CLASS V. (Hansard, 14 June 1892)

§ MR. MORTON (Peterborough)
I should like to ask the right hon. Gentleman the Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs for some explanation in regard to this item of £200, "Copenhagen, provision for chaplaincy restored under special circumstances," &c. This appears to be a new item in this Vote, and I should be glad if the right hon. Gentleman will give us some explanation why this sum is asked for, and why it is introduced by way of a Supplementary Estimate.

§ *MR. GOSCHEN
Perhaps the hon. Member will allow me to answer the question as to why this Copenhagen chaplaincy is included in this Vote. The Royal Commission which inquired into the Civil Service recommended that the chaplaincies should be discontinued unless there were special circumstances to the contrary. Consequently, when the late chaplain at Copenhagen resigned his position for some other post, this amount of £200 was not again put into the Estimate. But since then a representation has been made to the Government that this church at Copenhagen, which the chaplain serves, had been raised at an expense of some £13,000 or £14,000 two or three years before, in the confident hope that the chaplaincy would be continued. The English community there is a very poor one, and it now appears that unless this amount is continued the church will have to be abandoned. It seemed a pity that so large a sum should be entirely lost, and I thought, under those circumstances, we should be justified in 1063 replacing the sum in the Estimate, and that it would fall within the special circumstances which were contemplated by the Report.

§ MR. MORTON
It is for an Episcopal Church?

§ *MR. GOSCHEN
Yes.

§ MR. MORTON
This appears to me like an endowment of a particular sect in a foreign country. If we were in the habit of endowing all the sects belonging to this country in foreign countries I could understand it, but why we should proceed at this time to endow a church to the extent of £200 I cannot understand. Surely, if there was any congregation at all, and any good feeling about them, they ought to pay their own minister and their own expenses with regard to the church. I am pleased to know that the Nonconformists always do that, and surely these Episcopalians should pay for their own services. If they cannot do so let them go to other churches in the country. There are Protestant services, I have no doubt, in Copenhagen, which would be good enough for these people; let them learn the language of the country, and then they could get on very well. I do not intend to move the reduction of the Vote, though I should like to if we had a proper opportunity of doing so; but I do say it is a very improper thing, especially after, as I understand, the Royal Commission have reported against it, at this late hour of the Session, and without any notice whatever, for the Government to take this money from the general taxpayers of the country, Nonconformists as well as Churchmen, for the endowment of an Episcopalian church at Copenhagen.

§ DR. CLARK
I should like to know whether this is an annual grant, or whether it is only for one year?

§ *MR. GOSCHEN
This will be an annual grant, like the other chaplaincies.