Calendar: 1951-1952 Page 428

ANNUAL REPORT these general and non-technical lectures in Theology should be offered to interested outsiders Nevertheless the evening lectures have proved to be very real help to the Council financially Moreover the large part which is now played in the stability of the Councirs finances by the women's side of the Department must not be forgotten and the Council's debt to Miss Norman the Tutor to Women Theological Students is correspondingly great The material reconstruction of the Hostel after its war-time damage is now nearly completed but the last necessary items in that reconstruc- tion the painting of the public rooms and of the corridors and staircases the building of the garden wall and it is to be hoped the restoration of the garden are some of the most expensive There is some hope that the Hostel may be let during the Long Vacation of 1951 while the Festival of Britain is being celebrated at terms which will be of great advantage to its finances Not for many years if all is well will such heavy expenses recur as the Council have had to bear in the past five years in bringing back the Hostel into proper order The Council can thus venture to look forward to the Hostel and Warminster being able to pay their own way and no longer needing subvention from the Special Reserve Fund while if numbers in the Faculty are maintained at their present level-and there is no sign yet of any serious diminution-they can look for an annual surplus which in five years from now will change very considerably the appearance of their reserves This is the build-up at which they have to aim and the prospect is fair if numbers are maintained and there is no world-crisis which would bring the work to an end Even so the Theological Department needs more help which ought to be secured when the financial situation permits There should be another unmarried member of the Staff to reside at the Hostel and to regard his residence there as part of his work and to increase the number of tutors At the moment tutors have too many pupils for efficiency It may be that certain structural alterations might be made at the Hostel which while maintaining the numbers of students at their present level would permit two of the younger married members of the Staff to live there and to have some share in its life in addition to the unmarried member who is urgently required as has been pointed out already Such an enlargement of the Staff membership at Vincent Square would make the Hostel more than ever the residential centre of the Faculty' life and it would ease the burden borne by the Dean who in the new shape of the work in the Theological Department must pay regular visits to Warminster and by reason of his work in the College as whole cannot give more than limited time to the Hostel of which neverthe- less the Council asks him to be Warden Such improvements in staffing are not yet possible but they ought to be borne in mind The Report this year is presented therefore in spirit of sober optimism Printed in Great Britain by Richard Clay and Company Ltd bungay Suffolk