§ SIR JAMES CORRY (Armagh, Mid)I beg to ask the hon. Member for Penrith (Mr. J. W. Lowther) if the Charity Commissioners are aware that the restoration of the Whitgift Tomb and the payment of £200 out of the income of the Charity had been done with the express approval of the Patron and Visitor (the Archbishop of Canterbury); that the legal adviser (now deceased) raised no question as to the right of the Governors to use the income; that the Commissioners had themselves allowed the sum of £250 to be used out of 193 the income towards the cost of re-building Croydon Parish Church; and whether, in the face of these facts, the Commissioners would restore the money they had taken from the private purses of the present Governors, soma of whom, were on the Court when the money was voted?
MR. J. W. LOWTHER (Cumberland, Penrith)So far as the Charity Commissioners are informed, the Archbishop of Canterbury has not purported to give an express approval, as a Visitor, to the expenditure in question. It was at the instance of the Archbishop that the Governors applied for the ex post facto approval of the Charity Commissioners. The Commissioners learn that on the occasion of the original sanction of this expenditure by the Governors, their then legal adviser, who was present, was not asked for and did not offer his opinion; and that when the question was before the Governors on a subsequent occasion, their present legal adviser expressed an opinion adverse to the expenditure, and ultimately declined to sign a letter to the Commissioners in the matter. The grant of £250 towards the re-building of the church was made by the Governors, with the previous sanction of the Commissioners, given in view of the fact that the interests of certain beneficiaries of the foundation were directly involved in the restoration of the accommodation hitherto provided for them in the church. Under these circumstances, and in view of the fact that the Governors have not challenged in a Court of Law the decision of the Commissioners, they are unable to promise any re-consideration of their decision.