'NORWAY ABLAZE - DENMARK SHAKEN'

He went on, 'Do not broadcast the fact that Denmark may begin in mid-March because the same kind of people we met in Princeton are certainly in Copenhagen. That crowd moved north from Berlin and we are already feeling their opposition.' It is not clear whether Buchman was referring here to targeted opposition from specific individuals or groups, or to the general confrontation with those who were committed to moral relativism. Berlin at that period was certainly the centre of a decadence which was spreading through Europe, and Buchman's work was bound to come into collision with this force in situations where both were active. In any case, the awareness of possible confrontation with organised evil was never far from Buchman's mind, due in part to his own militant spirit and in part to his experiences. His letter continued, 'What you have got here is the result of spiritual deformity over a long period. Think of gnomes crawling around in darkness in a cave. All of a sudden there comes illumination and things become clear. But unless we do something quickly, this nation will be overripe and the Christian forces will, sensationalize the Groups and people will not have the opportunity to know the real message.'39 The thought he had had was, 'Denmark will be shaken.'

Buchman decided 'to go to the court of public opinion', as he expressed it, in big public meetings. But there were difficulties. 'I am confidentially told some of the students are trying to stage a discussion in the University to make the work of the Group look ridiculous,' he wrote. 'One of the best ways to kill anything in Denmark is to have people laugh at it.'40 Meanwhile opponents from other countries were circulating books like that of the Bishop of Durham.

In March 1935, however, all was ready. Buchman gathered an international force of 300 in Copenhagen for three days of training, during which he instructed them on everything from the policies of the five national dailies to the necessity to keep their bowels open in spite of the ample Danish breakfast liable, according to him, to be climaxed by a rich pastry cake.

Everything, he felt, depended on the first meeting, which was to be broadcast on the national radio and at which many workers and intellectuals were expected, including some of the Socialist cabinet. Consequently, he planned that speakers from Labour backgrounds, like George Light and Jimmie Watt, should predominate. Every ticket was taken, and few clerics were visible except for one black-clad row, all of whom appeared to be taking notes. Buchman hit his target. Many of the workers and atheist intellectuals stayed on to talk with the speakers, some deciding to experiment then and there with the ideas they had heard. One of these was a well-known High Court Advocate, Valdemar Hvidt, who got into discussion with a recent Oxford graduate. The lawyer explained that he had no belief in God but then, spying a young business man, who had that week come to him to institute divorce proceedings, in the room with his wife, added, 'If something happened to that pair, I might even think again.' Next day the couple called at his office and said that they wanted to call off the divorce. All three, the couple and the lawyer, ended up working with Buchman for life.

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