caseloads.

Of particu lar in terest was the Hoxton Cafe P ro ject. This was inspired by the s ta ff o f the Dept, and is now autonomously financed and con tro lled . I t employes a trained socia l worker who works in a cafe setting with the lo ca l youth, most of whom are on probation to the Dept.

University of London. Birkbeck College (Dept, of Psychology).The contact was Mrs. Veronica Norbum who is working under Miss Thelma Vaness who did the "School-leavers" Study ten years ago.At present a follow-up study is being done to examine the work and domestic patterns of a random sample of 300 o f the o rig in a l population.

The Family Guidance Units. The contact was the senior soc ia l ^worker, Miss Heather Ly le . The units were o r ig in a lly fom ed during wartime by conscientious objectors as a service p ro ject. Today they consist of semi-autonomous units in most of the b ig c it ie s . A. professional and semi-professional case vyork service, not unlike that of B .S .L., is o ffered to c lien ts of sim ilar background to that of our c lien ts . However, th e ir holiday programmes and ch ildren 's groups which operate within the un its ' centres are b e tte r in tegrated to the to ta l casework process than is the case with B.S.L.

This agency is also involved in the Child Poverty Action group, one aspect of i t s soc ia l action function.

The Inner London Educat i on Authority. Contact was Mr. Broadbent, the Educatiohal O ffic e r . The 1$60 Albemarle Report proposed ways of extending and improving the soc ia l and recreational f a c i l i t i e s fo r youth and also recommended structures fo r th e ir implementation. This, in turn, has meant the re v ita lis a tio n of the London Youth Service, c loser co-ordination and oversight of statutory and voluntary youth agencies in Ihe Inner London area. Of special in terest was the way in which the youth programme has been dovetailed in with the lo ca l school programmes, involving the jo in t use df s ta f f , equipment and premises.

(b ) Coventry

The Council fo r Social Responsib ility (TheEarl o f March)

"People and C ities " study, Canon Stephen Verney.Coventry Cathedral and Industria l Mission. The contact was the Revd. Michael Forrer, Assistant to Canon Simon Phipps.

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(o) Windsor

St. George?s Hbuse. The contact was the D irector, Dean Robin Woods, and the Warden, Rear-Admiral A. Davies. The centre was opened one year ago and is a centre fo r dialogue and re fle c tio n amongst top le v e l leadership in a l l sectors of society.

(d ) Harlow

The Harlow Council o f Socia l Service. Family Guidance Unit. Contacts were the Chairman, Mr.E. Sewel-Harris, soc ia l worker Mrs. Valerie Macleod, and an ex-research worker Mrs. Marjorie Hasson.

Harlow is a "new town" 25 miles from London. A unit was established three years ago as an agency of the Council o f Social Services. I t o ffe rs an intensive fam ily case-work service to a lim ited number o f fam ilies with chronic problems which the existing agencies could not adequately handle. I t receives only referred cases from recognised a f f i l ia t e d agencies.

Apart from casework, the unit has sought to act as a cata lyst amongst d iffe ren t agencies, and to bring them together fo r the b etter co-ordination of ex isting services. The work has been w ell documented and reports are ava ilab le .

(e ) S ca rg ill House, Yorkshire. The contact was the Warden, Revd. Bernard Jacob. This is an autonomous Church-inspired centre o f sp ir itu a l renewal and evenagelism fo r la y people, a l i t t l e lik e Avalon. I t can accommodate, about 90 guests and runs a f u l l pro­gramme of house parties , apprentice vocational courses, as wellas m inistering to individual guests recovering from serious problems. Some aspepts bf i t are sim ilar to the work at Avalon.

( f ) Williain Temple College,Rubgy

. A course in "Responsib ility in Industry" led by the Earl o f March fo r middle m.nagefb and shop stewards. I t is in teresting to note that the industries o f the midlands have complete confidence in the College and send s ta ff to these College-run courses on fu l l pay as part o f th e ir working time. In the main, the courses are run by the s ta ff Of the College, and are designed to cover the whde range of problems of-urban liv in g , as w ell as industria l ten sion ..

. A course fo r younger clergy in urban soc ia l tra in ing. This was led by Mrs. Sloss', who is a trained soc ia l worker on the s ta f f . Again, c lergy were sent and paid fo r by th e ir own Dioceses.

12. A RETURN VISIT TO GERMANY

(a ) This was to Loccum Evangelical Academytoa'Abrld Council o f Churches' consultation sponsored by the Dept, on the La ity on the topic o f "Laymen Abroad". The Rept. in v ited me and paid expenses as there was no Australian representative ava ilab le . This conference, which contained representatives of 26 d iffe ren t nations, spent a week examining the secular movement of laymen across the world in business, industry and serv ice. I t also made recommendations about .he implications of th is "criss-cross" movement fo r the Mission

of theChurch.

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(b ) the Kirchentag, a great national conference of the Evangelical Church at Hanover. 80,000 people came from a l l over the 'world to study the theme "Is peace among us?"

12. U. S. A.

(a ) New York

( i ) Agencies

The National Headquarters of the Episcopal Church - Dept, of Christian Social Relations. Contacts were the D irector,Mrs. Muriel Webb, the Revd. EricSnyder ( in charge o f services fo r the aged) Mr. Leon Modeste (Community organisation section ).

National H' qrtrs Episcopal Church, Dept, o f Christian Education. The contact hehe was the Revd. Bob Morton. Of special in terest was the new d irection in Christian education. The group l i f e dynamics and techniques which were once applied to Parish l i f e are now being d irected and used in the process of "community development".

biocese of New York, Parish Casework Service. A meeting was held with senior soc ia l worker, Miss K itty Yost and her s ta f f .Of in terest was the fa c t that casework service had been de-centralised so that the soc ia l work s ta ff were spending three days per week in fou r lo ca l parishes dealing with c lien ts problems, arid two days per week at headquarters.

Parish of S t. Matthew. and St.Timothy on West 84th S t. The contact was Fr. P r ie s t (in the absence of the Rector, Father Gusweller) and Mr. Joe Riggs, soc ia l worker from the Parish casework service.

Metropolitan Urban Service Training In s titu te . The contact was Revd. Douglas RennicH (in the absence of Revd. B i l l Webber) This is the most recent development in urban train ing programm­ing. .Although the past year has had i t s d i f f ic u lt ie s , the con­ceptual design fo r the programme is impressive and future train ing courses are l ik e ly to be very valuable.

New York C ity Housing Authority. Contacts were Socia l Planning Consultant, Mr. G-eorgeRabin'ov and the Senior Socia l Worker, Miss Butler. The Authority i t s e l f employs a Socia l Work Dept.(which tr ie s to preserve i t s own specia l id en tity ) to deal with fam ily problems which f i r s t present as housing and tenancy problem^.

Casework services are usually short-term and re fe rra ls come from a Tenant Review Board and the estate managers themselves I t was exciting to see a public authority accepting the res­p on s ib ility fo r care of people within i t s own structure. The housing is open, although the highest proportion tend to be Negro and Puerto Rican, while whites are usually old people.There is s t i l l a strong tendency for working-class white fam ilies to refuse to in tegra te.

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New York (cont)

( i i ) Conferencesj

Union Theological Sejninary, M inisters ' Summer Course.

. Lectures by Rev.Dr. Harvey Cox on "Secularisation and Mission".These consisted of -

(a ) the impact o f secularisation on the person - the new mentality of the '!secular map"

(b ) the "mission of the Church" in the urban secular situation as derived from a theo log ica l base - Secular man requires a new theology which emphasises the Kingdom o f Cod i . e . corporate and soc ia l nature of the new age

(c ) an interlude - the phenomena o f alien&ted youth. This was a c r i t ic a l evaluation of the 'hippy' movement which was extremely usefu l.

(d ) the "mission of the Church'' - the bringing together and planning of th eo log ica l and soc io log ica l data in order to gain new insight about the future and the unfolding of h is to r ica l processes

(e ) the new escatology - in other words, a theology of "hope fo r tt].e future" and of the openness fo r man to shape his future responsibly.

. Seminars led on "Urban Education" by Mrs. Dorothy Jones, New York Protestant Council's D irector o f the Commission on Race Relations. These provided a v iv id picture o f urban U.S.A. as seen by an educated negro. Consequently a much clearer understanding o f negro h istory, mentality and culture was gained. Through theprocesses of group l i f e , our hidden race attitudes and white paternalism came to the surface and were examined in d e ta il. Furthermore, a much c learer understanding of "Black Power" and the current race r io ts was gained.

V is its were also made to schools and educational institu tions in East Harlem.

(b ) Chicago

The Urban Training Centre fo r Christian Mission. This is an ecumenical in stitu tion prim arily fo r research, teaching and consultation. I t conducts both short and long term train ing programmes fo r both c lergy and la i t y In Christian Mission in various metropolitan c r is is situations. The centre seeks to develqp "a practice of theo log ica l re fle c tio n in the c r i t ic a l urban situations" where the interns in fa c t do th e ir placements. This two-fold process o f re fle c tio n and involvement' is designed to produce " fa ith fu l theo log ica l in terpretations and the formation of appropriate new types o f m inistry in thoss corresponding urban situations. Contacts (in the absence o f the D irector Revd. James Morton) were the Revd. Dr.Richard Lueche D irector o f Theological Studies, Revd. Dr. Gibson Winter, Revd. Don Browning, lectu rers.

The Ecumenical In s t itu te , a community o f people l iv in g together under a common d isc ip lin e in a west-side negro ghetto. This is also a research and train ing centre which is working towards the renewal of the lo ca l Church. I t sees i t s e l f as a "protype" fo r i t s new operation.

There are two elements to i t s programme; f i r s t l y a national and international theolog ica l education programme, and secondly a lo ca l "community reformulation" pro ject ca lled "F ifth C ity ". The two are

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tied together on the assumption that the methodology f o r "F ifth City" development is transferable anywhere in the world.

The Community RenewalSooiety ( la te Chicago C ity Mission S ocie ty ). The society is designed fo r the renewal of the metropolis and i t sees i t s e l f as an "agent of constructive change". "Renewal" comes through various means -

( i ) pro ject building - people are drawn together across ra c ia l, c lass, income and educational groups in several types o f programme in order to improve communication, c la r i fy the goals and problems o f urban society and work together fo r change. An important aspect of th is is the publication of "Renewal" magazine.

( i i ) Service in stitu tion s, neighborhood houses , neighborhood organisations, co-operatives, s tore-fron t Churches, e tc .

( i i i ) a new programme is being developed ca lled "Towards Responsible Freedom". This w i l l involve the development and support by the C.R.S. of lo ca l grass-roots community organisations or "resource boards" which w i l l take action fo r themselves in re la tion to such problems as housing, employment, education. ettL Research in to methodology has already commenced.

Contacts were Mrs. Peggy Way, soc ia l worker, and Mr. Stephen Rose, Editor of "Renewal" magazine.

The Church Federation of Creator Chicago (The Coundil o f Churches) Contacts were the Revd. George Pickering of the Research Centre, and Revd. David McCyeath , p irec to r o f Socia l Services. (These two contacts provided a c learer perspective batb on the above mentioned agencies and the overa ll network of Social services in Chicago.

Youth Guidance - a semi-autonomous agency of the Episcopal Church and theChurch Federation of Greater Chicago. Here a professional casework and socia l group work service is provided fo r youth who are re ferred to i t from agencies l ik e the probation service, schools, fam ily agencies and lo ca l Churches.

Contact was the D irector, Miss Orena Armstrong.

The Church of the Brethren. South C a lifo rn ia St. Chicago, an old white Protestant Church now in the centre o f a Puerto Rican ghetto.I t has a team ministry consisting of an American Pastor, a Spanish- American Pastor, a youth worker operating with lo ca l gangs and a ch ildren 's centre worker. The la s t two members are conscientious objectors who are doing th e ir alternate two years serv ice. Of in terest was the fa c t that th is Church, with few members and l i t t l e finandia l resourced, had succeeded in refocusing it s m inistry and was making important inroads in to Id ea l problems. Also, excellen t informal re la tions had been established with the lo ca l po lice in re la tion to youth gangs. Contact was the Revd. William Faw, and a l l s ta ff members

(c ) Portland, Oregon. No contacts.

(d ) San Francisco.

The Episcopal Diocese of C a lifo rn ia , Dept, of Metropolitan Urban Planning. Contapt was the Rev.Canon James Guinan (la te o f the Parish F ie ld Centre, D etrio t) This rpcent appointment by Bishop Kilmer Myers, Bishop o fC alifo rn ia , has been made in order to d irect the Church

in to the ro le of community organisation. The method undertaken in i t ia l l y w i l l be to draw together ex isting organisations and groups capable of undertaking the task and t lje ir tra in ing fo r that task.

The plan is to ra ise su ffic ien t funds to form a lo ca l training in stitu te in conjuhction with the Presbyterians. Father G-uinan believes that "grass-roots community organisations" must be developed and strengthened so that they w i l l eventually become institu tions of poweb alongside a l l other soc ia l and p o lit ic a l in stitu tion s.

The Olyde Foundation, a C ity Methodist Church with bequest funds to d istribu te has turned i t s e l f in to an urban centre to tra in Chrts tians to act in the C ity o f San Francisco.

The foundation's method o f work is to id ,n t i fy with any groups or individuals o f sign ificance which show signs of v ia b i l it y , yet are under stress and then to act together with them.

At present, work is going on with homo-sexuals, hippies, ghetto negro fam ilies , runaway yodth and dropouts, a r t is ts , drug-takers <&c.I t sees i t s e l f as performing an "anabling m inistry" by supplying funds, professional s k i l l , soc ia l action and publishing resources.

