MR. OWEN LEWISasked the Secretary of State for War, If it is true that the Catholic inmates of the Royal Military Hospital at Kilmainham, Dublin, are obliged to leave the Hospital in all weathers and at all seasons to attend Divine Service, though many of them are advanced in life and infirm, while their Protestant comrades, though little more than one-fifth of the whole number of pensioners, have a chapel and resident chaplain of their own religion in the Hospital?
MR. GATHORNE HARDYIf the hon. Member means by "obliged" that there is any compulsion put upon the Catholic inmates, he is entirely incorrect. The only obligation is a moral obligation which they may feel themselves. The Roman Catholic pensioners who are able to march, go to a chapel half-a-mile distant if the weather permit. The sick and infirm do not go, and the aged pensioners go how and when they please. Episcopalian pensioners, who number 29 per cent of the whole, have a chapel and chaplain on the premises. The chaplain of Kilmainham performs service in the chapel for the troops stationed in the neighbouring barracks without remuneration. The Roman Catholic chaplain receives £50 per annum for the inmates of the Hospital, and is chaplain to the troops in his parish, receiving the authorized allowance.