Mr. KINGasked the President of the Board of Education whether the Governors of Raine's Foundation Schools, St. George-in-the-East, have applied for an amendment of their school scheme; whether they ask for the insertion of a clause providing that co-optative governors shall, in future, be members of the Church of England, that the existing scheme provides that such persons shall be Protestants, and that £15,000 of public money was granted in 1908 to the Raine's schools on condition that the clause as to the religious persuasion of governors should be modified; and whether he proposes to allow the new scheme to impose a religious test on governors, which was previously absent?
§ Mr. J. A. PEASEThe scheme governing the foundation requires that "No person shall be capable of acting or being elected as a governor unless he is a person professing the Protestant religion according to the usage of the Church of England." It is understood that the London County Council are prepared to make a grant of £15,000 to the foundation on certain conditions, one of which is the modification of this requirement. In law no alteration in the provisions of the scheme with regard to the religious qualifications of governors can be made without the consent of the governing body. The governors have, however, intimated their readiness to consent to a modification of the scheme now in force so as to remove the requirement in the case of representative governors. The proposal, therefore, now under consideration is directed to remove an old test and not to impose a new one.