CHURCH AND STATE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 147, 24 June 1930, Page 7

CHURCH AND STATE

LORD STRICKLAND DENOUNCED. CATHOLIC DELEGATE’S REPORT. ROME, June 22. “It is doubtful whether peace and harmony can exist in Malta while Lord Strickland remains in power,’’ says Monsignor Robinson, reporting to the Vatican after his visit as Apostolic delegate. He adds: “Lord Strickland spends five days weekly in the law courts fighting others. He has been so accustomed throughout his life to fight that if he should stop he would almost die. He considers those opposing him in the slightest degree as enemies. He would sacrifice any individual policy or principle for love of power. He is cunning, without scrnples, and it is not an exaggeration to say that Malta is subject to a regime of terror and inquisitorial despotism. The opposition is disarmed and the newspapers are muzr zled. If the British Secretary of State understood the exrent to which Lord X Strickland has damaged Britain : s pres- / tige, he might force him to modify his policy or find a way of eliminating him from the political field.’’

RESENTMENT IN BRITAIN. THE VATICAN’S OBSESSION Received June 23. 10 p.m. LONDON, June 22. The Daily Telegraph’s diplomatic editor writes:—“lt is idle to conceal the fact that the latest attitude of the Vatican towards the Maltese problem has occasioned considerable resentment in British circles. The British Government holds that the domestic peace of the island can only be restored by a lasting agreement which will define the respective spheres of the church and State and keep local clergy, including bishops, outside lay politics. The Vatican, however, is obsessed with the idea of procuring Lord Strickland’s personal eviction from the political sphere.’ ’