across barriers . the third assembly of the world council of Churches in Delhi has added substance to the aspiration of its title . the entry of the Russian orthodox Church and its sisters in Bulgaria , Poland , and Rumania has had two stimulating effects . some east European churches had been members already , and one major meeting was held in Hungary in 1956 , but only now is the Christian witness in communist countries strongly represented . although the Roman catholics are no more than observers , the charge of pan-protestantism loses its validity . the other orthodox churches and the old catholics in the council are no longer a few among the many that come from the world of the reformation . at the same time the evangelical complexion of the council grows stronger through the integration with the international missionary council and the admission of growing communions in south America and newly independent churches in Africa . there are now twice as many churches from these continents and from Asia as there were at the first assembly in Amsterdam in 1948 . the approach to universality is gratifying . it has its complications . many of the churches which came together at Amsterdam thirteen years ago had long cooperated in the two movements - faith and order and life and work - whose confluence formed the council . cooperation since then has steadily grown . the entry this year of so many churches unaccustomed to these ecumenical encounters may hold up the movement towards closer cooperation for a time . there will have to be wider geographical representation on the central committee and other continuing bodies and this may be at the cost of some efficiency . unanimity will come less easily . the Anglican and main protestant communions readily agree on many questions , such as birth control and the population explosion , which the presence in strength of the orthodox churches makes more contentious . on the other hand , there has been a striking agreement on the delicate matter of defining the actual theological basis of the council itself . such a body can not address itself successfully to many of the immediate temporal issues . it should seek and share guidance not on what is to be done in such and such a special field but on the criteria by which the Christian should be guided . the declaration on racialism could reasonably be unequivocal , although it has cost the allegiance of the Dutch churches in South Africa . but discussion on current points of east-west conflict could not go much farther than , for example , the truism that policies of menace and mutual disarmament can not be followed together . what the council has done - and it is an achievement - is to make religious contact across the greatest political barrier in what is not yet a unitary world . in the words of one Russian delegate , older churches like his own have personally discovered younger churches for the first time . the theme of facing together the broader tasks that can be tackled only together ran through speech after speech . it is worth recalling the prophetic words in 1938 of Dr J H Oldham , elected honorary president at Delhi : - study must be undertaken by the churches in common , for the new forces are world forces ; they will sooner or later affect the life of every church , and it is therefore essential that on this point the churches should learn from each other and share with each other whatever light God has given them in their attempt to face new and unprecedented situations . the shifting weight from western to eastern communities emphasizes the challenge to the receptivity of individual churches . the effect of the assembly will depend on the willingness of parishes and congregations to respond to the call to fresh service , and to assimilate into their daily witness the common thought of the member churches . one of the duties of the assembly is to set the standards for continuing common study and action . since the last assembly help for refugees of every faith has been extended to cover more of the world and different needs . it is now perhaps the best known ecumenical activity . here again , however , the new and enlarged council speaks with different voices and stresses . in the Russian orthodox Church the council has incorporated a community with a distinctive tradition of Christian witness , emphasizing devotion and not social work . in abstaining from voting on the resolution which extended the definition of religious liberty to political opinions the Russians in Delhi followed a tradition far older than 1917 . their position is close to the statement at Evanston in 1954 by Professor Hromadka , of Prague , who is an evangelical : - the Church marches through our secular world avoiding and rejecting identification with any human absolute and rejecting also any efforts to look for an absolute evil in any secular institution or in any man . we must not apply human , civil , or political categories of freedom to the church . some problems of such a world meeting remain unresolved . a thousand delegates are too many for corporate thinking , but corporate thinking there must be if all member churches are to have an effective voice in deciding future lines of cooperation . the aspiration of visible as opposed to merely spiritual unity was endorsed at Delhi ; but it is doubtful if it was greatly advanced - or , indeed , could be so at so comprehensive an assembly . a man of peace . although he is no longer a titular chief Albert Luthuli is in the truest sense of the word a leader of his people in South Africa . his arrival with his wife in Britain on a flying visit before he goes on to receive the Nobel peace prize in Oslo will give British people a chance that they gladly take of expressing their admiration for his courage , sincerity , and restraint . it is ironical that he should reach Europe only a few days before the republic of South Africa will be celebrating the annual holiday which in origin commemorates the