24 FEBRUARY 1950, Page 17

SIR,—There is one important aspect of this controversy that has

not yet been touched upon. It is a fundamental rule of the Roman Catholic Church that the child of a Protestant parent must be brought up as a Roman Catholic if the other of the parents happens to be a member of that Church. As a result of this impertinent interference with the liberty of the subject, there are many children who would have been brought up as Protestants, but who find themselves compelled to go to Roman Catholic schools, where they are indoctrinated with an intolerant exclusiveness along certain lines which have nothing to do with the teaching of the New Testament. It is to this organisation that we, a predominantly Protestant country, are now asked to give financial aid. 1 he world is very sick and needs the healing balm of Christian tolerance and good-neighbourliness, not the 'disruptive influence of sect and class, and it is for this reason that general religious idealism is taught in our State schools without the additional teachings of man-made organisations which have world-domination as their chief incentive.—Yours faithfully,