§ MR. ADDERLEYsaid, he wished to ask the Under Secretary of State for the 1951 Colonies, Whether an Archdeaconry in Jamaica, lately falling vacant, with a salary of £800 a year, has been filled up, the charge remaining as before on the British Treasury?
§ MR. CHICHESTER FORTESCUEin reply, said, the question of the right hon. Gentleman was probably suggested by observing in a Return lately laid on the table a blank opposite the name of the Archdeacon of Middlesex, which seemed to indicate that the office was vacant. If, however, the right hon. Gentleman referred to a note at the bottom of the page, he would see an explanation of this blank. There had been no vacancy, the acting Bishop of Jamaica was likewise Archdeacon of Middlesex, in Jamaica. That functionary received only one portion of the salary attached to such office, the other portion being applied to certain ecclesiastical purposes. The ecclesiastical salaries in the West Indies were not dependent, as the right hon. Gentleman was doubtless aware, upon a Vote of that House, but on an Act of Parliament which made them a charge upon the Consolidated Fund.