§ Mr. ORMSBY-GOREasked the Prime Minister whether there will be any compensation to curates and assistant clergy of the Church in Wales under the Established Church (Wales) Bill, other than the terminable Grants of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners from English sources; how many of the existing curates and assistant clergy are at present in receipt of such Grants; and whether the Grants now terminable are to be made perpetual, and to whom are they to be paid after the lives of the existing curates and assistant clergy?
§ The SECRETARY of STATE for the HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. McKenna)The Prime Minister has asked me to reply to this question. There is no provision (other than that for the continuance of the terminable Grants of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners) for the compensation of curates and assistant clergy. The number of Grants made is 263, in respect of each of which there should be one curate. These Grants will, after Disestablishment, be paid over to the Representative Body in the form of a perpetual annuity, and their allocation will afterwards be entirely at the discretion of that body.
§ Mr. KINGMay I ask whether it was in consequence of the scandal of compensation in the case of the Irish Church that no provision has been put into the Bill dealing with the Disestablishment of the Welsh Church?
§ Mr. McKENNAIf my hon. Friend will excuse me, I would rather deal with a topic of this sort in the Debates on the Bill.
§ Viscount WOLMERDoes the right hon. Gentleman know whether the sum will be paid over?
§ Mr. McKENNAI have been assured by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners that they will pay over the sum which they have been paying in the past.
§ Mr. ORMSBY-GOREMay I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether the willing- 30 ness expressed by the present Ecclesiastical Commissioners binds all their successors?
§ Mr. McKENNAYes, Sir, because they will hand it over in a capital sum.
§ Mr. HOAREIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that there are about 500 curates in Wales, and that 250 of them will get nothing at all?
§ Mr. McKENNANo, Sir, I am not aware that there are a number of curates who will get nothing at all. [An HON. MEMBER: "Nothing under the Bill."] Inasmuch as they are largely paid now out of voluntary subscriptions, I assume that these subscriptions will continue hereafter.