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Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 18286, 23 December 1919, Page 6

Unprejudiced observers of British politics have all along prophesied disaster to tho Coalition as soon as either the free trade or Irish issues became at all prominent. Liberalism in Britain has stood for free trade since the days of Cobden, while the Conservatives have again and again fought their battles on tho tariff frontier. In regard to Ireland, tho very title of the present Unionist Party proclaims its attitude. I-t has been said that the British have a genius for compromise, but these are two fundamental issues upon which compromise can only mean stultification and a temporary postponement of hostilities. The latest political gossip from London, while it need not bo taken very seriously, at least indicates that the parting of tho ways is in sight. The alleged failure of tho Coalition to suppress profiteering need surprise nobody. When one half of the Coalition has built a trap for profiteers and the other half has provided loopholes for their escape tho contrivance can. hardly bo expected to give entirely satisfactory results to the peopleWhatever may bo said of the ethics of commercialised faith-healing or of Its dangers and hazards, he would be a bold man who would declare positively that faith cures no one. ConsidemMo

interest is being aroused in London just now by the action of that vigorous organisation, the Church Army, an Anglican society whoso methods in some respects are similar to those of the Salvation Army. Offshoots of the Church Army are tho Church Army Healing Guild and the Christian Healing Mission, under whose auspices, each Friday, at the Church Army’s chnpel in London, a service is held for tho purpose of anointing the sick with consecrated oil, and for the laying on of bands. Tho procedure has the sanction of tho Bishop of London, and it is claimed that persons have been cured of paralysis and other ailments by tho ministrations of tho mission. Tho attitude of the Church of England as a body to this practical- testing of one of the great traditions of primitive Christianity has not yet boon defined, but an attempt will bo made to bring tho subject before tho Bishops at next year's Lambeth Conference-