This Report is one of growth in scope and usefulness of the ART INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL, NAZARETH, TINNEVELLY, and as such will make very different reading to any of my previous Reports. The six months began badly with a continuance of the fall In admissions to the school and the closing of the eastern workshop. The hopelessness of any improvement in the situation had long made me lose interest in the work of the school as previous Reports of mine will show.

  It is significant how very little I have ever said about one who should have been my "right-hand man" at the A.I.S. Now that he has died, I will preserve this reticence. Suffice it to say that by the time I wrote my last Report it had come to this: either this man must go, or I must go.

  It has since come to my knowledge that for months before the death of my late writer (Indian colleague and assistant superintendent) my staff had been fervently praying for a change in the school. The substance of their prayer was "Give us more love and goodwill between boys, staff and superintendent (myself).” On 6th May last my writer died and with his death came a new lease of life to the A.I.S.

  News of his death reached me when I was at Kotagiri on my hill holiday. I had been there just two weeks. I at once left the Hills and by the following afternoon, 7th May, had covered the 300 miles back to Nazareth. Without any pre-arrangement (such is the way that things work out sometimes), quite early on in the journey back, I met Bishop Neill. For several hours we travelled together. As a result of our conversation in the train my plans were perfectly clear-cut. The first thing to be done was to appoint a headmaster which meant a journey of over 200 miles to secure for the post a former language teacher of mine.

  When school reopened in June change succeeded change, yet nothing dramatic or wholesale. I very soon found it necessary to dismiss the senior clerk in spite of his 12 and a half years’ service. He was a brother-in-law of my late writer. This was an indirect reason for his dismissal, and he proved that he could not be trusted.

  Early in the new term I held a staff meeting at which I outlined MY policy for the school. The meeting was held in the newly appointed Staff Recreation Room, formerly a dirty store room but now converted at very little expense.

  If things continue as they have begun, S.P.G, may expect to hear of less desire on my part to return to the Home Church. Under the "new order" many things have been started at the school of which I will now describe the more important.

  For a long time there had been a need In the school of a place where junior boys (irrespective of creed) could meet for prayer, meditation and lyric-singing. Such a place now exists. Here too Baptism and Confirmation classes are held, and the Hindu boys meet daily in it for religious instruction. The Ashram consists of three bays of a wide verandah walled off and furnished as a prayer room with carefully selected pictures of the Christ with the children around Him. Like the staff recreation room, it was formerly a dirty disused place, the abode of scorpions and other vermin. Now, with its clean white walls and polished floor, it is a haven of quiet rest which induces prayer. In no sense is the Ashram a rival to the Chapel. The former is a place of preparation for the latter.

  This makes for fellowship and good feeling and generally ends, after we have all eaten extremely well, in a game of badminton - much to the delight of the boys who are most vociferous and amused spectators at the antics of the Staff and superintendent!

   By arrangement with the Rev. T. Sitther, Principal and Warden of the Bishop's Theological College, Tirumaralyur, Nazareth, theological students conduct devotional meetings twice a month in our A.I.S. Chapel. It is excellent for students and boys.

  Members of my staff without exception now hold the Bishop's licence as lower grade readers. Each member is in turn required to conduct morning and evening, prayers and, once a quarter, to give an address in Chapel on Sunday. This is a new venture, and the staff very much appreciate holding office in the Church. Their appointment has been marked by the issue of cassocks. These are the same as are normally worn by readers in the Tinnevelly diocese and are of "Syrian Church" cut, worn without girdle or surplice and incorporating a hood like a sailor's collar.

  One of the Classrooms has now been taken over as a vestry to house the lay readers’ cassocks and Chapel Banner and my own Vestments. I have now introduced full vestments and Ceremonial at our Chapel Eucharists. Part of the "new order" is that I now celebrate myself instead of merely assisting. I have had made in our tailoring department the necessary amices, albs [white vestment], stoles, maniples, burses and veils. These match the existing chasubles.

   For many years the old Lace School, a fine room measuring 20'-0" × 60"-0' and structurally in good order, had been used as the school stock room. This was a wasteful arrangement considering the very small amount of stock carried. It was always in a dirty uncared-for state. Now, cleaned down and swept, it is a splendid room housing two classes and already sought after for Nazareth public meetings.

   This was not designed in the first place as a Chapel but as a classroom. Consequently, its east and west walls were blank ends. I am quite sure that anyone who has not seen the re-built Chapel would fail to recognise it from photographs as the A.I.S. Chapel - yet the reconstruction cost less than Rs.150/-. I have entirely re-built the former blank ends. The east end now has a large window of reinforced concrete in the form of a Cross and the west end now possesses a wide entrance door with concrete hood, steel window and gable cross over. These additions together with the Improvements which I have had made In the Chapel services enable the Chapel to take Its place as a worthy hub and centre In the life of the A.I.S. The tailoring department has recently finished a beautiful and symbolic Banner. To assist the music I have also introduced triangle and cymbals.

  This period in the history of the A.I.S. I am specially marking by intensive tree growing. I have had planted over 60, including 10 along the highway in front of the school on District Board land. I am also encouraging the boys to take up gardening by giving each boy a square yard of land to cultivate. I offer a prize for the best kept garden. The vegetables are paid for out of the boarding account and profits are divided among the boys. The boys therefore eat their garden produce and are paid for growing it.

