§ MR. JOHNSTON (Belfast, S.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War if it is a fact that, in consequence of a Roman Catholic priest refusing to take part in the ceremony of the Presentation of colours to the 5th Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, that ceremony was ordered by the War Office to be deferred; whether the Protestant rector of the parish was perfectly willing to join in the ceremony on the 25th June, at Lifford; and if he will state the name of the priest who refused, and his reasons for so doing; and why the ceremony was ordered not to take place?
§ MR. E. STANHOPEThe circumstances of the case are as stated by my honourable Friend. The Rev. Father O'Hagan is the name of the priest who refused to take part in the ceremony, on purely religious grounds. Notice of this refusal only reached the War Office the day before that fixed for the ceremony, and as there was not time to send a Roman Catholic chaplain to the Forces to Lifford to take part in the presentation of colours, it was postponed till next year.