A CHALLENGE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19813, 3 December 1919, Page 6

A CHALLENGE.

HOWARD ELLIOTT AND SIR JAMES ALLEN. MARIST BROTHERS AND THE WAR. [Per Press Association.] ASHBURTON, December 3. The Bov Howard Elliott addressed a : meeting hero last evening. He stated that Sir dames Allen and Archbishop O’Shea had denied the truth of the rumour to which ho referred at Dunedin that Archbishop O’Shea had threatened to cal) out the Homan Catholics in the Civil Service on strike if the priests and Marist Brothers were not exempted from military service at the front. Mr Elliott said he did not accept- the denial and challenged Sir James Allen to make public the correspondence which passed between the Roman Catholics and the Government on the .subject of the exemption of priests and Marist Brothers, together with the instructions which were issued to tho .Military Service Boards with reference to tins matter. Mr Elliott said he believed that publication of the facts would prove an unpleasant surprise to the people of the Dominion. (A message on Saturday stated: —At a meeting at Huncdin on Tuesday night toe Rev Howard Elliott was reported to have said that Archbishop O’Sheathreatened Sir James Allen that if legislation was not passed excluding the Marist Brothers horn military service tho Human Catholics in tho public service would he called out on strike. At a meeting last night at .Middlemarch Sir Jafncs Allen gave an emphatic contradiction to this statement. He said ho had telegraphed to Archbishop O’Shea, who had replied: “Tho reported statement Is absolutely without ■ foundation. I never made an;; such threat or suggestion ”)