The papers of Wednesday publish a letter from the Archbishop
of Canterbury to Mr. McKenna about the Education Bill. The Archbishop declares that, in spite of his serious wish to find in the Bill " the basis of an arrange- ment," his hopes have waned daily as he made inquiries as to how it would work. He fears that Mr. McKenna's desire that in urban areas, where parents are able to choose a school, it should be made possible, or even easy, to retain the efficient denominational schools, is incapable of fulfilment as the Bill stands. The "contracting-out" plan would be applicable to only the slenderest number of schools, and those in comparatively well-to-do districts. As to the single- school areas, where the Archbishop fully admits that some change is reasonable, he concludes that the denominational teaching stipulated by the founders of the schools is not really safeguarded. The guaranteed opportunities are insufficient— it is useless to hand over the school on Saturdays, for example, when children do not go to school—and the " under- taking" depends upon the action of the Board of Education for the time being. The Archbishop cordially recognises the advance on former schemes, which " takes shape in the defini- tion of the quality of undenominational teaching," but this is neutralised by those parts of the Bill which preclude any inquiry as to the teachers' qualifications to give the instruction.
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