MR. MAC NEILLI beg to ask the Secretary of State for War how many commissioned Army chaplains are at present ministering to the Forces in Ireland; what is the amount of their salaries in the aggregate; whether he has received a copy of the resolution passed unanimously by the Protestant Synod at their meeting last April, claiming for the Irish Protestant clergy these appointments; whether it is the fact that the Irish Catholic Bishops have insisted on the duties of chaplains to the Forces being discharged by the Irish Catholic clergy; and whether he, having regard to the assurance given by him to the hon. Member for South Donegal that he would carefully consider any expression of opinion for- 698 warded to him by the authorities of the Irish Church on this subject, will now put the Irish Protestant clergy on an, equality with the Irish Roman Catholic clergy in the matter of Army chaplaincies?
§ MR. E. STANHOPEThere are seven commissioned chaplains and two probationers, Protestant, other than Presbyterian, ministering to the troops in Ireland, and their aggregate pay and allowances amount to £2,921. In; answer to the third question no such resolution has been sent to me by the authorities of the Irish Church. The Army chaplains officiate at three stations only in Ireland, and for my reasons for retaining them there I must refer the hon. Member to the reply I made to him on the 13 th of April.