The most important aspect o f the Foundation is i t s independence and autonomy from the in s titu tion a l Church. Although ecumenical in in tention , most i f i t s s ta ff are s t i l l Methodist m inisters.

) Los Angeles

The Parish Sobial Service Centre o f the East L.A.Episcopal Churches. This consists o f three Churches who have lo s t most o f th e ir old middle-class congregation and who now fin d themselves in a Mexican ghetto. In the past three years, new forms of m inistry related to the lo ca l people are being worked out. Their main focus is alsothat of "community organisation". They run a newspaper fo r Mexicans which acts as a cutting edge fo r soc ia l reform and are involved in the mobilisation o f the Mexican community to take action fo r themselves to gain b e tte r conditions. Contacts were the Revd. John Luce ( la te o f St.Edward the Martyr's Church, under Bishop Myers) and the Revd. Roger VYood.

Lost Angeles Neighborhood Youth Association. This was once the old neighborhood settlement association, which"has been reformed as a semi-autonomous de-centralised Episcopal Church agency; Situated in a prosperous area, i t works in existing pockets o f poverty with youth who have been squeezed out by society. Their most common response to th is is one o f acting out and 20 de-centralised small group programmes have been developed, together with a casework serv ice. Referrals usually come from schools and p o lic e . The centres are in areas lik e Venice, Sawtell and YYilmington and operate from rented buildings and shop fron ts . They use "an agressive" approach, as workers with station waggons seek out and fo llo w up the youth in order to engage them in meaningful programmes. Of particu lar in terest is th e ir use o f youth who come from the area and are a part of the culture. Usually they are employed fo r N.A.P. (Neighborhood Adult Partic ipation P ro je c t ), the Dept, o f the O ffice o f Economic Opportunity). Recently oile of these aides was appointed as a f u l l time s ta ff member, trhich is an important step of greater involve­ment in the lo ca l culture. The agency is t ied in with O.E.O. and is also involved in community organisation. The contact was the D irector, Miss Margaret Mudgett.

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The L.A. Community Service Organisation. This is a privately- run body which works with Mexicans in the development of community organisation. Their programmes include such things as voter reg is tra tion , neighborhood improvement, c i v i l righ ts, protection from police b ru ta lity , hodsing development, mutual aid services, cred it unions, bulk-store co-operatives, club rooms and consumer information services.

SECTION B

Drawing from thb foregoing material,some threads which indicate what is taking place throughout the world in socia l development.

The problems o f contemporary society are the problems of urban l iv in g . The e ffe c ts and processes o f urbanisation have uprooted and changed even the most iso la ted v illa g e s in India and Indonesia. Consequently, no individual or soc ia l group w i l l bp unaffected by the vast changes and developments sweeping through the world. A f u l l scale analysis of these trends and e ffe c ts is obviously out o f the question and beyond the scope o f th is report. However, i t would not be in appropriate to make some observations about some of the recurring problems and the human responses being made to them as they appear to be emerging in some sort of coherent pattern. In spite of vast soc ia l, p o lit ic a l and economic d ifferences in the countries I v is ited , there were certain common patterns which weye c lea r ly distinguishable. Some of these w i l l be discussed in what fo llow s.

1. In the more advanced soc ie ties lik e the United States ofAnbrica, urban liv in g presented i^s most serious problem in the form of depriving individuals and small groups from making decisions fo r themselves. In that country, soc ia l commentators are now saying that democracy has almost ceased to qxist and that "an organisational society" is taking i t s place. The ramnificationg o f th is include f i r s t l y an increasing d i f f ic u lty in con tro lling in stitu tion s. The trend is fo r fewer people to have any rea l partic ipation within them. More and more people f in d that decisions are being made fo r them by a small e l i t e of technical "experts". Secondly, i t means that the rangeo f choices and ro les that individuals may adopt is being constantly reduced. Thirdly, th is increasing lack of f l e x ib i l i t y is producing a serious conformism amongst people who are often planned fo r as masses.

The question preoccupying most thoughtful people in most organisa­tion a l soc ie ties today is "How can individuals and groups participate meaningfully within the decision-making structures o f mass society?"

Out of th is question arises a response which seeks an answer in "community development" and "cdmmunity organisation". Indeed, i t may well be that "conpnunity development" is becoming the symbol cf our time. Most people take th is to mean "action undertaken by a people fo r the betterment of themselves and th e ir environment". Under such a broad d e fin it io n ,lie s a wide range o f perceptions. Some people understandi t to mean the improvement of the purely physical environments Others emphasize a community with well-formulated plans fo r i t s future. Others again place the emphasis upon human in ter-re la tionsh ip and communication, amongst the members of the community. In some countries, institu tionso f higher learning are involved in the elaboration of ideas related to adult education and University extension. Tdiere th is has happened, the work has gained in in te llec tu a l coherence.

Ydierever the emphasis is placed, one point is assumed. Development is based on the b e lie f in the innate c rea t iv ity o f each individual and h is inner consciousness to be stimulated in to creative personal and socia l action. The resu lts which are hoped fo r include,not only the p arti­cipation, in decision-making by previously powerless individuals, but also an increased f lu id it y of movement between previously hardened socia l

classes, castes, racial, re lig iou s and cultural groups as the resu lt o f th e ir acting together on matters o f common concern.

There is an important im plication here fo r voluntary professional soc ia l v?ork arising out of th is nevY development. The old critic ism s once le y e lled against *!$th century v/elfare paternalism have been la rg e ly accepted by socia l agencies. However, some new critic ism s are now being le v e lle d at the practice of professional soc ia l work i t s e l f . There is now a great deal o f ta lk about "welfare colonialism" which exists even in professional agencies. The term means the m obilising of welfare services by the various statutory and voluntary establishments, the b etter co-ordihation of thosp services and often a cen tra lis ing process so that the needy w il l fincj. them more accessib le. On the surface, these pro­cesses appear to be quite reasonable. However, they also help tobring about a situation where services are more coherently provided fo r the poor and needy. In any enterprise where the la t te r are notin i t ia l l y involved in the planning of seryices fo r themselves, the charge of colonialism can be le v e lled . Furthermore, where th is basic elementis lacking in welfare services, i t is l ik e ly to mean that professional soc ia l workers w i l l struggle in vain to help the c lien t to help himself, because the in s titu tion a l setting m ilita tes against such a thing taking place.

In a few instances, soc ia l work agencies have recognised the problem, and have to ta l ly reorganised th e ir programming. In turn, th is hasmeant an orientation of the v?ork tov?ards the support and development of ex isting groups and grass-roots organisations already existent in the depressed areas. Where no such groups ex is t, attempts are being made to form them, usually through the agency of a Community Organiser. This worker's ro le has in fa c t arisen out o f a new concept. He is indeed a professional consultant Ydio comes, not as an authority nor even-as a counsellor, but rather as a collaborator or what Dorothy and Curtis Mial have ca lled a "process techn ician". They define his contribution as "helping people to fin d opportunities to release and put to use ( fo r the good o f the community and fo r themselves as persons) the resources within themselves, however deeply buried or h itherto unexpressed." *

A number of examples of th is type o f development could be observed in the fo llow ing places: - F ir s t ly , the "L .S .D .'s " in Indonesia (the National T illa g e Socia l Con)mittees under the umbrella of the M inistry o f S o c ia lA ffa irs ), secondly the"Vikas Mandels" (the C itizens ' Development Councils under the guidance of the Urban Community Development Dept, of theGovernment of In d ia ), and th ird ly in the medley of attempts in U.S.A. by both the O ffice of Economic Opportunity and private agencies. In a l l these cases there are s ign ifican t examples o f lo ca l communities taking action fo r themselves.

A variant upon th is particu lar theme in the U SA is related to the mobilisation o f people on Welfare Assistance. Of particu lar interest^ is the vrork o f the Poverty Rights ActionCentre, National Headquarters of the Welfare Rights Movement in Washington, and several lo ca l attempts in places lik e Chicago to form "Poor Unions".

^'"Patterns o f Community Development" - an Introduction to a series of Essays" Page 6.

2. Most of the countries v is ited had recently undergone some formof vio lence. The immediate cadses varied a good deal. For example, the students of the Free University, West Berlin and the LondonSchool o f Economics were demonstrating to gain a greater say in th e ir Uni­v e rs ity curricula, Anotbe r instance is of course the widespread r io t in g th is summer throughout USA,peibap{! inflamed t y Black Power leader- ship. Another instance is the p o l it ic a l counter revolution o f the Kami students in Indonesia, Other examples were the language r io tsin India, peace demonstrations in U.K., U.S.A.. and Germany, the Provos in Amsterdam and many others. In most cases, these a c t iv it ie s havebeen undertaken by people under 30 years of age and are a rebellion against the attitude of adult superiors. They represent a loss o f confidence in th e ir capacity to make righ t decisions, or any decisions at a l l in re la tion to a diverisity of issues,from education to peace. Secondly,some of these groups have become "drop-buts" from the established in stitu tions of society . I t would appear that the reasons fo r thedrop-out range from the fa c t that they be lieve society in i t s present form is not worth partic ipating in . Tied in with th is is the fa c t that society in i t s present form canncj; and w i l l not l e t them partic ipate. Perhaps the word "youth revolu tion" is not too strong a phrase to use to describe the phenomenon and perhaps i t w i l l soon become a force which p o lit ic a l decision-makers w il l have to take in to account.

The point being argued here is that violence in part results from fee lin gs of fru stra tion by grpups in society who f e e l e ither that they have been excluded from it s opportunities, or that they have no chance to partic ipate or even have th e ir opinions heard. Now th is poses aserious question fo r the newly emergent organisational society. Whilst decisions continue to be made fo r people without th e ir involvement in the f i r s t place, or at any time in the decision-making process, the p oss ib ility of responses o f violence w i l l always be there. Indeed, i f no channels o f expression and partic ipation emerge, violence is in e ffe c t the only method l e f t . The case par excellence is at present the negropopulation of the U.S.A.

Perhaps th is is su ffic ien t to demonstrate that r io tin g is not the problem of one particu lar nation, but is l ik e ly to be a problem fo r every urban community in every part of the world unless new organisational structures are b u ilt in to i t s l i f e on lo ca l le v e ls .

3. Another s ign ifican t response to urbanisation in almost every countryv is ited was an urban train ing programme focused upon the b ig c it ie s .These programmes had peVeral aspects to th e ir work, but most included stiucturesj which brought together people of d iffe ren t vocational, cu ltural, soc ia l, and economic groupings across existing barriers , to deal with matters o f coE.mon soc ia l concern. Sometimes, these groups thenproceeded to establish programmes of action to bring about change in the l i f e o f the metropolis. ^nother normal aspect of th e ir work was the train ing o f people to l iv e and serve e f fe c t iv e ly in the new urban settin gs . Invariably such organisations had a facu lty of considerable s ize , including economists, soc io log ists , theologians, social 'workers andand industria l men. * Frequently, these operations had come in to being due to the in it ia t iv e of the Church. Although they contained mostly a th eo log ica l motif underlying th e ir involvement, they were su ffic ien tly community-oriented to involve a l l people in th e ir programmes.

Quite often , the resu lt o f th e ir programmes led to the f i e ld of community organisation so that the two processes t ied in well with each oticer.

The Churches themselves have demonstrated that they are capable of undertaking some s ign ifican t and creative work in the renewal of the metropolis. However, the fo llow ing conditions need to be operative before such things w i l l happen. F ir s t ly , they need tp operate from a ecumenical base and to provide a high degree o f autonomy to the agency in question. Secondly, the agency must be generated by "an informing v is ion " of what society should be, based upon a firm grasp of Christian socia l ethics and the Doctrine of Man. Thirdly, the agency needs to be fre e of some of the Church's more conservative in stitu tion s. Fourthly, there needs to be a reasonable degree of th eo log ica l consensus amongst the bodies supporting the agency. F ifth ly , i t ought not to be too c lose ly aligned with any particu lar in s titu tion . F in a lly , there must be a preparedness amongst s ta ff and board members to takp calculated risks with persons and groups who are e ith er untried or non-conformist.In some of the agencies v is ite d , these conditions existed and as A resu lt, they were able to move out into the community to the c r it ic a l areas of l i f e and begin the task o f bridge-building in the lo ca l community.

The ro le of professional socia l work is also undergoing exciting change in the midst o f the upheaval described above. This is particu­la r ly so in U .S .A ., the country la rg e ly responsible fo r ex isting socia l work models. There, as in many countries, an increasing awareness could be found o f a large section of the population who are excluded from most soc ia l opportunities, p o l i t ic a l ly powerless, without status and without employment, Such an awareness has led to the rea lisa tion that most established counselling and group work services are extremely lim ited in th e ir value fo r the urban poor. Consequently, increasing numbers of soc ia l workers are challenging the established norms of ob­je c t iv i t y and detachment,as being inappropriate in the current situation . Instead, they are a c tiv e ly picketing with th e ir c lien ts fo r soc ia l justice and c i v i l r igh ts . In e f fe c t , i t means that professional soc ia l work is also converging upon the f i e ld o f community organisation.

-In other areas, the practice o f professional socia l work is also changing. Of particu lar in terest is the fa c t that socia l workers are beginning to trust untrained people and to use them. The f ie ld s of use range from using them as fam ily caseworkers under programmes of train ing and guidance in a voluntary capacity to th e ir actual employment as lo ca l N.A.P. (neighborhood Adult Partic ipa tion ) youth 'workers in the lo ca l ghetto areas. The degree o f r isk in these types o f operation is high, but most professional workers te s t i fy that the risk has usually paid o ff and that important new dimensions to th e ir work were emerging as a resu lt.

