HC Deb 23 April 1903 vol 121 cc222-3
COLONEL NOLAN

I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he has any official reports showing that a teaching body of English subjects (the Passionist Fathers) have been lately forced to discontinue their instructions in Paris owing to the late change in the French law; can he state if their property has been left undisturbed; and if any correspondence on this matter has taken place between the-English Embassy and the French Government.

LORD CRANBORNE

His Majesty's Government have been informed by His Majesty's Ambassador at Paris that the application for authorisation presented by the Passionist Fathers in Paris has been refused by the Chamber of Deputies. The community being thus legally dissolved, a formal application has been made by Sir E. Monson with a view to the re-opening of the chapel in Avenue House he under the ministration of secular priests, and we have every reason to believe that this will be successful. We have no reason to think that there will be any interference with the property of the community. His Majesty's Ambassador has been in frequent communication with the French Government with the object of securing considerate treatment for the community.