§ LORD BRAVE had given notice that he would ask His Majesty's Government—
- 1. Why the Belgian refugees, twenty-one in number, now placed in the Public School at Eton, are penalised in the exercise of their religious duties in being forbidden to enter the Catholic church in Eton town and being obliged to attend on Sunday mornings a distant church in Windsor, and on week-days being debarred from all possibility of attending any service, although the service in the Eton Catholic church is available; whether the Headmaster in making this prohibition is acting ultra vires or not, or whether the authority for such regulations is vested in the governing body by law solely without reference to the headmaster or not;
- 2. Whether Belgian refugee boys have been admitted to any other of the public schools of England affected by Acts of Parliament, and if so, whether there also they are forbidden their nearest church, or whether they are quite free to frequent it; and further
- 3. Whether the governing body of Eton is empowered by Act of Parliament to modify the Statutes affecting Eton School so as to relax the restrictions imposed by Anglican authorities on the freedom of Catholics, Presbyterians, Jews, or other non-Anglicans to attend their respective places of worship.
§ The noble Lord said: My Lords, I desire to postpone for a time the Questions standing in my name on the Paper. I am entirely in the hands of the House and the Government in this matter, but I have very recently received a communication from the Headmaster of Eton in which he says that he is in correspondence with certain authorities as to the propriety of withdrawing the veto. Consequently I think it might be desirable to allow a little further time for a conclusion to be reached, although unfortunately some three or four months have already elapsed in trying to come to a conclusion. It would be more satisfactory if the Headmaster would answer the first portion of my Questions himself privately. The subject is of some public interest, and I may mention that 1051 only recently I received a letter from Canada in which I am informed that the matter has been noticed there and has had a disastrous effect upon recruiting among Catholics, who resent the attitude which the most important public school in Great Britain has assumed towards their co-religionists. I mention that as showing that this is a matter which affects not only many in this country but many throughout the Colonies. With your Lordships' permission, however, I beg to postpone the Questions for the present.