The conference at Loccum in Germany on "Laymen Abroad" raised fo r me some new international and lo ca l dimensions. This could best be described as a movement of people criss-crossing the -world in to d ifferen t cultures fo r the purpose of business, industry and service. The movement has arisen as a d irect resu lt o f technological development, and is thus secular in i t s nature.

When a person from a developed country comestoan-gcarging country, he w i l l be an "agent of change" whether he does so consciously or unconsciously. The urgent task is to ensure that he is also an "agent o f recon c ilia tion ". Most countries, with the exception o f Australia , had natiohal programmes fo r tra in ing people to go overseas and cross new cultural fro n tie rs . I t is a matter o f some concern t)cat there is no one body or agency in Australia to whom I can report.

The matter o f crossing new fron tie rs is not simply an international phenomenon but one which is l ik e ly to be a normal task in the l i f e of most people within th e ir own country in the next twenty years. The implications of th is new m ob ility , vdiich involve- being constantly uprooted, making adjustments and new soc ia l groupings, demand our urgent attention at home as w e ll.

Implications fo r the Brotherhood of St.Laurence and its future development. . '

V isits to most of the social work agencies overseas highlighted the question of planning fo r the future. I was greatly impressed at the lengths to which most of the agencies went, to plan fo r dhnnge and'development, both in terms' of a conceptual design and in tepms of the administration.-

I t is becoming clear that social change is forcing social agencies to change the orientation in their work, - a d iff ic u lt thing to undertake.

1. PLANNING.

The Brotherhood of St. Laurence has grown enormously over the past 15 years and the time has clearly come to ask whether we should be putting controls on our own "urban sprawl". % need to be clearabout how big the agency can become befope i t needs to decentralise its administrative structures, and what the administrative ramnifica- tipns are in extension and development of services.. Looking tjack Upon our past development fo r as long as I can remember, perhaps we have not faced these questions with sufficient seriousness. The approaoh we seem to have adopted is that, when surplus money has become ava ilab le ,. we ask how we can extend.our. services. Seldom have we related pro­posed extensions to any -total plan related to the whole organisation.

We have now grown to such a size that i t has become essential to build a structure into the organisation which w ill be concerned with planning fo r the future, doing an internal analysis of the work of the departments, keeping in close touch with overseas trends and developmehts, making recommendations to Brotherhood policy-making 'bodies, and, above a l l , making plans in relation to some overall plan or framework of reference.

Without being too specific at this stage, perhaps what we need is ope s ta ff member to be the Social Planning Advisor, backed up by a small committee of s ta ff members to assist in the making of recommenda­tions and reports to Hedds of Staff and the Board.

Although the following points do not a l l come, under ''planning", they pro related and represent the questions I fe e l wo should ask about our work

(a ) Are we gu ilty ourselves of "welfare colonialism"? i . e . Are our j clients and residents involved as mpch as they oould be in the - prooesses of decision-making?

(b ) YThat is the future relation of the S.S.B., Youth and Children'sCentres? Should they seek to 'in tegrate servioes to provide a to ta l fan ily approach; o r 'is better co-ordination a l l that oan bo expected? -r. - '

(o ) To what extent would i t be possible to involve looal residents in our work, even to appoint them as employees in oertain situations?

(d ).Sooial aotion - at present we speak fo r the poof. How would we go about mobilising them :in order to act with them?

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. (e ) Should our work involve any new approaches? e.g.. Community organisation? . Should s ta ff he appointed to work in Fitzroy and some of the outer Housing Commission areas as community organisers? -

( f ) Should.we'decentralise our social work services in order to ' serve a wider cross-section of the metropolis?

- Th^se are but a few examples of the sort of questions whioh should be raised again and recommendations be made to the Board.

I t i^ould be true to say that none of these are new questions as' a l l have been discussed at so4e stage of our h istoiy. However, l i t t l e subsequent action has taken place in most oases, and this is a fac t which need not cause any surprise. Change and development takes place only, a fte r serious reflection and clearcut proposals are presented before appropriate decision-making bodies fo r deoision and action.-

2. TRAINING . ' .

At present overseas there is an increasing trend towards "urbah training".- Many social work agencies are dt least peripherally involved in the training processes, either through providing teaohing s ta ff fo r the programmes or placements fo r the interns.

In one or two situations, tie-ups with Universities have been "arranged so that the training fa c i l i t y includes a 'University Extension' programme.

I t is a matter of some concern that', in a country with two capital c ities of over two m illion people and where the projected population fo r the year 2000 w ill be f iv e m illion in.Melbourne, nothing is being done to help decision-makers, private institutions,' Government bodies and individual citizens face the human implications of liv in g in a to ta lly d ifferent type of context.

I do not believe that i t is the Brotherhood's task to become an Urbdn Trailing Centre in i t s e l f , but we may have an important role to play in in itia tin g action by bringing the right people together to set up planning structures, and even providing some finance. Our work is su ffic ien tly close to the goal's of any Such centre to ju s tify us having some stake in its operation and development. Again, the decision to take such a step could well be one of the concerns of a Social Planning Department.-

3. RELIGIOUS IDEOLOGY

I t is vpry important to develop.a clearer perception on this Matter. ??e were an Anglican Religious Order but, fo r various reasons including our autonomous structure, we have become more secularised. There is thus a continuing tension amongst us as to - ouf religious position, The problem is that those of us who are Christians have.tended to understand the nature of our involvement in somewhat traditional theological concepts which may not be appropriate to the new urban betting. Oh the other hand, those who come from a secular-humanist tradition tend to adopt an Over-pragmatic approach to their own personal involvement to the point where these things are seldom disoussod.

The agencies who were functioning' best throughout the world ., were those who had. at least attempted to come to terms with their

. ideological ppsition;, Invariably, there were continuing tensions, but, at the same time, most of them cbuld claim that they had reached.

'. a point where they dould perceive'some "informing vision" as the sustaining, directing and generating motive of their work.

I am sure that, at this s tag^o f h istorica l, theological, social and' '.-scientific development, we are not yet at the point of being able to prQduOe any.lasting synthesis. However, I f e l t that,

especially in the U.S.A. there was some movement in that direction.

At the very least, we could bring s ta ff together to see whether '' ' agreement could be reached on a basic "ideological and theological

practice" even i f we could not as yet formulate a clear-cut ideology. Such matters, though they are of great importance, w ill inevitably take second p lace'to the actual work and thus may have to be done as a spare-time ac tiv ity , particularly i f .a vd.de variety of s ta ff mem­bers are to be involved in the thinking processes.

-In addition, there are some other related issues which should be raised fo r serious consideration -

(a ) As we have become in e ffec t a broadly ecumenical agency, should we do something about formalising this fact? For example, by making ecumenical appointments to our Hoard?

Our worship has tended to be Anglican. Has the time now come lyhen we should seek permission to worship in the traditions of other denominations, and even find our own unique litu rg ica l forms and expressions? I f this point mects vq.th some agreement, then a representative "Chaplaincy" committee could be formed to work on the reform of our wbrs^iip services.

I have a strong suspicion that the absence of s ta ff membqrs from servioes of worship is , not simply that they are too busy, too tired , too lazy nor entirely disbelieving, but "rather that they do not find our present forms meaningful to the work which they are undertaking in the Brotherhood.

Perhaps the,other side of this problem is that they fe e l drawn to place too muoh emphasis upon the work i t s o l f , and are not su ffic ien t­ly encouraged to re fle c t at depth upon the meaning of that work.Perhaps with a weekend conference or two, staff.members could be helped with the task of re flecting upon the nature of their involve­ment. ' - '

.(T )

.1 shall not attempt to write a "conclusion", partly because I have not had sufficient time to orystalise my own thinking about what has been written, and partly because in a l l of these matters the task lie s in the future and is^ as yet, inconclusive.

The strongest sensation that was transmitted to mb during the tr ip was that of the open-endednesq of the future and the unique opportunity afforded to mankind to participate in the shaping of history. I use the word "participate" deliberately because history is mysteriously tied up with the Kingdom of &od. Thus i t is our special-function as human beings to aot together in Christ as do-workers in that Kingdom. i

(Taken from Tape recordingof Revd. Peter J. Hollingworth A p r il, 1967 )

What fo llow s is a broad summary of impressions received in the weeks spent in Indonesia, ostensibly in the c it ie s o i Djakarta and Manduhg.

I 'v e had spch an exciting and stimulating and challenging time here and have tr ied hard to get to grips with the tremendous com­p lex it ie s which go to make up th is nation of Indonesia. One of the things I 'v e valued most i s particu larly the contact^ with people lik e Herb. & Betty j^ebth. Herb Feeth is an Australian University expert in Indonesian a ffa irs and is at present over here lecturing fo r twelve months with the University of Indonesia and his w ife Betty is working part-time with Indonesian C}ouncil of Qhurches. Both of them in th e ir d iffe ren t ways And the people they've introduced me to (th is is equally important) have re a lly helped me to at leas t see the complexities. As a resu lt of th is I'm doing th is tape fo r the th ird time because on each occasion I have recorded impressions, I 'v e found that subsequently I 'v e had to check them and change them considerably.

So, th is is my la s t day here. I'm s itt in g out on the balcony of Hurray Clapham's Embassy Home in Djakarta. My la s t attempt to try and put down some impressions so that when I come back again and I'm trying to w fite down some thoughts, they w i l l bring certain fac ts to mind.

Now, I wonder what are the immediate impressions one gets from a place lik e Indonesia. I suppose f i r s t of a l l - the roads. They are incred ib ly bad. Cars don't la s t very long over here. Thd Potholes are about 6" deep and spread righ t across the road and you try and weave a course through the potholes, at the same time try ing to dodge a l l the betchers (that is ^he b icy les - three-wheeler b icyles which are lik e rickshaws) trying to dodge a l l the other t r a f f ic try ing to dodge each other.. I remember Anne te l l in g mb the R.A.C.V. to ld her when she get her licence 'You must drive to a plan and stick to i t " . I would lik e see them drive to a plan here in Indonesia. I t 's shambles and needless to say, cars are in very poor condition and so are the trucks. They break down a l l over the p lace. Every hundred yards or so, you w i l l fin d a truck there with a wheel having fa lle n o f f , and mechanics and bush mechanics a l l over the place und.er the car bending i t , people o ffe r in g advice and a l l the rest o the people involved in the mishap s itt in g on the road having a p icn ic. I t 's quite disconcerting when you suddenly come across one of these in the middle o f the road at night and just about run them over. However, I'm gradually getting the hang o f Indonesian t r a f f i c . When you wish to pass a car, you toot and everybody toots back, i t is a massive noise, incred ib le . When you wish to pass, remember that the car w il l not pu ll over to the l e f t but l ik e ly to pu ll to the righ t and ram you in to the side of the road somewhere.

Another thing that immediately strikes one, are a l l the monuments and status symbols and b ig buildings, particu larly in Djakarta they have been erected amongst great poverty and the extraordinary extent to which the old order of the Sukarno regime 'went to to convince the world he was a-leader, a leader of the Eastern nations. In the c it ie s , here you have rich^gnd poor a l l mixed up together. An instance of th is is s itt in g in quite/comfortable apartment o f Hurray Clapham's,within th ir ty fe e t there is a great kampong, that is an industria l v il la g e where there is great poverty and very much overcrowding and very poor conditions.Djakarta has an extraordinary numbe^^^dgfferent smells, i t is dot a beat.-fb.l c ity fo r an administratrvq^Et'may w ell have 5 m illion people. Bandung is the more beautifu l c ity , i t is up in the mountains about 150 k ilps away which is a part of the old administrative cap ita l where people used to come foi* the cooler climate and better atmosphere. Once you get away from the c it ie s , Indonesia is a place, particu larly Java, of great beauty. There are magnificent towering mountains and rich f e r t i l e va lleys and the contours o f th ^ land with the r ice f ie ld s and compact v illa g e s . The people themselves I think bas ica lly are a pretty easy-going sort of people. On the whole, up u n til the revolution in 1945, nothing troubled them a great deal. They smile a lo t , the children never cry, they are always try in g, the beggars o f course, to get a few bob from you. But on the whole, a most likeab le people. Unfortunately

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though of course you can 't possibly generalise because there are so many d iffe ren t types o f Indonesians, d iffe ren t backgrounds. A Westerner here, I think, is l ik e ly e ither to go up the w all, that is Indonesia and Indonesian^ would be l ik e ly to drive him up the wall that is i f he is a compulsive organiser. On the other hand, i f you accept the situation as i t is and that everything w i l l go wrong and that i f you say 6 o 'c lock you mean anything between four and eight o 'c lock , a l l sorts o f accidents, breakdowns e tc . are l ik e ly to happen oh the way and everything and everybody is unrealiable, you can accept a l l th is . Indonesia is a charming, fascinating, challenging, dis­turbing place - a l l these things mixed up together. What I'me tr ied to do in what fo llow s is to take the major sectors of Indonesian society, to make some comments about them and ask you to remember that these are p retty superfic ia l Comments ffoin a v is i t o r who rea lly couldn't possibly begin to understand the complexity of the place.But I'm recording them as my only subjective observations from what I 'v e seen and heard, and maybe in time to come I ' l l want to qualify and check them.

