NONCONFORMIST DEMANDS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1072, 10 March 1911, Page 5

NONCONFORMIST DEMANDS.

■—+ •. EDUCATION AND DISESTABLISH. . .MENT. 1 By Tolosraph-Fress As*«*<-»-i~'<.."»ri«'ht. London, March 8. Tho Free Church Congress has decided to urge the Government to introduce, after the Veto question has been dealt with, an Education Bill, securing popular control and freedom from set> tarianism. Resolutions in favour of Welsh Church Disestablishment "and' licensing ; reform were carried. ' Mr.' Lloyd-George, . Chancellor of. the Exchequer,, .in a letter read at ■the- Congress, said there was hot the • slightest need for anxiety respecting tho AVelsh Disestablishment question. The Government, he added, did not intend laying itsejf open to a charge of betraying its pledges; therefore,.it-was unfair to use language that, was a menace. A Bill for the Disestablishment of the Uvurcn in Wales was introduced in 1895 by Mr. Asqmth, when Home Secretary in Mr. Gladstone's last Administration. The Bui passed the second reading, and was in the Committee stage when tho Parliament came to an end. • Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, then Prime Minister, in a letter to Sir S. T. Evans, M.P., March 12, 1906, said: "I adhere to tho statement made,by me before tho election to the Welsh members through Alfred Thomas and Lloyd-George, that Welsh disestablishment remains an integral part of the legislative programme of the Liberal party, and will be dealt with at the first available opportunity." In pursuance of a pledge made on July 23, 1908, to a deputation of Welsh M.P.'s, Mr. Asqmth, on April 21, 1909. introduced another Bill for the Disestablishment and Disendowment of the Church in Wales. It was obvious when the Bill was introduced that the state of Parliamentary business made its passage almost impossible. It was not even carried to a second reading, being. withdrawn in June, with n pledge on the part of the Government that it should be the. first measure introduced in the next session..