§ MR. HUTTON (Yorkshire, W.R., Morley)To ask the President of the Board of Education whether he will present a Parliamentary Paper showing what is the position of Roman Catholic schools or the children of Roman Catholic parents in the Protestant cantons of Switzerland, in the Protestant states of Germany, in Holland, in the United States, and in the Colonies; also stating what is the position of the children of Protestant parents in Italy, Spain, Austria, and Belgium.
(Answered by Mr. Runciman.) The Board hope to publish in the course of a few days a Parliamentary Paper dealing with the system known as the "allocation of rates" in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The volumes of special Reports on educational subjects which from time to time have been issued by the Board describe the educational systems in some of the countries named, but I fear that the Board possess no detailed or collated information on the subject. The compilation of a Return or Memorandum in sufficient detail to be of any value on this very complicated question would involve the collection of a large mass of material from foreign and Colonial Governments, and, owing to the complexity of some of the systems, would further necessitate local investigations. I regret, therefore, that the magnitude of the work is too great to admit of the Board undertaking it with the staff at their disposal. I may at the same time draw the attention of my hon. friend to the list of books and papers on religious instruction in schools in various parts of the world issued by the Board in 1906 [Cd. 3208]. Information on the point referred to in my hon. friend's Question will be found in most of the books and pamphlets named on pages 44 to 74, inclusive, of that document. Most of these documents can be consulted at the Board of Education library.