OUT of a disaster of unimaginably large proportions, a little ray of hope is emerging: the generosity of ordinary people is shining through.

The British are donating £500,000 an hour to charitable organisations trying to assist the victims of the tsunami. Last night, the total raised so far was £22m.

Even the bloated football industry is showing that it, too, has a heart with a commendable £1m donated by the Premiership.

This is against a backdrop of a British government which at first - and belatedly - offered only a million pounds, although it has, since the size of the public response became clear, upped that to £50m.

This is also against the backdrop of an unseemly international squabble between the Americans and the French as to which of them is the most generous in times of crisis.

And it is also against the backdrop of a Prime Minister who still regards the situation as not serious enough to break his warm winter holiday in Egypt.

However, let us momentarily defend Tony Blair. His critics condemn him for staying away; but if he rushed back, would he not have been equally condemned for turning a humanitarian catastrophe into a crass political photo-opportunity?

Still, there is a need for a major international figure to co-ordinate the relief efforts. The United Nations appears curiously reluctant to take the lead; the United States is creating an apparently divisive alliance with Japan and Australia, and the European Union lacks any single powerful voice.

Yet all of this money that is so generously pouring in does need to be spent wisely and, just as importantly, distributed wisely. Burma, Indonesia or Thailand should not miss out just because they are not as politically interesting to the rich nations as India or Sri Lanka.

Another point: the death toll figure seems to be revised every hour, but it is becoming quite meaningless. It doesn't matter if it is 100,000, or 120,000 or 140,000. Whichever figure, it is an unimaginably large disaster. It needs to be met by a huge response from those lucky enough to have been outside the tsunami's path.

This is why the response of the British public is so heartening.

So please carry on giving - although we must also recognise that these stricken countries will need our support for some long time to come.