1 FEBRUARY 1957, Page 15

FAIR DEAL FOR TI=IE CLERGY

SIR,—In practically every national daily newspaper considerable attention is paid to claims for increased pay for busmen, doctors and many other classes in the community while the just needs of the clergy con- tinue to be overlooked.

Is it not self-evident that the Church cannot give the utmost help to the community while so many of the clergy are so sorely stressed by having less than the minimum essential to pay their way? If the clergy are always haunted by the dread of debt surely the standard of their ministering must suffer, and the benefit they can confer on their parishioners is reduced accordingly.

We all know examples of most devout self- sacrificing men who willingly struggle under these adverse circumstances in their endeavours to do justice to their responsibility in spreading the word of the Creator. In these years of full employment and high wages, however, is it not time that we should cease to take an unfair advantage of these men who are striving against odds to help us?— Yours faithfully,

House of Commons, SW1 ALFRED C. BOSSOM