Helping Hands Some weeks ago an enterprising young man named
Anthony Steen asked this journal for help. He had created, as he explained, an organisation of young people who regularly gave some of their spare time to befriending and helping old people and others in need. 'Organisation' was perhaps a rather exaggerated word: it was a very simple and informal movement. The point was that, in spite of all that is heard about the indifference of young people to such causes, it had grown at a great rate. Its members numbered more than 2,000. Mr. Steen, understandably slightly breathless about the whole thing, felt that a little official help ought to be forthcoming —and also that this service could usefully be reproduced outside London. A letter on these lines was duly published in our correspondence columns. It has aroused a lot of interest: and readers will be pleased to know that since then things have moved fast. Mr. Steen's movement has been discussed in the House of Commons, there has been a deal of press attention, and Mr. Steen has been hobnobbing with Cabinet Minis- ters with a view to future developments. He has shown, what any sensible person already knew despite lurid headlines, that there a great willingness to be of service among today's young people: and more than that, he has shown a way of using it.
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