Herbert now launched into what he later described as his 'long, lone and - it must be confessed - losing battle with the Buchmanites'. 40 He attacked Buchman in the press as 'an American crank preacher' and 'an alien who should be banned from Britain as a humbug'.41 When in the House of Commons, he called Buchman and his colleagues 'canting cheats', he was rebuked by the Speaker.42 He then announced that he would 'pursue the pirates until they haul down the noble flag they have stolen',43 a vow which was to lead him on to wider and wilder accusations in the following years. How far the humorist gave way to the campaigner is illustrated by a story told by his Punch colleague Anthony Armstrong and recorded in Reginald Pound's biography: 'A.P.H. and A.A. had adjourned one afternoon to a club in Covent Garden much frequented by journalists. Within minutes of their arrival at the club a mild-mannered man on a bar stool mentioned Buchman. A.P.H. brought the life of the place to a standstill by raging at the man as if he were an offensive heckler in a public meeting. The poor man was utterly subdued by the onslaught which, says Armstrong, was continued for "a good twenty minutes, by which time I left", cheated of his hope of a companionable interlude with an admired contemporary.'44

In Britain, the name 'Oxford Group' remains the official name of the incorporated body. But, as Sir Michael Sadler had foreseen, growth was already beginning to make the name too limited. In the nearly two years between the request for incorporation and its confirmation by the Board of Trade, the Group's campaign for Moral Re-Armament had grown so well known across the world that the new phrase became more and more used in day-to-day affairs.

By the time of the Board of Trade's decision, Buchman had been back in America for three months. On 4 March 1939 he had sailed for New York with twenty British colleagues, as well as others from the Continent. 'I love England and am surrounded by faithful friends,' he wrote at the time, 'but I am also eager to obey the call for America, an America that will know her true freedom and democracy. My spirit is still youthful, although sixty and more years have fastened their grip on me! I am still eager for the fray.'45

He planned to be back in three months; but it was seven years before he set foot in Britain again.

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