The Times on Thursday published a telegram from its Calcutta
correspondent* stating that Lord Ripon contemplated the " disestablishnaeut " of the English Church in India. "This policy," he added, "if persisted in, is sure to give rise to an agitation equal to that about the Ilbert Bill, and the fact of its being entrusted to a Roman Catholic Viceroy will add fuel to the flames." This statement is almost nonsensical, for the Church is not established in India, though there are a few Chaplains and four or five Bishops paid by the State, just as the doctors and medical Directors are, for the benefit of their own soldiers and servants. A few Chaplains are, however, sent to large civil stations, though nominally borne on the Army rolls, and the expediency of doing this and of paying Bishops out of Dative taxes has been discussed for half a century. On the same day an official denial of the story was published in Calcutta, from which it appears that though the India Office at home did recently reopen the question, no decision even as to general principles was arrived at, or is likely to be arrived at soon. The Euro- peans in India rather like the present system, which exempts them from demands for the payment of preachers ; but as there must be military chaplains, and there are plenty of missionaries, they care very little about it, and will certainly not agitate for its continuance.
Previous page
