A Royal welcome – and a great act of charity

IF MEMBERS of the Royal Family decide to open their homes to Ukrainian refugees – and it is widely speculated that this is to happen – it will be a very welcome step. Many of us, greatly moved by the plight of refugees from that war-ravaged country, yearn to do something solid to help.

Readers of The Mail on Sunday and our sister paper the Daily Mail certainly do. Our appeal to raise money for refugee charities has already brought in a superb £8million, and promises to deliver still more.

This generosity has already made life far easier for women and children seeking safety from war, and shows that our kind and charitable civilisation is still very much in being.

When it comes to offering actual space in our homes to Ukrainians, many of us simply cannot manage this in practice, however much we might wish to.

Those who can and do welcome refugees under their own roofs deserve much praise and many blessings.

But we cannot all do this. It is no small thing for busy people in small flats or houses to take in total strangers with no common language, who may be in great distress.

And nobody should feel under any pressure to do so, especially when there are so many other ways in which we can help.

The Royal Family are in a special position. They do possess several large houses and estates, and employ staff to run them.

It is not for us to presume to advise Her Majesty or her family on how to behave or on what to do with their homes. But it would be a superb gesture if they joined in this great act of charity, an action of which the entire nation could be proud, and which would bind Britain and Ukraine together in friendship for many years to come.