L e t 's begin with thb p o lit ic a l scene because p o lit ic s is the b ig thing at the moment. Everybody talks p o lit ic s . The T .K .I ., the Communist figh tin g has been outlawed, the P .N .I. the Nationalist Party which was formed by Sukarno has not been so much as outlawed as very much in disgrace as being regarded as part of the "o ld order" and P .N .I. supporters are discriminated against in University positions and in the v illa g e s . T rag ica lly enough, many P .N .I. people have consorted with the T..K.I. people and te r r ib le massacres have taken place. There is a great m u ltip lic ity o f p o lit ic a l in terests,Genera! Suhartb who is heading up the regime has indicated that he w il l endeavour to hQ.ve elections in mid 1 $68 which seems to be just about impossible because there is just not enough s ta b il ity and no semblance of what we understand by l ib e ra l democratic form to make a meaningful e lection possible. However, he w il l be under a lo t o f pressure to have an e lection and I guess one h e ' l l have to have. People make a lo t of p o lit ic a l noises here and throw around p o lit ic a l words and there 's a lo t of sloganeering going on. Terms lik e 's o c ia l ju s t ic e ', 'lahd reform' and 'new order' and lo ts o f m oralistic righteousness ta lk about the new order and the cleansing of the old order. I think, f i r s t of a l l ,a comment here - one ought not to take a l l th is too seriously. I f ever there was a case fo r being non -aligned with the old order, that is Sukarno's s o c ia lis t ic regime, or with the new order, the current right-wing m ilita ry regime, here is the case in Indonesia. I ' l l give you a wonderful l i t t l e sort o f parable o f th is . I was ta lking with a young New Zealand Presbyterian m inister in Bundung who has been the University Chaplain. He was asked to preach once a month in a Sudanese Church in Bandung and he often used in the old days, in the early 60!s, to be strongly anti-communist in the lin e he took in the pulpit and he was, needless to say, not asked any more to preach a fte r a while. Then, with the take-over, he was in v ited back again and urged to preach as mu6k anti-communism as he lik ed . He rep lied "Ah, no.In the time when under the old order you needed to ta lk anti-communist, today under the new order, you need to ta lk a great deal o f libera lism and you won't get any anti-communism from me." This indicates I think the sort of approach that an in te llig e n t person and particu larly I think the Christian groups must adopt in re la tion to the p o lit ic a l order. Perhaps a b it more o f th is la te r -

P o lit ic s are an extremely d i f f ic u lt thing in Indonesia where you have 24 provinces with a multitude of d iffe ren t ethnic groups and 3000 islands at leas t to administer. They are a l l separated by the sea. These ethnic groups, the Singalese that is the people of Bunda or West Java, the Javanese the people of central and east Java, the Balinese from the island cf B a li, the Summatrans, the Bataks and the Chinese and many many more - each of them rather d ifferen t in th e ir temperament and th e ir background and, in west Java, where Jakarta is centred you have them a l l mixed up together and, o f course, there is a tremendous move­ment at the moment, Sunda fo r the Sundanese. Get r id o f a l l the other

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people and leave the Sundanese fo r 'Vest Java, because of course Jakarta and Bandung being the two biggest c it ie s in Java where the most amount o f indu stria lisation has taken place, th is of course is where people have tended to congregate. You get people, particu larly in Jakarta, from a l l these d iffe ren t rac ia l or ethnic backgrounds, gathering together in the one place.

Religion is the other b ig issue o f the moment. Religious groups b as ica lly break down in the thfs way. You have to the righ t the Muslim groups. The Muslims, that is the people who are r e a lly committed Muslins, practising Muslims, are probably a minority. The vast bulk o f Muslims lik e Christians in Australia , don't practise th e ir re lig io n and don't take i t too seriously. On the other side are theChristians, I think they number about 5 m illion (I'm not too sure about th is figu re though i t is a figu re which is stead ily increasing) Numbers of people,particu larly in Sumatra are coming in to the Christian churches, perhaps fo r dubious motives, which I ' l l mention in a moment, and then in the middle yep get a l l the other people. Simple mystics, people as much as anything else from a Hindu background. On the whole I think the Vast m ajority are not form ally re lig iou s though they have a deep re lig ious sense. The 'words 'Cod' and 'r e l ig io n ' are used a tremendous amount and th is to Westerners is quite a strange thing, l iv in g in a secular state. The re lig ious scene is oiip of great tension and there isgoing to be trouble in the fu ture. The Punja Cela (the f iv e great princip les of Indonesia) which Sukarno himself was so instrumental in handing out, stresses the f i r s t point. That is , b e l ie f in one Cod and one o f the great things about the Sukarno regime is that is was non- aligned on the re lig ious question and re lig iou s freedom was given to various groups. However, the Muslim party, the extreme fan atica l reactionary party, was outlawed ( i think about 1962). There is a great resurgent Muslimism in p o lit ic a l spheres. But the question is of course what sort o f a re lig iou s state is envisaged. W ell, the Muslims say i t must be a Muslim state and they want a more Islamic d e fin ition o f the f i r s t clause o f the Punja Cela. The Christians up t i l l now have had a very good go, Sukarno was very kindly disposed towards them but perhaps now things are going to get more d i f f id u lt . The Christian Churches with 5% Catholic ahd 2% of the population Protestant poming mostly from the Dutch Reformed Churches, my impression o f the Churches is on the whole not a very encouraging one from the Protestant point of view. I 've had the opportunity of looking c lose ly at the re lig iou s structure of Bandung which is of course a c ity of one m illion people and there you have m u ltip lic ity of churches, ethnic churches, churches fo r the Chinese, churches fo r the Sudanese, churches fo r the Javanese and so on. They don't mix. They recently came under the Bandung Council o f Churches but they are helping to spread ra c ia l segregation. This is a l l you can say. And of course fo r the Christian Gospel that says that in Christ and His Cross the middle h a ll o f pa rtition divid ing the nations has been broken down once and fo r a l l ahd Jew and Gentile can now l iv e together as one, as brothers in a community. This situation is a scandal. I went so fa r on one or two occasions to say that I questioned very much whether you could c a ll an ethnic Church in a rea l sense the Church because of the fa c t *i;hat i t ' s a divided ghetto community. The only rea l expression of Catholic ity in th is sense is the Roman Catholic Church who in fa c t get people of a l l d iffe ren t backgrounds worshipping together as they should. Any attempt to ge*!: people to intermingle and to worship together across these ethnic d ivisions has fa ile d , and there is n 't much encouragement. The people usually Rationalise th is by saying 'W ell, o f course we don't understand Chinese, or we don't understand Sudanese' or again 'Ve'd lik e to have our own language* but th is is not very impressive. I understand also that the continental reforin trad ition of the 1$th century perhaps l e f t i t s wobst marks upon the Church which now remains ahd in the v illa g e s particu larly I understand that there is a strong emphasis upon personal pietism and not much emphasis upon corporate worship, a tendency to overemphasize personal conversion. But again I would'nt want to be too generalised about th is because obviously there are some exciting things happening in the l i f e of the Church.

Just to give three examples - I spent a most stimulating day and evening in the Interdenominational Theological Seminary here in Jakarta.

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T talked at some length with Dr. and Mrs. . . . . . . . They have had strongcontacts with the West, particu larly in United States and they are right up with the la tes t in current thinking. Once again in the Indonesian Council o f Churches, people lik e Mary Sarongan (she in ciden ta lly is in­volved ih th4 Dept, o f Mission.& Service) and obviously on th is interdenom­inational le v e l, though there are many problems, a great deal has been achieved and most exciting ventures undertaken. Perhaps the most ex­c itin g of these was the Ecumenical Centre that has been developed at Sukabunge, a town in between Bundung and Jakarta in West Java. I have taken quite a few photographs o f th is because i f was a re a lly ve iy important venture and Lehume's brother . . . . . . . . . . is the person in chargeof th is . This is at present run as a conference centre and a centre fo r stimulating the renewal of the Church in Indonesia.

So, I suppose you can say that just lik e the Churches in Australia, many are depressingly out o f touch, many of them stuck in trad ition a l forms, liv in g in unhealthy sense o f partisan. You also fin d some rea l examples o f commitment and service and something re a lly to get quite excited about. The situation from an economic point of view borders dn something lik e chaos - enormous sums of cap ita l have gone down the drain in lavish spending on status symbols, stadiums fo r Asian games and sky­scrapers that I mentioned before. Obviously the Sukarno isolationism from the West and the throwing out o f the U.N. and so forth has had a serious e ffe c t on the whole eqonomy. However, there are new signs of stimulation from outside, and a number of s ign ifican t jo in t ventures, between the Indonesians and between Americans. These are becoming the order of the day. We had thq chance to ta lk to a Muslim businessman who is the head of a Tea and Rubber Plantation co-operative and he shov?ed us some recent agreements that had just been signed whereby American cap ita l would be applied to the stimulation to lo ca l industry.

On a v il la g e le v e l, there is a problem here at least as economically serious as that of the towns The v il la g e situation has probably deteriorated over the la s t 10 years, there is now less land per head of the population and in many cases purveys o f areas have shown that what land there is , tends to be owned by a small minority of landholders and of course Java is the greatest problem because i t is the most densely populated and land is most important. I t is now the order o f the day that in a v il la g e a fam ily might own as l i t t l e as one h a lf an acre fo r a l l itp cropping requirements.

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There is a good deal of ta lk o f Ic-.r-d reform, mary schemes out uo but so fa r nothing oompletcly satisfactory*. ?e had a discussion with an Indonesia.n and an austral.! an economist, both experts in th e ir f ie ld s and t-*=ey were convinced tl-.at i t is not just a question o f land reform, but land reform plus something. The trouble is no one is en tire ly clear as yet as towhat the 'something' i s . Indonesia's problem I'm to ld by the experts is not simply i t s need of technological equipment, but rathef of methods which would in fa c t involve more people in being found useful, work because there are rea l signs that there simply is n 't enough work to go around id many cases. Education is one of the other b ig important issues which need to be considered and just a b r ie f word. Education was regarded by the Soekarno regime as the b ig thing in the f i f t i e s - everybody went a fte r education and the b e l ie f was that i f everybody was educated, Indonesia's problems would be solved. V e il now, the hard r e a lit ie s force people now to modify th is idea. As with India, though to a lesser extend, you have large numbers of University trdined people who can 't fin d work. They're simply unemployable. The opportunities haven't yet emerged fo r them to practise th e ir professions. Everybody who possibly can goes to the U n iversities . Furthermore they stay there as long as they can because i t ' s more lucra tive business tjo be a student, do a couple of subjects a year and have a few part-time jobs going rather than having graduated and going out to fin d a fu ll-tim e job because, as I said, those jobs just aren 't there. As fa r as primary schooling is concerned, th e ir rea l d if f ic u ltyl ie s in getting primary school children into school ih many oases, the schools themselves, even in some o f the suburbs of Jakarta they are prim itive to the point that we would be quite stunned re a lly as to how inadequate the whole building structure of the Education Dept. is . Students, particu larly at a University le v e l, are somewhat troublesome and a number of the academic s ta ff I talked to both at P ujajaram and Bandung U n iversities, theIndonesian un iversity in Jakarta, are very concerned about the lack o f d iscip­lin e and, on the part of the students, th e ir involvement in p o lit ic a l a c t iv ity to the detriment to th e ir academic studies. They go there own way and there are many capes of where Deans of Fatu ities have f e l t forced to sack very competent members of th e ir s ta ff who are P .N .I. Nationalists and weren't su ffic ien t ly right-wing in th e ir a ttitude, scared of students and i f students made enough noise the Govt. would probably put tdem out of th e ir job. This sebms to be spineless behaviour but I suppose each of us can be threatened when our jobs are threatened. '

Housing is another of the great problems. The general standard o f housing surprised me as t o how good i t was. There are some magnificent homes and the homes at Bandung are, many of them, Toorak-standard and upwards. Jakarta also has i t ? good homes. The in teresting thing is the side-by-side good hones and the town v illa ges or the kampong, where you get great poverty. Housing is a problem in the sense that there is n 't enough to go round. The kampongs are overcrowded. Very often the best that people can get fo r a large fam ily is two or three rooms. I met a major in the Army who is a trained lawyer, trained expert in the Army, liv in g in Jakarta in only three-rooms fo r himself, w ife and eight children. I met many other cases where University lecturers are liv in g on the floo rs mn the huts in the kampongs. I t r e a lly is a colossal problem.

The f i e ld of socia l welfare - my special in te res t. I had a lo t ofd i f f ic u lty u n til the la s t day in getting to the bottom of what i t was a l l about. Even now, I am not sure that I have. The actual tra in ing fo r socia l workers with one or two Exceptions, is not very high. They tend to come through private in stitu tes and the onq with whom I had most contact was the Christian Social In stitu te , a very broad and general bourse, probably too broad and general to be spec ific to enough to equip a soc ia l worker to do the sorts of things which we would expect a socia l worker to do, say in Melbourne. However I did have the opportunity of ta lking with a number of the heads o f soc ia l work depts., particu larly the two in the Socia l Science fa cu lty of Indonesia University, and here, where they've got a few students, s ix or seven, studying at M.A. le y e l, in th e ir spare time a fte r work, here are some rea lly hopeful signs of people who w i l l not only be trained in socia l work but also trained to be sk illed in penetrating the power structures so that in fa c t where decision making takes place, they w i l l be s k i l l fu l enough to have the best socia l work principles implemented in many of these v il la g e and land reforms, building schemes, and socia l welfare schemes, etc. A l l have th e ir impact upon the work of a socia l worker. Social welfare cuts two ways - f i r s t of a l l adjusting people in thec it ie s — and th is is one which has no rea l development in depth. There are so:o

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examples of caring fo r the b lind less and the lim bless, there are some orphanages hut, on the whole, people don'm re a lly need to use orphanages.A ch ild o f divorced or dead parents is usually absorbed in to the extended fam ily in a way that they are not often in Australia and other western soc ie ties . They have a great problem with prostitu tion and also with beggars. This is not surprising. Large numbers of people have f i l t e r e d in from v illa g es in centr.aLand eastern Java to western Java and Indonesia, Jakarta, liv in g on railway lin es , l iv in g under the bridges beside the r iv e r and so on. I was amazed at an experience I had on thela s t day,I went to a Muslim Mosque where there were something lik e one thousand men and women who had been svfept up by the police o ff the street, brought into in stitu tion s, to ld to choose a parther, they l iv e together fo r six months and were taught some dimple s k ills and were then brought to the Mosque and given a c i v i l wedding and packed o ff somewhere in to a settlement in Sumatra. The staggering thing is that they a l l seem to be reasonably happy and a l l keen io go ah^ad with th is , they weren't forced to go on and get married but many of them chose to . I t Was something which I couldn't envisage happening in V ic to ria but i t wad an in teresting way of dealing with what was a very great problem.

