Changes at Tablet as D.W.' retires

By a Staff Reporter THE Tablet, one of Britain's best known journals of religious and political opinion, is to have a change of editorship. After 31 years, Mr. Douglas Woodruff is stepping down> He is to be succeeded by Mr. Tom Burns, of Burns & Oates.
Although Mr. Woodruff, who is 69, is relinquishing the editorial chair, he is not forsaking the journal altogether. He told the CATHOLIC HERALD this -week that he would continue to be a "regular contributor while he enjoyed good health." It is understood that Patrick O'Donovan of the Observer will act as an editorial adviser.
"D.W."—as he is known in Fleet Street—has had a distinguished career in journalism. Formerly a leader writer for the Times and the Sunday Tittles he joined the Tablet at the request of the late Cardinal Hinsley who was anxious to improve relations between the Catholic and Anglican Churches in Britain. Under Cardinal Bourne the Tablet was said to be anti-ecumenical in the extreme.
Educated at Downside and New College, Oxford, Mr. Woodruff was a brilliant student and toured America with the Oxford debating team. His sharp wit and outstanding knowledge of current affairs gave him the reputation of a powerful afterdinner speaker.
He retained a very close friendship with Cardinal Hinsley and was also a confidant of Hilaire Belloc and G. K. Chesterton. Although a firm advocate of ecumenism, he was politically "of the Right."
Although he has been charged with being a "Franco
supporter", he prefers to say that he took the anti-Communist line. Today he supports the American presence in Vietnam, but feels they are adopting the wrong strategy.
In the days when the ecumenical climate was "distinctly cool" he was well received in all Christian circles.
Archbishop Geoffrey Fisher, formerly Anglican Primate, this week said: "I had very friendly relations with Mr. Woodruff, who was always properly cautious."
Looking back on his Tablet career, Mr. Woodruff feels that the Vatican Council has been the "most significant religious event", but says it was not the start of ecumenism. "Cardinal Hinsley wanted a common Lord's Prayer whatever Rome said."
He has always been an advocate of taking "the Church into the Modern World" and was often the Catholic voice in public life.
He was particularly prominent in "The Tichborne Case" which concerned controversy over the claimants of the Tichborne fortune. His book about this case, published in 1957, was a best-seller.
History and politics hold a special fascination for him and it was always noticeable that in the Tablet books coming into these categories were reviewed by "D.W." He was also prominent in the publishing field and ,bas been very much the "man behind"
the Universe newspaper and other Burns & Oates publications.
Made a Companion of the British Empire in 1962, he has been chairman of B.O.W. Holdings since 1959.
His wife is the Hon. Marie Immaculee, daughter of the second Lord Acton.
United women's prayer service
CARDINAL HEENAN will preach, and Dr. Maurice Barnett of the Methodist Central Hall and Canon Edward Carpenter of Westminster Abbey will give scripture readings at the Women's World Day of Prayer ceremony in Westminster Cathedral next Friday at S p.m.
It will be the first time the international inter-denominational ceremony has been held in a Catholic Church.
To mark the day, the Cathedral will expose the Blessed Sacrament from 9 a.m. Mass until the evening Mass at 6 p.m.
Oxford De La Salle centre
FIVE houses in Oxford which have become vacant because of the contraction of the Greycotes Girls' School have been bought by the De La Salle Brotherhood for £83,000, for use as a house of studies for members of the order of the university.