Woman Novelist Interrupts Bishop's Sermon

Horowhenua Chronicle, 11 July 1933, Page 3

Woman Novelist Interrupts Bishop's Sermon

CHAMPION OF BRITAIN'S UNTOUCHABLES

LONDON, July 10. The middle-aged novelist,''Joan Conquest," otherwise Mrs. Leonard Cooke, author of "The Naked Truth," an exposure of slum evils, created a sensation at St. Paul's by rising, holding her hook aloft and approaching the pulpit gesticulating as the Bishop of Winchester began his sermon in connection with the centenary of the Oxford Movement. His sonorous voice drowned Mrs. Conquest's interruption, except her "I protest!"

Two officials conducted ' her outside after she crashed her book on the floor before the pulpit and she- left the Cathedral shouting. The Bishop afterwards said he did not see her and was entirely unaware of her protest. Joan Conquest subsequently declared ■chat her experience, as a slum nurse justified the protest which was directed at the problem of the slums and did not concern th.> centenary. She added: "I said this b;jok is a challenge to civilisation a::u Christianity. It demands that th-j church take tip tin caus.e of Britain 's untouchables. "When the Bishop took no notice I said: 'I can only assume that the church is cowardly and criminally neglectful ol the salvation of human beings so desperately in need.' "