HC Deb 22 August 1889 vol 340 cc96-7
MR. KIMBER (Wandsworth)

I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies whether the attention of the Government has been drawn to a printed Report of the Standing Committee of the Church Council of the Church of England in Natal, dated 30th October, 1888, in which the archbishops, bishops, chaplain general, and others in England are accused not only of throwing obstacles in the way of obtaining a bishop for the vacant See of Natal, but of actively intervening to intimidate clergymen of the Church of England from going out to minister to their congregations in Natal, and stating in particular that the Bishop of Wakefield, in a letter dated 17th September, 1888, wrote respecting the Rev. W. P. Ingledew, with whom the congregation at Durban had arranged to go out from England, stating that he had warned him that he would have a difficulty in finding any bishop in England to welcome him back did he go out in that connection, and citing two further cases of clergymen who were informed that they would place themselves in opposition to the Archbishop of Canterbury and to the Chaplain General of the Forces if they held services for congregations of the Church of England in Natal without taking license from Bishop Macrorie, who is well known as the head of an Independent Church in South Africa; whether the Government will make inquiries respecting the alleged action of the archbishops, bishops, and chaplain general in preventing the congregations alluded to from obtaining the services of English clergymen, and in endeavouring to force upon them the licensees of what is to them an alien authority; and whether any steps can be taken to secure these congregations and their clergy against interference with their liberty in the future?

THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES (Baron H. de Worms,) Liverpool, East Toxteth

The Secretary of State had not seen the Report referred to until it was received from my hon. Friend; but the circumstances as alleged are not such as to give him any jurisdiction to inquire into or deal with them. The Secretary of State is not aware that there is any power to interfere with the action of any Ecclesiastical Authorities or other persons who may think it right to make such representations as are alleged to have been made in this case.