In the v illa g e s is where the chronic problems l i e , Back in 1% 2, the U.N. sent an American by the namp of P ro f. Thomas Bringhatn. Prof.Bringham in his capacity of d.N. Dept, o f Social work training and attached to the Govt, of Indonesia the Dept, o f Socqal a f fa ir s , developed a scheme sailed L.S.D. which is in fa c t a voluntary v il la g e le v e l self-help programme with committbes established in each of the lo ca l v illa g es and th e ir repon s ib ility was to care fo r the needy within that v il la g e within the existing social structure of the v i l la g e . The idea is a good one because i t i tses theexisting tools and strengths that l i e in v il la g e l i f e but i t obviously requires f i r s t l y a dumber o%* highly sk illed personnel. I kept on trying to say th is to them, that I wouldn't think these things would just work on th e ir own. S k illed people who could iron out the problems that ex is t within the v illa g e s and could be consulted wore needed, and th is of course means that in fa c t they need the means o f transport, and transport is Indonesia's b ig problem. I had an interview with the M inister fo r Social Welfare andhe said " I have now become a beggar, i f you can give me a jeep or motor scooter or a bike, I 'd be glad to have i t . Not a new one, not a secondhand one but a fourth or f i f t h hand one, anything on wheels w il l do because unless I can get my s ta ff around th e v illa g e s thrpughout the Whole of the scattered islands of Indonesia, th is L.S.D. programme can 't possibly take o f f the ground." On the whole, one is a b it inclined to thipk that there are afew Schemes around the place, people doing a lo t o f talking and a lo t of questioning and I think th is is extremely exciting.! Inciden ta lly just in passing, one of the things that is encouraging in Indonesia is that men in high positions, Older men, have some of the youthful idealism that you don't often see in ol^er men. (Please don't take that one amiss!) They are doing a lo t of hard thinking and struggling and grappling to try to f in d practica l solutions to the vast problems confronting them.

Well, from the economy, one of the b iggest things o f importance at the moment is the Army. yhe Army is an e l i t e , or almost a carte. Almost a society within a society . They tra in th e ir own lawyers and doctors, s o lic ito rs . They train th e ir own psychologist and economists and on the whole the Army get many preferences that c iv ilia n s don't ge t. A l l sots o f perks. I f you want to get married, fo r example, there is an army band to play at your wedding and i t won't cost you anything. I t 's claimed by the Army that they have 300,000 men in uniform. I would have f e l t that there were many mahy more than th is because qne person ip every three or fou r on the streets seems to be a so ld ier, and one veh ic le in every two or three seems to be a jeep. When we were at Bandung we went up to the Cessquat train ing co llege which is a very important tra in ing centre fo r high ranking Army o ffic e rs and had the goocj. fortune to meet Major-General Suharto who was recently in Australia . We also met the Australian Ambassador. This Cessquat train ing programme is very in teresting because any generals who are o ff duty or any cabinet ministers who are at the present time re lived o f th e ir duties, a l l go through these intensive train ing courses fo r three, s ix or nine months. They are re-educated and brought up to date and they use the best academic brains from the U n iversitites to do th is . This is an in teresting blending

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of academics and Army personnel. I asked one of the lower-ranking o ff ic e rs , a Colonel who was the Assistant M ilita ry Attache in Australia, why i t was you have this extraordinary structure in the Army and he gave a pretty smooth answer. This was "Of course, Indonesia was bom out of the Revolution and f i r s t of a l l i t was an informal revolution by rebel bands and they organised themselves into an Army and when they got independence in 1$45 (o r in ihat period betY?een 45 and 49) the Army developed and they have been in a state of continuing revolu tion ."This has gone on from then t i l l 1$67. That I think has some truth in i t , but i t rather blurs over those periods when there was a certain amount of peace and prosperity in Indonesia and i f there was ju s tific a tio n fo r putting men out o f uniform, i t was then. However, here they are. They've over thrown the Soekarno regime and, well^ I 'v e heard many varying reports and i t s ve iy hard to 3 i f t out what sort of an attitude one should have towards the Army. Perhaps an ambivalent a ttitude, certa in ly they 're trying to clean things up. One gets the fe e lin g that maybe thereis n 't the over anti-communist so that any person with lib e ra l ideas and attitudes is l ik e ly to be ousted from his job. There are stories of massmurders in the v il la g e s , sometimes done by the v illa g e rs themselves, that is murdering P .K .I. communists, sometimes done by the Para-commandos (these are the boys vd.th the blood-red berets ) and there have been occasions when people have had Army sergeants almost making th e ir confession about the te rr ib le things ih ey 've done in the dreadful mop-up that took place in the la s t eighteen months or so.

Many people do f e e l that the peaceful, calm v illa g e rs of the Javanese v il la g e s are not the sort to have naturally committed the v io len t a troc ities and murders and that there must have been some outside forces urging them on. Many people say i t was the Army. P e ll , I don't know,I couldn't possibly pretend to knoY?. I Y jill await v^ith in terest some research being done and I met one of Herb Feeth 's students who's going to spend 18 months liv in g in the C<essquat Army College gathering information. This, in ciden ta lly , they seem happy to give one - they are very open and honest and frank about thd position and when Herb Feeth said Y<rell, Haj.Gen how do you f e e l about the present position? Haj-Gen Suharto very promptly rep lied 'W ell, o f course, noY? that Sukarno's gone, i t means that the spot­lig h t is on the men in khaki and naturally enough i t means that i f the Army doesn't bring about the necessary reforms, the people Y/ill be quickly on to then Yd.th f ie r c e critic ism .

W ell, YJhat's the future of' i t a l l? Relig iously and ethn ica lly , I think there 's going to be a b ig squeeze, f i r s t l y against the Chinese.Already there 's great discrim ination against them, ' th e ir children are forbidden to go to schools and i t is becommmg more and more d i f f ic u lt to get an education and the only opportunity they are going to have is i f they have enough money to send th e ir children righ t out of the country, to other countries fo r education. The Chinese are very guarded and reservedand not inclined to ta lk about th e ir problems. Many of them could v?ellbe forced to actually leaye the country beqause of violence and discrimina­tion against them, la rge ly tr iggered o ff by extreme Muslims. The fa c t is that the Chinese number about three m illion and only between 30% and 50% of these are Indohesian c it izen s . The complaint is that vdiile the Indonesian-Javanese vfent out and fought the revolution, they stayed at home and made a l l the money and got the good positions. I t is true that a l l the big homes are ovwied by Chinese and a l l the Mercedes Benz are OYfned by Chinese. They also claim that they do a l l the trade and bleed the country and they don't put much back into i t . W ell, I think we also have to look at the reasons Yvhy the Chinese have done th is , because Chinese tend to be fr iep d ly to th e ir environment i f the environment is fr ien d ly to them. C learly i t hasn't been, in th is case. I think that things look pretty grim fo r them, particu larly i f the Muslim groups take over i f there are fre e elections in mid-1%8.

As fa r as the Christians are concerned, obviously a s p ir it of libera lism and pioderation is discouraged p o l it ic a l ly and the Christians try to take th is sort of middle o f the road stand. They lik e to be accused by the extremist groups o f being communist. Furthermore there is alv?ays the ta lk about Ifestern influence and being a fore ign body in Indonesia.

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What'b the key to a l l th is? IVell, my inclination is that the key to i t is the emergence of a secular state where you have in fa c t freedom of expression, freedom o f practice o f re lig ious b e lie fs and p o lit ic a l b e lie fs , and equality fo r each of these groups. The ta lk of Sunda foi* the Sundanese and out with the Chinese and in with the Muslims, a l l th is sort of ta lk , dies away. Tied with th is , the other key is the development of lib b ra l democratic forms. At the moment there is a great void , a gu lf. The P .N .I. possibly is or could be help to take a more moderate stand to f i l l th is m iddle-of-the-road position but i t is now in chaos and pretty much under f i r e and critic ism and this means that the nation is exposed to Muslim right-wing fanaticism, communism, particu larly perpretrated by the m ilita ry . On the other hand, Indonesia is also exposed to communism because, make no mistake, try as they may, Communists have certa in ly not been stamped out in the v illa g e s . There is no reason to think why th is should happen. H is to r ica lly , Indonesia's heading in the opposite d irection to most of the emerging nations which are swinging to the l e f t . One is inclined to think, ta lking with informed people, that this is probably only a temporary stay, and i t w i l l depend on how quickly General Suharto and his s ta ff can develop these l ib e ra l democratic forms which are so necessary to stable government. Suharto seems to be a w ell respected person, a nan of in te g r ity , he has around him a l l sorts of economic and sociological, advisers. He takes note o f the academic and he absorbs th e ir information very eas ily . He's going to have to clean up the Army because there 's tremendous corruption there and people are asking him th is question. ifhis is very d i f f ic u lt fo r him because he can 't re a lly b ite the hand that feeds him. And ye t, th is Suharto to bring about a reform certa in ly w i l l have to reform the Army and no-one w il l escape.

W ell, tha t's a l l the heavy s tu ff, I hope you d idn 't go to sleep. Tomorrow, I head o ff to Singapore and leave some very happy memories and some very happy relationships with the people of Indonesia. I wonder i f I shall ever again get the chance of plunging so deeply in to the problems of a people d ifferen t from my own nation and to f e e l a sense of id en tity and kinship as we a l l struggle together to bring about a new society.

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I inust describe in somewhat humorous vein what happened to me in my attempt to leave Indonesia. I do th is because I think in many ways th is sums up the d i f f ic u lt ie s that Indonesia has in i t s attempts to catch up with many of i t s more vigorous neighbours.

F irs t thing was that on Tuesday morning, 28th, the night watchman was supposed to wpke me at f iv e a.m. He woke me at four a.m. This was rather hard because I had been up u n til 1 a.m. the night before writing a few thank-you le tte rs and this type of thing. W ell, I got up and got ready and packed and then waited fo r Herb Feeth 's d river to come and get me and take mb to the a irport by car and drive the car back to the Embassy and garage i t there. I waited t i l l s ix o 'c lock - no driger^So the next thing was I thought I 'd betteb get in to the car and rush o ff to the Embassy, fin d another d river and get o f f to the airport because at this stage I was due thebe. I Aid th is and eventually got to the airportand got my way through the customs, almost through the customs that is ..An Army leiptenant looked at my passport and said "This v isa is fo r f iv e days only, and you've been here Seven. What's the idea?" I tr ied to ex­p lain that that was correct that unfortunately the booking that Quantas that put me on dt Jakarta was non-existent and I had to wait fo r the next one.He re a lly tr ied to make l i f e a. b it d i f f ic u lt . When ap Indonesian digs his heels ip lik e th is , never ever get angry. I 'v e learnt th is one, just smile, smile and smile and said "Prima casi" "Thank--you very much" "Yes" Smile and eventually he w i l l change his a ttitude. Eventually he did and said "Only because you a parson" I

W ell, eventually I got through the Customs and a l l c lear. F ligh t was due to take o ff at 7-204 At 7-15 I went on to the tarmac. There was the Geruka -f^irlines a irc ra ft seemingly with it s engines o f f , righ t in the middle o f the tarmpc with a l l the Indonesian bush-mechanics running around trying to f i x i t and so i t was that we took o ff f o r Singapore about one hr. la te . These are the sorts o f things that happen every day, you'vealways got to be prepared fo r th is and the b ig thing as fa r as time is concerned in Indonesia is a funny word "Jumkurrac" I'm not sure i f this means rubber-time, I think i t means rubber time in Indonesia and rusty time in Malaysia. U ntil such timjb as Indonesians can change a few of th e ir basic attitudes and can learn a b it o f e ffic ien cy , frank ly they are going to have some great trouble i f they 're going to catch up with everybody else and be in the competitive race.

I arrived in Singapore a fte r a rather anxious journey. I t seems that Indonesian a irc ra ft flapped it s v/ings and ranked and buffeted around more than any of the other a irc ra ft I 'd been on and I was rather re lieved to get o f f when ib landed. There at *(;he a irport to meet me was myold frien d Ralph Daniel. - Ralph was a Singapore Indian who had be^n in Melbourne and we-'d studied matriculation together some twelve years ago. I t was great to see him again. I discovered subsequently Ralph had a common in terest I d idn 't know about apd that was that in the interim period he'd been back in Singapore and studied fo r his Social Studies Diploma and was working in the prisons.

We a l l went together to dinner that night and in a rather jo v ia l moodI said that i t might be a good idea i f I stayed on in Singapore because i tseemed to me thaj; thabe were some very in teresting things happening in Sipgapore; thatSingapore was in a sense a unique sort of case-study in i t s e l f in that i t v as something o f a bridge between the east and the west, i t was an Asian nation but at the same time i t was something rather more than the Asian or-developing or emerging nation in that i t had emerged. I f e l tthat in fa c t I may w ell have learn t something very useful here that I hadn'ttaken in to account. Of course, you make these decisions la te at nigli.and fe e l a b it flip p an t. I got up bery early the next morhing and thougnabout i t hard and looked very c lose ly at the itin era ry and discovered that in fa c t I could do i t . I could stay on t i l l the weekend. I had a specialu lte r io r motive about th is because in fa c t the Fairsky was due to arrive on the Saturday morning and I very much lik ed the idea of being down on the wharf and giving Ann and the children the surprise of th e ir l iv e s . Well, I made the adjustments and I stayed on fo r these extra few days. I t i s now Saturday and I'm extremely glad that I 'v e done th is because I 'v e learnt a

SINGAPOKE (cont) -10-

lo t about Singapore and I 'v e talked t. a lo t of people and i t re a lly has been time w ell worth spending.

