SPANISH BURIAL
SIR,—The letter 'Spanish Burial' (February 1) certainly calls for prompt reply. I write as the English chaplain at Malaga (or, as your correspon- dent unfelicitously calls it, `the Protestant minister). In that capacity I have been officiating for over three years, and therefore feel that 1 can lay claim to some knowledge of affairs within the British com- munity here.
Mrs. Christian was living outside the province of Malaga, in a remote township (Almunecar) which is situated within the province of Granada. And therein lies the crux of the whole matter. Long-distance tele- phonic communications in this region arc notoriously bad, added to which, permission had to be obtained from Granada to remove the body across the provin- cial border. The Vice-Consul received no notification that such permission had been obtained, but naturally assumed that other arrangements must have been made for the burial. It was a shock to him, therefore, to learn on the morning of December 19 that Mrs. Christian and her friends were at the cemetery and that the hearse conveying the body was expected at any moment. To arrive thus, un- heralded and unannounced, and expect everything to be 'laid on' seems unreasonable, to say the least. More unreasonable still is her sweeping condemna- tion of the whole Vice-Consular Service. As regards the frustrations Mrs. Christian unfortunately had to suffer, it would not have made one scrap of difference whether the officials concerned were Honorary Vice- Consuls or 'career' Consuls.
The province of Malaga is unique in having an `English cemetery.' Elsewhere in Spain, non- Catholics and non-Christians must use the non- Catholic cemeteries. In these, the bodies of many worthy people of various nationalities have been interred. There is one such within this province, at Marbella. No stigma ought to be attached to these places by reason of the fact that Catholic excom- municates are also buried there.
It seems a pity, therefore, that Mrs. Christian did not save herself much needless expense and mental distress by arranging for her husband to be buried in the non-Catholic cemetery at Almufiecar. I would most gladly have run over, at the shortest notice, to conduct the funeral there; and (may I be permitted to say) I would have done so, not as 'the Protestant minister,' but as 'the Anglican priest,' and as such would have consecrated the grave prior to committal. THOS. M. ROBINSON Hotel Limonar, Malaga
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