§ MR. FLAVIN (Kerry, N.)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury 789 whether he is aware that Father Simon Knapp, a friar of the Carmelite Church at Kensington, has volunteered his services as a Roman Catholic chaplain to the Roman Catholic soldiers now serving in South Africa; and that he has been appointed by the War Office as a chaplain, and sailed in the "Briton" for South Africa; and seeing that Father Knapp is a member of a religious community which under a penal statute is an illegal monastic order, will Her Majesty's Government give facilities for the passage of a Bill now before Parliament, or take such steps as may be necessary to remove the disabilities under which certain Roman Catholic religious communities are penalised in Great Britain and Ireland.
§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR,) Manchester, E.The answer to the first paragraph is in the affirmative. With regard to the second paragraph the hon. Member must be well aware that on general grounds it is neither customary nor convenient to attempt to deal with these matters by Private Members' Bills. I may, perhaps, add that as far as I can understand the Bill, a copy of which the hon. Member was good enough to send me, the object he desires would not be furthered by it.