HC Deb 10 December 1906 vol 166 cc1522-3
MR. CHARLES DUNCAN. (Barrow-in-Furness)

To ask the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, whether he is aware of the dissatisfaction throughout the Island of Grenada, West Indies, owing to the recent Education Ordinance † See (4) Debates, clxv., 1425. passed in the Legislature of this Crown Colony where the taxpayers are unrepresented; and, in view of the petition sent to the Secretary of State for the Colonies against the same, will the ratification of the Crown be withheld till this petition is considered.

(Answered by Mr. Churchill.) Exception was taken to certain points in the Education Ordinance by the Archbishop of Port-of-Spain on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church in Grenada, and a petition on the subject was received from a large number of Roman Catholics in the Island. Lord Elgin most carefully considered the objections, but, as the Ordinance had the approval both of the Board of Education in Grenada and of the Legislative Council, and was supported by the Roman Catholic representatives in the Council, the Secretary of State saw no sufficient reason for advising His Majesty to exercise His power of disallowance in regard to it.