The New Bodleian It is reassuring to find that the
present period of financial strain has not prevented Oxford University from securing so much support for the scheme of extending the Bodleian that it will shortly be able to begin building. Next year the existing library buildings will have reached saturation point. Immediate action was further demanded by the fact that the offer of the ROckefeller Foundation to contribute three-fifths of the estimated' cost of extension (n44,300) was conditional on the University providing the remaining two-fifths by the end of 1936. So splendid an offer called for efforts which have involved no small sacrifice on the part of the C011eges. They responded ; and London City Companies, banking houses and insurance companies have come forward with a generosity which shows that business, even in times of depression, is alive to the claims of learning. Within the space of about a year the University has already secured 'subsCriptions of £245,000 out of the necessary £877,000, and -by guaran- teeing an annual payment of £7,000 for maintenance the University can temporarily provide an equivalent for the balance, until such time as the moment is ripe for a general public appeal. It would have been lamentable if so necessary a scheme as this had been held up through lack of funds.
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