In Geneva, Groupers

In no other faith do good victuals play so big a part as they do in the faith founded and preached by well-fed Dr. Frank Nathan Daniel Buchman. Any Oxford Grouper is at his best conversing politely, radiating earnest goodwill over a plate of food and a glass of plain water. Currently an International Team of 700 Groupers led by Dr. Buchman has been working in Geneva, lobbying spiritually at many a meal. Their efforts seemed to reach a climax when they visited the President of Switzerland (TIME, Sept. 23), but last fortnight that visit was out-climaxed when Dr. Buchman and part of the Team ate luncheon with a good section of the League of Nations Assembly at the invitation of its President Eduard Benes, perpetual Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia. Among the 500 people whom smart little Dr. Benes welcomed with a polite speech at the hotel des Bergues were: the Belgian Foreign Minister, the Turkish Foreign Minister, the Greek Foreign Minister, the Greek Minister to France, the President of the Norwegian Storting, the Ethiopian Delegate to the League and the indomitable Catholic mother of Austria's Prince Ernst Ruediger von Starhemberg.

Dr. Buchman, proud as a man may be who was a Pennsylvania Lutheran welfare worker before he became an international figure, arose and said:

"Last year at Geneva a Prime Minister said that the influence of the Oxford Group had been felt in every village and town in his country. One man changed-a million changed-a nation changed.

"A statesman has said that the Oxford Group is supernational.

"There are those who feel that internationalism is not enough. Nationalism can unite a nation. Supernationalism can unite a world. God-controlled supernationalism seems to be the only sure foundation for world peace!"

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