On a rr iva l in Singapore, my f i r s t impression was that i t was very very d iffe ren t, and what a contrast i t was to Indonesia and Indonesian l i f e . There is a sense of confidence and buoyancy, a sense of going places. You can see i t in the people's faces in the s treet, you can see i t in th e ir step as they walk. In some ways, Singapore is more western than the Vest.There is a tremendous range o f consumer products, a r tic les fo r purchase, very good shopping f a c i l i t i e s , w ell orderly laid-out streets , prosperous looking business housess These are the things that re a lly impress you about the place. You get the fe e lin g that Singaporeans know where theyare going and though they have many problems, they seem to be solving them carefu lly and thoroughly and consistently.

Subsequent examination indicates that my f i r s t reaction and impression was f a i r ly accurate. The Singaporeans are confident. In fa c t , they are producing a viab le economy, they are working consistently towards the development of a m u lti-racia l socia l order and i f , in fa c t , they can produce a m u lti-racia l society where everybody can l iv e with equality in harmony and work together, they w i l l have been the f i r s t nation in the world to have done th is . You get also th is blending of the East and the Yfest, whatis best and possibly also what is 'worst. Most of a l l , Singaporeans seem to be confident of th e ir Government and the People's Action Party which has now been in power since 1959 have shaken down in to a good blend of socialism and capitalism . The P.A^P^ is so confident and so active and has such a good plan that i t is working to , that there is no one group in Singapore capable o f providing any sort of opposition. There may be a l i t t l e b itof unease about th is fa c t because i t is always good to have a vigorous opposition, but when you ra ise the question, Singaporeans are always very quick to defend the People's Action Party simply on it s sheer achievement fo r phe past 7 or 8 years.

Singapore,seems to be a peaceful place, i t doesn't have a l l the tense p o lit ic a l ructions that Indonesia has. At the same time, in i t s opn wuy, i t has had i t s own revolution , though in fa c t i t ' s a bloodless reyolution. In June 3rd 1959, the People's Actmnn took charge,It was a whirling together of' a l l the l e f t i s t factions in Singapore. As a resu lt there is a very^trong s o c ia lis t ic ideology. They had stated these plans in a document en titled 'Tasks Ahead', set in two volumnes, and, over the la s t eight years, the People'' Action Party has consistently and stead ily gone ahead with the implementation of these plans^ Many people claim that the most spectacular e f fo r t in theimplementation of those plans is the housing re-development where in fa c t Singapore, l ik e Indonesia, has large numbers of native v illa g es in the c ity (they are also ca lled kampongs) wbAre the liv in g conditions are very poor and overcrowded and where, on a tin y island, there is very l i t t l e choice but to go upwards. There are large numbers of blocks of f la t s , some of themfour-storey some of them twenty storey. Mostly they look p retty good and many people claim that th is is one of the most spectacular of the&overnment's improvements. However, I would venture one comment. From what I can see there has been very l i t t l e consideration fo r these h igh-rise f l a t dwellers' to ta l socia l environment. I t seems to me that to ask people to l iv e in th is way, i t is hqt enough to just build f la t s , you have plan the rest of th e ir socia l environment. The blunt fa c t remains that you can buy a f la t from the Housing Board or rent a f l a t fi'om the Housing Board at two weeks' notice, that is i f you are on the lower income bracket of about 500 Singaporean dollars per month. (That in ciden ta lly is the equivalent of about $170 Aust.) You can pay i t o f f on the instalment plan and the f l a t would cost you $6000 Malaysian.'.

How come Singapore is successful as a nation and an economy when a l l i t s other surrounding south-east Asian neighbours are struggling? F irs t of al"there is a ve iy strong instinct fo r survival. A tin y island with two m illion people on i t surrounded by what could he h ostile foes , somehow or other i t liar to survive. I think also, one of the keys *co the (government's success is the way in which i t has used community centres throughout the c ity . These community centres are run by an organisation called the People's Association and in fa c t there is a l i t t l e community centre with one fo r eveiy 24 sq.mil'- -

SINGAPORE (cont)- 11 -

Until the P.A.F. came in , these community centres were f a i r ly dead and nothing much was happening, but i t took these existing structures over and i t has turned them in to e ffe c t iv e p o l i t ic a l and educative weapons.You go along to one of the community centres these days, y o u 'l l fin d night classes going on and a l l manner of subjects run by trained leaders, y o u 'l l fin d mobile lib ra ry services, y o u 'l l fin d te lev is ion and radio and the use of mass-mediated teaching fo r the formation o f ideology and the changing of people's attitudes. Y o u 'll also fin d there such things as the V igilante Corps, these were formed back in the days o f Confrontation. But a l l these things are going on withiA the community organisation, the community centres, and they are just one more fa c to r which is helping th is conglomeration o f races, Malays, Chinese, Indians and the l ik e to f e e l that they are part of Singapore society , That they are Singaporeans. I also get the Idea tha*b some of the in te r-ra c ia l tensions that might ex ist within these groups have been reduced to the bare minimum. This is la rge ly due to the vigorous propaganda programmes of m ulti-racialism . Of course, when you've onlygot one island to deal with, th is is a re la t iv e ly easy task when you consider fo r example fhal; Indonesia has three thousand islands and many many more d iffe ren t ethnic groups that i t has to bond together. Success is also be­ginning to come to Singapore fo r another reason - one of the contrasts be- between Singapore and Indonesia is the fa c t that Singapore has inherited some of the so lid B ritish and le ga l in stitu tion s . You can sense th is in the buildings which house the Law Courts, the Parliament and so on. I get a strong fe e lin g that these le ga l and B ritish institu tions have served to undergird and strengthen the whole socia l structure and to give th is fe e lin g of basic s ta b il ity . As I mentioned on my previous tape,thi,s is one of Indonesia's most serious Weaknesses, i t is so patently c lear that the B ritish have done so much more a ffe c tiv e a job than the Dutch.

Now, th is is a very bright picture of things but the question is does i t need some m odification, and I think i t does. I came here with a spec ific in terest, socia l work, that is to study the services being made available to low income fam ilies to help them develop and I was sur­prised to discover when talking to the Secretary of the Council fo r Social Services that in fa c t there are no services, no counselling services at a l l fo r fam ilies in the apea. While you get orphanages and institu tions fo r the care of the b lind and the limbless, you get some attempt to work with children and child-care, there is nothing availab le that actually meets the fam ily and fam ily problems, e ith e f on a Government or on a non-Government le v e l. Apparently there is somq need because i t '3 beginning to be f e l t that the trad ition a l Eastern fam ily that used to be aii extended fam ily in Singapore is gradually changing through the processes of economic expansion and indu stria lisation .to the Western-type of nuclear fam ily, a small one-unit fam ily, liv in g in a small housing commission f l a t . In fa c t , th is fam ily, in our Western experience, is less and less able to deal with some of the rea l tensions that arise in urban society. In fa c t , i t would appear that there is a great need fo r fam ily case-work services as such and ye t, as also granted, th ere 's a great gap in the services provided.

I also gather that there is the same sort of breakdown in communication between the younger and older generations, younger ones thinking very d ifferen t from the older ones and perhaps th,e breakdown is even sharper &han i t is in Australia. Miss Go, theSecretary-Social worker, to ld me that la s t month there had been something lik e s ix teenage couples, young people, jumping o ff suiciding from the f la t s together. This does indicate that there are some problems in the fam ily that aren 't being met and should be met.

As fa r as Social Welfare is concerned, as with Indonesia, and Australia th is is not regarded as a high p r io r ity by the Government. The Government is very much preoccupied at the moment with economic expansioh and development, and socia l workers complain that these are the things that have the p riorities^ In fa c t , that th is expansion is at the expense of the needs of the people and the development of socia l welfare services. One can sympathise with the Government that i t ' s c r i t ic a l fo r i t to make sure that Singapore develops and urbanises and that the economy is b u ilt up. At the same time, there is always the danger o f rushing headlong in to the same problems of urban liv in g which have so seriously b ligh ted the b igger Western nations lik e America Britain , and eveh Australia . One fe e ls p retty strongly that socia l

-12-

' SINGAPORE (cont)

expansion 'and soc ia l planning must always match economic expansion and economic planning. Otherwise, rea l problems do occur. Another area of concern continues to be the kampongs.

An economist sdid to me "We'ire solved th is housing problem." I'm a fra id I can 't accept that comment because the kampons continue to exist in the same way as they do in Indonesia, righ t in the hart of the c ity , usually adjoining some of the better-class suburbs. There is a ' a kampon within 50 yards of Spicers plage and, as a matter of fa c t , Howard took me over there la s t night to meet some of his friends who l iv e in a kampon. He found i t very d i f f ic u lt and i t ' s taken him twelve monthsto make any rea l contact with the people, they are very shy and therd is a rea l social b a rr ie f that has to be broken down. I think thequality of the building, these l i t t l e shakks, is considerably worse in Singapore than in Indonesia. At least in Indonesia they have good t i le d roofs and brick w alls, but these are mostly t in roofs or thatch and they are b u ilt wi,th what seems to be timber boarding. On the whole, the standard of liv in g is very jpoof indeed, and they are very dusty and muddy and very cramped. The home to which we went, had two bedroomsand a large (o r la rger ) liv in g area included a kitchen, dining-area and lounge and there were eleven people l iv in g in that l i t t l e house, eleven people. ^his consisted of three d iffe ren t fam ily groups. This is by no means a crowded one, i t would have been a high-class one. The furniture in i t was comfortable and good, they were people who were part o f a fam ily who had done very w e ll. For example, the brother-in-law of the man we came to meet was in fa c t th ird secretary in the Malaysian Embassy over in India. His s is te r was a teacher in a Malaysian school,and obviously they were a fam ily who were reaching up a b it . At the same time, the housing they were liv in g in , clean though i t was and w ell- obganised, was cramped and very very inadequate. There is no s' arageof any sort, though in fa c t they do have running water and e le c tr ic ity .

There are s t i l l fa r too many o f these kampons around fo r any com­placency, to f e e l tijat in fa c t the problem has been solved. I t is being solved, and kampons are being removed and people are being given the choice of coming hack in to the h igh-rise f la t s that are being b u ilt in th e ir place in much the same way as is taking place in Melbourne.

What of the burning question o f population, or should I say over­population? Singapore is getting very close to two m illion and there is nowhere fo r the people to go. They cah 't go to Malaysia very eas ilybecause the breakdown in p o lit ic a l relationships between the Federation and Singapore makes th is d i f f ic u l t . They can only go upwards, and upwards they've gone. But on an island th is s ize , which is quite tin y ,there are obvious restr ic tion s . This means that, in fa c t, re a lly strenuous e ffo r ts have to be made in the matter of population and b irth control.Indeed they have been made and there have been some f a i r ly successful endeavours to kurb the r is in g sp ira l. Apart from Japan, th is is the only place in Asia where th is r is in g sp ira l has been checked. For example, in 1959, the annual percentage rqte of increase was 4.2%, but by 1963 they had succeeded in reducing th is 4.2 down to 2 .% . I t is th e ir hope that in due course, they w i l l get th is rate down to under the 2% mark. For the la s t four years, they have successfully stab ilised the increase down to

W ell, how is th is being done? The voluntary body, the fam ily planning Association is very m ilitan t and very active here and they Bu ilt themselves an enormous b ig building and they go out into the kampons and are running a vigorous and intensive campaign on fam ily planning. I had quite a long ta lk with the organiser, she was p most in teresting and stimulating person. They had not been going very long on a b ig scalebefore the Government Planning Dept, in ten s ified i t s work as w e ll. I t was possible that there could have been a clash between voluntary andGovernment e ffo r ts , but they have rationalised th e ir a c t iv ity in a satis factory manner whereby the Family Planning Association goes out and pioneers the work, opening up new areas of work i^ the kampons and the Govt. Family Planning Bureau sees i t s respon sib ility as consolidating the educatiohal processes in the places where the Association has already been,

SINGAPORE (cont) -13-

Now fo r a b it o f humour. At least i t wasn't very humorous when i t happened to me but in retrospect, i t is .

The tax i drivers in Singapore, as elsewhere, are a bunch of charlatans and rogues. Of course, 1 don't mind giving a few extra sh illin gs or rupees or dollar^ to people who re a lly are in need^ But these tax i drivers are making a great thing, I must confess I'm rather resentfu l about being taken down as I have been on about f iv e occasions. F irs t occasion was when I went to pick up Ann hnd the children from the docks and I got a short ride back to the c ity . I was rather foo lishbecause I'had a 'tou ris ty sh irt on, you should never do t^ is . I asked the man the price, I looked at the meter and he doubled i t . I said 'Why double the amount' He answered 'that is fo r the w ife and children in the back.' Like a fo o l , I d idn 't argue. Then from the c ity outto Spicers place/ something sim ilar and once again I was overcharged.Then, on the th ird occasion, I thought I might take Ann to the Aquarium to show ti)e children the f is h and also to have a look at one or two other things. I gave the d river e x p lic it instructions where to go, w e ll, wedrove and drove and housing got sparser and sparser and the countryside got more pountry-ish. Suddenly I noticed on a signpost - 14 miles from Singapore2 These ta x i- drivers, some o f them Malay some Chinese, i t is amazing how some of them f a i l to understand English when they've got a fin e English-speaking tou rist on board. I said 'You're not taking met Singapore, you're taking me to 'jbhe country. ' The man was very vague and a fte r we got to the 15 mile post, I said "StopI" The car stepped,I got out and fdund an Army barracks and found an Australian sergeant and 6aid 'Look, Serg. I'in being taken down. Which way to Singapore?' He point back in the other d ireption . By th is time my ginger was w ell and tru ly up. I said to Ann 'An soon as he gets us to our destination, you get out and I'm gping to have a re a lly b ig argument with him.' By thp.s time, the meter had clocked up about $9- so I said ' I f you had taken me where I wanted to go, i t v?ould have cost $2.' He got a l l upset,I said 'That's a l l I'm going to pay you.' He said 'No, $3'* This surprised me, frankly, how low he was prepared to come. We f in a lly s p lit on not the best of terms, at $2 .50 .

