PHRASE OFFENDS VATICAN.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18622, 18 July 1930, Page 9

PHRASE OFFENDS VATICAN.

Not a “ Foreign Power.” EXCEPTION TAKEN TO WHITE BOOK. United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received July 17, 9.10 p.m.) LONDON, July 17. The Rome correspondent of “The Times” says: “A painful impression has been produced at the Vatican by the British White Book concerning Malta, describing the Holy See as a “foreign power.” “The Observatore Romano,” flatly contradicting the statement, says: “Wherever there are Catholics and the Catholic faith, the Pope is not a foreigner. In this respect, anybody contrawise is a spiritual fellow-citizen. The Pope is spiritual sovereign over all Catholics, because he is the Vicar of Christ, and wherever His faith and Civilisation are found, he is not a foreign power.”

GENESIS OF DISPUTE. BRITISH GOVERNMENT'S FIRM ATTITUDE. A pastoral letter issued by the Bishops of Malta and Gozo declared it a grave sin to vote for Lord Strickland and his candidates. An emphatic protest against that letter was lodged by the British Government with the Vatican, and the resumption of the negotiations was made dependent upon its withdrawal, in order that complete freedom to exercise their political judgment might be restored to the electors of the colony. The Holy See rejected that condition.

The concluding paragraph of a statement handed to the Cardinal Secretary, by the British Minister to the Holy See, expressed regret that the Vatican had not appreciated the necessity of taking practical measures to implement its assurance of willingness to do all in its power to restore public tranquility. This statement continued: “Instead of this, the Holy See now has refused, as far as concerns it, to take the steps necessary for the restoration of the normal political life in Malta, and before that it delayed for many months the long-promised negotiations for defining the relations between the Church and the State in the Islands, and has finally rendered them impossible by attaching a condition as to the personality of the head of the Maltese Government. This constitutes nothing less than a claim to interfere in the domestic politics of a British colony.”