victory of the Voortrekkers over the Zulu Impis at Blood River . Mr Luthuli , who belongs to that proud and warlike people , is one of those Africans who have buried the hatchet . he has always shown himself ready - and no one who knows him can doubt his sincerity - to lead the Zulus and others down the paths of peace . coexistence with their white neighbours on terms of mutual self-respect has been his ideal . a forward looking government would have understood the significance of this powerful encouragement to moderation and would have taken Mr Luthuli into its counsels . unfortunately it is looking backwards that has prevailed . those who put Mr Luthuli into prison and then placed indefensible restrictions on his rights as a man have never forgotten Blood River . they live in a perpetual state of mental laager . they can see Mr Luthuli only over the sights of their rifles . even the permission given to leave the native land which is half a gaol for him is grudging and qualified . the minister of the interior emphasized , when his passport was granted , that in the opinion of the South African government Mr Luthuli did not measure up to the international standard laid down for the award of the Nobel peace prize . the South African government is the last quarter to which any reasonable man would refer on such an issue . the decision of the Swedish judges has rightly been applauded in all countries that believe in freedom and scorn racial injustice . Mr Luthuli can not speak freely to us . but he must draw encouragement from the reception that he will receive here and elsewhere on his journey . who will deny , he has said sadly , that thirty years of my life have been spent in knocking in vain at a closed and barred door ? alas , no one can deny it . but that is all the more reason for saluting a veteran fighter for peace . hire-purchase . with the first and fundamental clause of Mr W T Williams &apos;s hire-purchase bill general agreement can be expected . an increasingly important weakness of the existing legislation ( the 1938 act as amended in 1954 ) is that , apart from livestock , it governs only agreements involving goods worth &amp;pound;300 or less . as the conservative political centre report on consumer protection recently pointed out , both inflation and affluence have made it reasonable to raise the limits for all agreements to &amp;pound;1,000 - the level already established for livestock . Mr Williams sets out to achieve this . the existing limits have long been out of date , especially since the growth of car hire-purchase , and most citizens &apos; advice bureaux could probably produce cases illustrating the difficulties and abuses which have arisen as a result . the efforts of Mr Williams to make the terms of agreements even clearer to the customer are also to be commended . the notification he envisages must be given at least two days before the agreement is signed . to this there will be some opposition . the bill is short and modest in scope , and it is doubtful whether the other private members &apos; bills in the offing will fill all the gaps . this fact may give the government an extra excuse for counselling patience until the next report from the Molony committee . comprehensive legislation is obviously preferable . they should not , however , disdain this opportunity of obtaining a useful sample of parliamentary opinion by at least allowing these bills a fair run . by degrees . centigrade v fahrenheit . the fight is on . the challenger has behind it not only the authority of the secretary of state for air but also the backing of the director general of the meteorological office . the press and the broadcasting authorities are asked to help . to begin with , both temperatures will be put in the ring together . Sir Graham Sutton , however , made no bones about it yesterday . the purpose is to give fahrenheit the knock out . the backers of centigrade would have got off to a better start if they had taken more pains to explain the advantages to the general public of the change . it is true that Sir Graham said there is at the moment an awful mess up in the measurement of temperatures . this , however , seems a matter of the convenience of specialists . the ordinary British man and woman is conscious of no difficulty . rather than fifty million people having to be put out for the sake of 50,000 is there any reason why the centigrade countries should not change to fahrenheit ? can it be shown that the one scale is demonstrably better than the other ? the centigraders may be in for a stiffer fight than they think . they may have to call up the reinforcement of the common market . even then it might be easier to persuade the British public to go over to decimal coinage - in certain circumstances the time would come when this would suit their convenience - rather than to change their system of recording temperatures . in any case , fahrenheit need not lose heart . once before , and that not so long ago , the authorities ganged up to alter the habits of the people . that effort was to enforce the adoption of the twenty-four hour clock . then , also , the B.B.C were roped in . the only result was that the well-meaning corporation became very unpopular . so much so that the new system , which was inaugurated in April , 1934 , was thrown out in August of the same year . it is generally a sign that governments are balked in the big things when they can not leave the little , familiar ways of life alone . summons to the unknown . one of the little trials that a man must learn to bear when he admits the telephone to his home is that , when he hurries to its side to answer a call , it will sometimes stop ringing before he gets there . he is dividing the dahlias at the bottom of the garden , or hanging a critical bit of wallpaper in the spare bedroom , or delicately adjusting the car in the garage , or listening absorbed to a concert on the wireless when the persisting summons penetrates to his dream world . 