A BURNING QUESTION
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—It was pleasing to read the letter published in your issue of January 25th above the signature of so distinguished a public man as Mr. F. Mead, the late Metropolitan Magistrate. In his advocacy of cremation from the Public Health point of view, Mr. Mead is in line with the pioneers of. our Public Health system, notably the late Sir Edwin Chadwick, who in the early part of the last century visualized the prospect of the ever-increasing acquisition* of land for burial purposes to the detriment of the health and happiness of town-dwellers. Your correspondent refers to the Cremation Act, 1902. This Act, along with most legislation on the subject of the disposal of the dead, leaves something to be desired from the point of view of the idealist. Your readers will doubtlessly be inter- ested to know that the recently established National Council for the Disposition of the Dead, under the leadership of Lord Horder, is addressing itself to the problem of the revision and codification of the laws governing the disposition of the dead.
There is one point, however, upon which I feel, I should remove any misapprehension that may exist. So far as the Established Church is concerned, the cremation: movement cannot complain of obscurantism. In actual fact ten bishops, have been cremated, including the late Dr. Charles Gore, who, was a Vice-president of the Cremation Society, whilst many present-day bishops have testified to their belief in cremation as being perfectly consistent with the Christian doctrine. May I add that the past year has seen the figures for Crema- tion in Great Britain achieve a total of 8,337for the.28 crema- toria now in operation ?—I am, Sir, yours faithfully, GEORGE A. NOBLE, SeCretary.
The Cremation Society, 23 Nottingham Place, W.1.
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