  Every morning, with the help of my headmaster and one of the staff, I deal with minor injuries to my boys and dispense simple medicines. At first the boys were very surprised at my doing such menial work - as it is to them. It saves sending over to the hospital minor cases which can equally well be attended to by myself and my helpers. As may be imagined, saw and chisel cuts are common, so are burns among the blacksmithy boys. Ulcers are common too and the football field produces a number of cuts and scratches. Whether it is because I condescend to do such "menial" work I cannot say, BUT THERE IS AN UTTERLY DIFFERENT TONE IN THE SCHOOL TO-DAY. Now-a-days I get a smile and a salute and a "Salaam iyah!” "Good morning (or evening), Sir!" as I meet my boys in the road or compound. Formerly there was merely a studied avoidance of gaze as we passed. The boys, at long last, have come to appreciate that I want to be their friend and that I am not the remote and rather fearsome "burra sahib" that I was supposed to be in the bad old days.

  I am writing the manuscript of this in the Hills at Kodalkanal where I am getting over a somewhat painful and prolonged attack of inflammatory sore throat. I believe that this is a sign of being run down, at any rate I have had to be "all out" ever since my writer died. Typing this back in Nazareth, I am glad to be able to report myself quite all right again.Though I have edited my manuscript very considerably already, there are however still a few matters of interest which after further editing I will conclude with.

For example:

  Excellent. Since the beginning of term I have Introduced a recess time of ten minutes In the morning and afternoon sessions. During recess I have arranged for the boys to be served with as much "cunchi" as they want. Cunchi, let me explain, is simply rice-water. It is most nourishing and by no means unpalatable. The boys are working better now and are less tired at the end of the day, than in the bad old days.

   A new era of prosperity seems to have set in, and numbers have risen from 86 (at the end of last term) to 107. The eastern carpentry shop has been reopened and is now full. The tailoring and blacksmithy sections are actually overstrengthed.

   Until its dedication on Sunday 22nd Sept., Oyangudi Church had kept the school very busy. Final work connected with the church included a new ringers' gallery made out of the old Communion Rail, a new rosewood pulpit, reconstruction of minister's desks, choirstalls, pews and Altar; new vestry screens, tables, chairs and vestment cupboard for the Choir. Current work includes many good furniture orders, woodwork for the Chaplain's House at Madura (i.e., for the Rev. J. R. C. Dawson Bowling) and sundry school equipment and buildings in the diocese. A recent order was for a set of chessmen. The white pieces were turned from a branch off one of my orange trees. Churches to chessmen - such is the range of work at the school

  27 boys were confirmed by the Bishop when he visited the school on Sunday 1st September. On the same day he also dedicated the new improvements and additions which have been made at the school since the beginning of term. The day closed with English Evensong in the A.I.S. Chapel at which the Bishop preached, the Rev. M. C. Langton read the service and I played. Nearly 40 were present and I have been asked by several if we cannot manage to arrange an English Evensong once a month in my Chapel. For some reason or other, English-speaking Indians very much enjoy a service of this sort.

  11 boys were baptised by total immersion in the Courtallam Waterfalls on Sunday 15th September. The surroundings are most impressive. Great crags and precipices tower up into the sky all around, and the falls themselves are a quite unforgettable sight. Courtallam is in the Western Ghaut Mountains, about 50 miles west of Nazareth. My Baptism boys were present at the Diocesan Boys' Camp for the whole time. Other things being equal, I hope to make this an annual affair and to send boys for Baptism to this Camp.

  Great enthusiasm prevailed when the Bishop dedicated this church on Sunday 22nd September. It will be recalled that this church was built to my design, and it incorporates the architecture of S. India temples. All the woodwork and furniture was made by the A.I.S. The service of dedication lasted no less than 3 hours. All this time the church was packed to the doors, with another congregation outside standing twelve deep around the building. There were over 700 communicants. After the service, presentations were made to the Bishop and to all who had taken part in the building of the church. The Bishop was given an illuminated address, I was presented with a magnificent gold cross (several sovereigns were melted down, so I was told, to provide the metal) and the Hindu stonemasons and my A.I.S. boys were given articles of clothing. While I appreciate the kindness which prompted the gift, I am at a loss to know what to do with my gold Cross.

  Perhaps already my contributions in Dr. Fleming's latest book “CHRISTIAN SYMBOLS IN A WORLD COMMUNITY” - published in New York, may have been noticed by friends in the S.P.G. I have also written an article which appears in the current issue of the JOURNAL OF THE INDIAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS. My theme is the merit of using in this country Indian architecture adapted instead of using imported Western architecture.

  The school was given a most satisfactory and encouraging report by the Deputy Inspector of Industrial Schools (a Hindu gentleman) following his visit to us on 31st July last. But for the length of my report, I should have copied it here.

  It was a great pleasure to me to have as a recent guest in the Bungalow the Rev. Fr. Shore, Superior of the Oxford Mission to Calcutta. He stayed with me for nearly a week while conducting a Retreat for ladies at the Girls' High School, Nazareth. He was most interested in all he saw at the A.I.S. and in the buildings which I motored him out to see.

  This Report may perhaps conjure up the idea of intense activity. True, there is and has been much of it but I do not want to close on this note or give the impression that rush of work eclipses the spiritual side of our work. Do you know how we close our week at the Art Industrial School? Every Saturday at noon (when the hands of the clock point upwards) a bell is rung and absolute silence reigns in the compound. The boys go off to their rooms or to the Ashram and the school staff gathers in front of the Altar in the School Chapel. A Silence is observed, and then extemporary prayer is offered first by one and then by another. It is most impressive and has a tremendous appeal - the silence following as it does the din and clatter of the workshops the little group raising their hearts to God in the quiet and coolness of their House of Prayer - and in their prayers always remembering to uphold you at home amid the din and clatter of war -

6th October 1940.

MSS. written at Kodalkanal 2nd October 1940.

Typed at Nazareth 6th October 1940.