W ell, I was beginning to get a b it tough now and i t wasn't un til the fo llow ing piorning that I had an opportunity to put my toughness into practice again. Sunday is a very d i f f ic u lt day to g .t a tax and a fte rI 'd seen the fam ily o ff on tjie ship, I hunted around to get a tax i to get md back home. Eventually I found one. The d river (th is is what they do) refused to turn on the m eter,,he insisted on giving me a f l a t quote to go from Point A, to Point B, to Point C, as I had to make several stops. W ell, he wanted to charge $6, I said $5, v?ith which we go into the tax i and o ff we went. A fte r I got to Point B, I found I couldn't go on to Point C, there wasn't time. I said I would not pay the $5 as I hadn't used him to the fu l l extent. Then the great song and dance started. I said "Now look, I have 'been taken down by f iv e Malay tax i drivers and you 're not going to the sixth . I'm sick of the business, you're a very bad example to Malay and I wouldn't want to go home with a bad impression. Take §3 and be qu iet." So he took three and was quiet. Not veryChristian on tdy part but then not very Christian on th e ir part e ither.

W ell, the tape I notice is gradually coming to an end and I want to wind things up as fa r as Singapore is concerned. As I said at the beginning, I was glad I took the decision to stay on, i t gave Ann and the children a tremendous t h r i l l , they were p retty depressed on board ship and Ann was having trouble making the Ita lians understand what she wanted. They had not been too well e ither, so the sight o f me on the gang-plank was a tremendous t h r i l l and was the best piece of marital P.A I 'v e ever put in .

As fo r Singapore i t s e l f , once again I went away from a south-east Asian country with some strong and pos itive impressions. They rea lly are on top of th e ir problems and th is is the most encouraging thing to see. I think perhaps to a great extent, th is is due to the 75% population of Chinese (a very high perpentage o f course). I think th is is a d iffe ren t story from the Chinese of Indonesia. There they are hated

-14-

because i t is claimed they spend th e ir money out of the Country. Here o f course in Singapore they couldn't do without the Chinese because, in fa c t , i t is Chinese know-how, and Chinese a b il it y which is producing such buoyancy in the whole Singaporean economy.

? e l l , I drove opt to the a irport, and waved goodbye to Ralph Daniel, hoping that maybe one day he might come to Australia again and that I might be able to return some of the h osp ita lity that he gave to me. I got aboard the A ir India f l ig h t , and in a few very shorthours, I fin d myself in Madras.

MADRAS

I don 't think I 'v e ever f e l t quite so depressed. No-one there to meet me, la te at night. I t was te r r ib ly hot and I sat up t i l l veryla te w riting le tte rs? But, on the next morning when I arrived atBangalore, the whole thing changed and the chapter on India opened up.

-15-

MADRAS

When a person is exposed to India, there is an immediate challenge, a challenge to he ob jective about the whole business. I t is easy on the one hand to become aggressive about the situation and on the other hand to become unduly sentimental about the tragedy o f i t . Let me give an example of th is from both points of view.

Ronald Segal who wrote the famous book "C risis of India" was talking about India with a South African journalist fr iend who had been there and he asked him 3f he lik ed the Indians. The reply was "Like them? I hated them." They are a d ir ty and submissive lo t with no claim or f ig h t in them, squabble and superstition and apathy and a meaningless arrogance. The rich are ravenous and corrupt and the poor are drained dry almost to the w i l l to survive. The G-overnment is muddled and in effec tu a l and the country is in a hopeless mess. Calamity of one kind or another is unavoidable." When Segal arrived in India he found himself surrounded by th is pervasive pessimism and demoralisation of s p ir it which made him say he's never seen a people with so l i t t l e trust in each other or so l i t t l e confidence in th e ir own future.W ell, th is reaction of aggression is a typ ica l one and you often find Westerners expressing themselves in th is sort of way. For example I heard a number of tea-planting people ta lk ing in the same sort of way in one or two of the hotels 1 was staying in . On the other hand, i f fo r example, you walkthrough the streets of Calcutta, winding a way between bodies of people who are just^ying there, trying to avoid the multitudes of beggars, then you see people doing no more than just barely ex isting and certa in ly not liv in g with the portra it o f death a l l over th e ir faces, i t is very easy to become sentimental about a l l th is . I don't mind saying that I got back to the hotel inCalcutta a fte r I had taken a walk through the streets that night fe e lin g pretty d istressed. Somehovir or other, one has to get a balanced perspective,I have now only one day l e f t in India as I record th is and I am s t i l l struggling towards find ing th is .

In the f i r s t place, one does have to make a lo t of allowances fo r a country lik e India to begin with. This 1947 was the f i r s t tin e there was any attempt to weld the multitude of d iffe ren t language groups, d ifferen t cu ltural backgrounds, d iffe ren t tr ib es , together in to one nation. They had never been th is before. This is the f i r s t attempt. I t is important to re­member that there are 845 languages and d ia lects and at least 14 of them are regarded as being o f f i c ia l . Then there is the question o f rapid population increase. I think i t is something l ik e 20 m illion in the la s t ten years.A ll the gains made by the Government since Independence had been swallowed up and lo s t by th is tremendous problem o f population explosion. Then againwe have to make some allowances fo r the f a i r ly rough deal that Western c iv i l is a ­tion has given India. I am not simply speaking of the B ritish Raj here because back in the 16th Centruy onwards the Portugese blocked up the trade routes to India with the resu lt that 'when the tremendous upsurge of industria l­isa tion and revolution took place in Western Europe, India was l e f t out on a limb and was unexposed to th is . Then there is the climate. I haven't been here in the very hot season, just coming to i t . I t re a lly does sap you of a l l energy and the b ig thing o f course is to simply manage to get through the heat of the day. This is in i t s e l f is something of a task arid then again you can 't re a lly make a value judgment about a l l Indians because Hindus are not l ik e Sikhs, nor Sikhs lik e Christians. North country people are not lik e the southerners, the plains people are d iffe ren t from the h i l ls people. Punjabis are d iffe ren t from Bengalis and therefore no one value judgment is going to be a f a i r comment about the whole lo t o f them. What I wdnt to do is to make some comments about what I think ape typ ica l Indian attitudes which may be part of the problem and then secondly to discuss some o f these exciting things that I have seen which give one some hope fo r the future.

F irs t of a l l , Hinduism has many virtues but i t s greatest shortcoming is that i t tends not to take th is l i f e here and now with a great deal o f serious­ness. I t is not a spec ific sort o f re lig io n . I t is not concerned with the one human persoh. 1 is more concerned with absorbing the individual in to the universal. You see th is in marriage, marriage is not a contractual re la tion ­ship as i t is in the West, the w ife is absorbed in to the personality of the

''band and, more generally speaking, a l l people as individual^ are absorbed ^he universal. Now, u n til such time as there is a stronger focus upon

.iUman person and concern fo r the human person, i t is hard to imagine that

- 16.

there w i l l be any rea l changes in some of the massive socia l problems.For example, the problem of refugees and beggars in India.

There is another d if f ic u lty , Whereas in the West we f e e l that i t is important that a statement should correspond ivith the fa c ts , that you should make accurate statements about situations, people in India and the East generally f e e l that i t is more important to avoid damaging the other person's status or ivounding his fe e lin gs . Therefore, in India people are more concerned to speak a kind of psychological truth based on the ethics of a given situation. They w i l l say v/hatever has the desired e ffe c t in that situa­

tion . General eth ica l princip les are desirable abstractions, to be enter­tained in the mind, but personal advantage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .^thert person are.eal, and i t must be care fu lly safeguarded. The concept of personal

honesty is a noble idealbut the duty to improve the status as & fam ily has a p rior claim in many cases, as has the respon sib ility to say the righ t thing at the right time, and to make a person think w ell o f -himself^

Recently, to give an example of th is , in the midst of some probable mal-administration of food supplies in the Bihar Famine, the Food M inister is reported to have said "There hay have been deaths due to malnutrition, hut i t is a matter of great congratulation that there have been no starvation deaths." You get i t also symbolically when you ask an Indian the way to go.He Hever points in the exact d irection or t o l ls you s p e c if ic a lly how many fe e t you are awqy from your destination. He has a vdgue sweep of the arm and says i t is "in that d irection ". This lack of being specific is a rea l problem, you fin d i t in popular culture and I suspect th is is one of the reasons why decision-making is such a d i f f ic u l t thing in India.

Then again, there is th is mapsive problem o f caste. I t has nob been wiped out, and won't read ily be wiped out in spite of Government denunciations o f i t and measures to remove i t . I am to ld that even in the Churches, th is continues to be a rea l fa c to r . Congregations are divided lin g u is t ic a lly and therefore, very often, by caste. While emphasis is placed upon thecaste and upon the fam ily and upon the lin gu is tic group, people w il l continue to tear th e ir nation apart because national unity is onp of the keys to the succor;.? of India. I t can come only through the brealting down of the old group loyalties., the old tribalisms and by find ing a new sort of broader id en tity and a la rger hold. On an educational le v e l, great attempts are made to bring educationto the masses. I t is s t i l l a fa c t that in Bihar, te r t ia ry education c irc les mu&h.o the learning is rote-learn ing. Many of the examination questions require a rote-learning type o f answer. Even in an in stitu tion as sophisticated as the Christian College pi. Madras, Ian Manning an Australian graduate was saying that acadamic standards are p i t i fu l ly low, even graduates have not re a lly been taught how to c r i t ic a l ly evaluate, to discuss things and to make th e ir own decision about matters a fte r having f i r ^ t s ifted the evidence. On another le v e l, bearing to th is same fo r t o f problem, the Indian Government is having a number of f iv e year plans and they are projecting more plans fo r the future.The plans I guess are soundly based but there doesn't seem to be miich evaluation as to whether they w il l in fa c t work and as to what the p ractica l steps w il l be to implement then. Great e ffo rts are being made at ^he present moment to launch a National campaign fo r fam ily planning and b irth control. You get an Indian waxing strong and enthusiastic about a l l th is but when you ask him the question "W ill i t work?" "Have you got any change of overcoming centuries of superstitution and cultural trad ition ?", very often th is is not a question that entered h is mind. I t seems to be simply enough to Y?ork out a formula, make a policy statement and leave i t at that. Another example of th is is you get a High Court decision or judgment against a corrupt practice. Judgment is made, everybody applauds i t and business goes on as usual. There doesn't seem to he a p ractica l application to bring th eoretica l princip les into being.Until th is begins to happen, India is going to continue to founder.

I could go on in th is vein but I think th is is enough. Better to concentrate now on some of the encouraging and practica l signs I have seen in the two weeks I have had here. The best way to do th is I think is to deal with events in chronological brder rather than in order o f importance,

I arrived at Bangalore, which is a beautifu l c ity , and began to have alook at the work that the United Church of South India is doing. I stayedwith Harry Daniel who is the Presbyterian charge of the Cathedral and of' a team m inistry ca lled the Industria l Team service. The work going/art!? Bangalore,

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with this group and other groups, v as as important and forward-looking, as highly developed as anything I 'v e ever seeh and certa in ly more so than anything that exists in Australia. Here, . ris ing out o f the lo ca lsituation at Bangalore, they have a man who is a spec ia lis t in industrial re la tions, a clergyman, another who has been working on urban problems, involvement of docial v;ork agencies and urban renewal, and they have a graduate student who is doing a soc io log ica l survey on the e ffec t of transi­tion from v illa g e l i f e to industrial l i f e , and a number of other people peripherally on the schene, paking a great contribution to soc iety . The Church is making deep inroads into the socia l order, not to try to get people into Church or to convert them to Christian ity necessarily, but rather simply to try to serve society . I had the fe e lin g , wherever I went in Bangalore, that society trusted the Church, community groups tjrustedChriptians in a way that they d idn 't trust each other. This means in fa c t that the Church has a very important ro le to play in the un ifica tion o f surrounding society.The work of the student Christian Movement there a Bangalore amongst students, d i f f ic u lt though i t is , is impressive. The Theological College is also united and there are rea l attempts by the teaching s ta ff to update the theologica l thinking; the Banda theology is further advanced than anything we have in Australia.

So I think we can say, as fa r as the Church of South India is concerned, certa in ly in Bangalore where I was, that great things are happening. On th is angle also, I was very impressed with work being done at the Christian In stitu te fo r Church and Society C .S .R .I.S ., groups of people from a l l over the place together, one person w il l present a paper, the group w i l l c r it ic is e the paper, the person w i l l make adjustments, then i t w i l l be rewritten. Eventually when the group is sa tis fied with the particu lar subject, they w i l l publish i t . They deal with a l l manner of issues, the social and p o lit ic a l issues with an emphasis on bringing India into the modem world and renewing the whole Indian socia l structure. On th is leva), I must say I was very impressed with someattempts at dialogue which had been taking jplace between the Christians and the Hindus. In fa c t , Hindus were saying that in th e ir philosophy they had no too ls , no equipment, with which they could cope with processes of modernisation and secularisation, that theirs is b as ica lly a philosophy of withdrawal ahd that there was an admission of the need of help. The Christian^ seeing i t as th e ir function not to say 'W ell, you must a l l become Christians and a l l w i l l be w e ll ' but rather to help Hinduism build into i t s own system of values, the necessary too ls to modernise i t s e l f and to help the whole Indian mental outlook into the 20th century.

From Bangalore, I d idn 't stop very long at Madras - I understand things are very much in the embryonic stage there - I went straight up to Calcutta.Once again, I dug out the Methodist M inister there, Rev. John Claphdm, and though I d idn 't have time to go ut 100 miles north to Duragar, to the industria l complex, I did get quite a .lo t of lite ra tu re on the exciting work that is going on there. In fa c t , the Church has united as fa r as they can at the moment in order to serve the codmunity of Dura gar and to pene­trate into society in a s p ir it of servanthood and they have formed there an in stitu te called the Eoumenical Social and Industria l In s titu te . This took place back in 1%3 and a lo t o f important conferences of management and s ta ff and a good deal of soc io log ica l research into the area and the problems of people is going on. I t is a highly e ffe c t iv e and exciting piece of 'work. Again, down in Calcutta, John Clapham has th is enormous plant; and buildings which are quite useless to him now. They ape an overhang from the past, and they 're negotiating at the moment to have them demolished, to s e l l portion o f the land, and to erect a number of m ulti-storey o ff ic e buildings there where a medical centre and socia l work centre can be established, p ro fits can be obtained through the leasing of the o ffic es and the Church can begin to serve e f fe c t iv e ly some o f the rea l tragedies that ex is t in Calcutta i t s e l f .

Then, away from th is Christian side o f things, I went doWp to Aboy Ashrhm at Balaramphr just out of Karagpur. This is a Ghandian Ashram, a communityof people about 20, who have committed themselves fo r l i f e to l iv e without any possessions, to serve the community around them. Although I think probably some technical critic ism s might be le v e lled at the past approach of many of the Ghandians in re la tion to things lik e fe r t i l is e r s and the s o il (they are always very strong about not upsetting the balance of nature and soforth ) I think that gradually they are overcoming these d i f f ic u lt ie s facing them and that ono could see a rea l and v is ib le impact, that in over 20 years the Ashram had r- *

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upon the lo ca l v illa g e rs , the sharing of land fo r landless v illa g e rs , the development o f rural co-operatives, crushing the power of the money­lenders by the establishment of cred it and food banks. I must sayI rather l ik e the&handian approach that, having saved the v illa g e rs from the money-lenders, they then went a l l out to help the poor old money-lenders who were bankrupt, and because they are good at commerce they have involved then in many o f the co-operatives. Their approach of gentle non-violence is one which is very sensitive and through simply loving people, there is no doubt about i t , you make a great impact upon them in the long fun.Therefore, though perhaps the o rig in a l Chandian ideology is out o f date and i t has i t s dangers of being applied too r ig id ly to the situation, I have the fe e lin g that the younger Chqndians are bein;- rather more f le x ib le and more adaptable to modern conditions, and th is being the case, you do get th is mysterious blend of mysticism and practica l involvement. I t does seem to me to be a pretty healthy approach towards l i f e .

When I returned from Balaranpur, I made a contact with Niranjan Halda, who is the President of Service C iv il In ternational. This group (there are f i v e or s ix groups a l l over Ind ia) are involved in getting students and sending them away in work camps during vacation to help the pooyer v illa g e s , or a l­te rn ative ly to break down some of the socia l d ivisions between outcasts or between tr ib a l people and other peoples. Though th is movement has its d i f f ic u lt ie s , i t is gradually making an important impact upon the l i f e o f the nation.

Having l e f t Calcutta and going to Delhi, I am impressed by many things here. Delhi is a d iffe ren t c ity from a l l the others. Calcutta is surely the worst c ity in the world with it s 6 m illion people; i t s problems seen to be insurmountable. Delhi was a very refreshing contrast to th is* I t is a l i t t l e b it lik e Canberra, n ice ly planned, of course a lo t b igger than Canberra - i t is something lik e 3 m illion people - very f in e houses because a fte r a l l the Leg is la tive e l i t e l iv e in Delhi. The general mental outlook of people is mpch more vigorous and forward-looking. I t has been wonderful to have Agarwal with me, (Community Aid Abroad's f i e ld o ff ic e r h ere). He has helped me to understand the situation a good deal b ette r. One o f the interestingthings is fo r example that, whereas.15 years ago you could never have talked about f e r t i l is e r s in the s o il , now they simply can 't get enough supplies of f e r t i l i s e r to f u l f i l the dehand. In the long run, th is is going to make the major breakthrough in the food problem. Secularisation and in ­dustria lisa tion are beginning to have e f fe c t on India and gradually one finds that trad ition a l attitudes toward^ women, caste and class are in fa c t being broken down - w il ly -n il ly . The younger generation are fiiid ipg themselvesexposed to new situations which th e ir fore-fa thers had never had, and th is exposure (boys and g ir ls fo r the f i r s t time going around together instead of being segregated) is producing new situations which w il l change the ro le and status o f wbmen. Women w il l demand and eventually get equality with men.This is just one example of how change is rapid ly ralang place within the socia l order.

dn a p o l i t ic a l le v e l, i t is the general fe e lin g in India that the elections were a great triumph. You see, 200 m illion people volu n tarily went to the polls to record th e ir vote. This turn out to be a mass protedt against the Congress's corruption and it s in e ffe c tu a lity - a protest against the Congress party. Nov/, th e ir cduld have been much more r io tin g than there was, much more mass violence. Instead, i t was seenthat Indians do, above a l l th is , have a respect fo r demo­cratic forms. To the people who are worried about India turning Communist, the fe e lin g is here j;hat th is won' t happen, that democracy is well-established.

Agarwal, set up a number of interviews fo r me with soc ia l workers.I must say that I was very impressed with the general le v e l o f train ing of socia l workers, i t is a post-graduate degree and the general application of th e ir work to the massive problems in front of them. One particu lar example of an agency that impressed, was the Urban Comnuiiity Development Department. They gave me a lo t of th e ir lite ra tu re and one o f the fascinating things about i t is that over the past 6 or 8 years they have been using soc ia l workers to go into the lo ca l communities and tra in people, teaoh people; to organise th e ir own community involvements in th e ir own community f a c i l i t i e s and to a considerable degree th is is beginning to happen. There is a good deal of community organisa­tion being done by the people themselves. Berhaps more important thanth is , they have b u ilt in to th e ir work, a research section and th is research section has published a lo t o f information which is fu l l of frank and open

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and s c ie n t if ic a lly accurate critic ism of th e ir work. Now, th is is the f i r s t time that I have seen anything of an ana lytica l, c r i t ic a l nature in India which rea lly t r ie s to s i f t i t s way and analyse i t s e l f through data. So impressed is the Government with the work that has been donehere in Delhi, that in fa c t th is pattern of community development, teaching people to develop human communities themselves in the lo ca l setting has been taken over fo r the whole o f the nation. In each o f the states, sim ilar sorts of projects are beginning to develop. There are several communities who have formed development councils and neighborhood councils and the peole themselves are working and negotiating fo r b ette r ligh tin g , fo r latrineb and enclosed drainage, the development of roadQ, physical and soc ia l a c t iv it ie s as well as health requirements. Furthermore, on top of th is they have formed several co-ioperative stores in order to bpy food and clothing more cheaply. Organisations o f th is sort, springing as they do from the grass roots of the lo ca l communities where people are organising themselves, th is is the great thing which w i l l eventually break down so much of the apathy which in the past has spread it s wings a l l over the Indian nation.

F in a lly , a couple o f closing comments before the tape runs out. People often resent giving aid to India because in fa c t th ere 's a lo t of wealth within the country and th is is trud. I t is apparently a fa c t that 25 fam ilies have t ied up nearly a l l the cap ita l o f the country . The question is how td release th is cap ita l and spread i t more evenly over the nation.Well now, the Government have begun by nationalising certain things but the b ig issue is {rationalised banking. This must come about, and the reason why there has been some remissness, is because some fam ilies have supported many o f the Ministers of the Congress. I t costs money to get into Congress in the f i r s t place and so there has been corruption in th is particu lar area, but th is thempndous vote of non-confidence by the people w il we hope force the Government to do something. The c r i t ic a l thing of course is to nationalise the banks to red istribu te the wealth. I t seems also that, on the Aevel of fam ily planning, th is is something which w il l be accepted by Hindus, Parsees, Sikhs, and Protestant Christians but not by the Muslims.This is what is capsing sore considerable concern.

Peter Hollingworth.

Sunday-Dear Comrades,

?e have been having a fascinating time of i t since las t I wrote. A fte r Ndples,*Rome fo r four days, tSen A ssiss i, F lorence Venice, Innsbruck, Munich and now Zurich: Having a hired car ay just theib.esjt. thing we could possibly have done, i t hasmeant that we have been able to go to all.'fs-or't's of o f f beat places and get a wide varie ty of experiences.

The b ig h igh light to date has obviously been Florence. For three days we carted the children through such places As the Palatine ga llery , O ffiz z i g a lle r ie s , countless churches and countless shops. As in Rome, so in Florence, the marks of S.Laurence (sorry Lorenzo) are everywhere. i can assure you, our Patron Saint is held in some veneration, and with goodreason! ' ' '

The b iggest letdown was Venice. I wouldn't advise.'ahyone to go there unless they had a lo t of poney, a deep love o f certain sorts of art, no drypi,dre.n, endless patience, no concern about personal hygiene and a preparedness to spendAarge sums of money on private motor launches.

We went (a fte r nearly going around the bend looking for';accommodation) in to Venice, lookd.d at St.Mark's square, went in to the Cathedral and looked around t i l l we found i t ci sjb 100 l i r e to look at the high a lta r , we caught "a launqh.'put of the place, glad to jSave i t s madding crowds That single day rea lly drain '^-m eychildren and 'Im te r r ib ly

soryy we attempted to go there as I know that Venice d-odyhave much to o ffe r . We motored up to Innsbruck v ia the Brenner Pass. The count]^sid,ewE&)excelled our w ildest expecta­tions. The Austr ns are also good at good and hotelsAand we spent a pleasant night at Innsbruck. When leaving the next day, we discovered'-fhat the Alberg Pass to Switzerland **as impassable. We then decided to head north into Southern Bavaria and to Munich (which was not scheduled) En route we drove in to a marvellous snowstorm and the whole region was completely covered with the s tu ff . This meant that in two days we saw both the alpine spring and winter. Having gone that fa r , we headed out to Dachau to the Concentra­tion Camp, which has been l e f t , as a b it t e r memorial, just as i t was in 1% 5* To i t they have added a museum, a chapel and the Carmelite nuns have established a community of prayer there. At the other end o f the Christian Chapel is a Jewish Chapel. Upon entry, the f i r s t thing I noticed was a candle, burning permanently on the a lta r . Perhaps the lamps of Hope s t i l l bum. ^

The fo llow ing day, the sun shone aga.n and we drove through the snow covered Bavarian Alps, back to Innsbruck and then on tp Switzerland v ia the Alberg Pass, which by now was open again. Once again the panorama was indescribably beau tifu l. We arrived in Zurich that night, moved in to the usual th ird rate hotel to discover that Debbie was i l l . A v i s i t to the doctor indicated that th is was probably the measles.I got another hote l in the countryside ou-i: of Zurich, overlooking Lake Zurich and the snow-capped mountains with tu lip covered f ie ld s and green cow paddocks in the fo re ­ground. The l i t t l e h o te l, run by a lo c a l farmer and h is w ife is the id ea l place to be stuck up in i The b ig question now is whpn w i l l Fiona get the wrttched things?I f the World Council o f Churches people have time to see me in the next couple of days,I intend to go down to Geneva fo r a consultation on Urban train ing and mission.Meanwhile, at the bottom o f the h i l l is a Swiss Lay Training Academy, so I w i l l spend some time with them,

We are indeed fortunate to have some friends very close ( J i l l Mueller is Rosy Dowling's (Cresswell) s is te r . Rick, her husband, is Swiss, although he spent 15 years in Aust. They are both finding the r ig id , compulsive, puritan ica l, authoritarian etc etc Swiss way of l i f e very d i f f ic u l t . Women do not have a vote and the married 'woman's place is nowhere, but nowhere, in the home. To make sure that mother cant get out, each ch ild in d iffe ren t grades at school has a d iffe ren t time tab le , so that there ip always one child at home while the other is at school. Married female s ta ff members, you just don't kiiow how good you have i t in Australia !

Religion in a l l the European countries we have v is ited is inbu ilt in to the very f ib re of the people's being. There is a wayside c ru c ifix every hundred yards, churches abound every mile or so and the people are deeply re lig ious whether they attend church or not. I t is a wonderful experience to wander through a church as a sight see-er to watch Hass being celebrated in a side chapel, with the fa ith fu l at the Liturgy, others saying a private devotion somewhere e lse , while others again just wandering about taking i t a l l in . Or again, to watch a wedding taking place- in the middle o f parties of tou rists with guides doing running commentaries. I t might sound rather ir re lig io u s , but i t s not. Prayer goes on regardless, in fa c t i t seems to sweep up a llth e run of the m ill a cU v it ie s so that nothing is profane And a l l is sacred.

As to where we go next, or when, nobody knows. -.Trusting that l i f e is s e ttlin g down in a l l the d ifferen t departments and that

things are functioning smoothly. Often think of you a l l as pyperiepces related to our work, come up in our tra ve ls . Lot A of schemes and ideas, a l l undigested, are racing around in the old head. Trust they w i l l have sorted themselves""out beforewe get back home.

Lots of love to a l l(sgd) Peter.