WELSH DISESTABLISHMENT.

Wanganui Herald, Issue 12856, 18 May 1912, Page 5

WELSH DISESTABLISHMENT.

CABLES.

(United Press Association.—Copyright.) LONDON, May 16. The Premier stated that it might be assumed that while the Irish Disestablishment Act was not repealed, it was not contrary to the laws of morality and honesty to deal similatily with Wales. Mr Cave, in reply, said that because Parliament was once unjust, that was no reason why they should repeat the injustice. The Premier declined to facilitate Sir A. S. T. Griffith Bosca wen’s Welsh Religious Census Bill. SECOND READING CARRIED. SOilE HITTER SPEECHES. Received 9,40 n.m., May 17. LONDON,' May 17. In the House of Commons the Disestablishment Bill was read a second time by 318 to 207. A dozen Liberals abstained from voting. Sir Eduard Beauchamp and Air Geo. Harwood voted against the Government. Lord Hugh Cooil said that establishment, being the relation of the United Kingdom and the Church, ought to be treated Imperially, not as concerning Wales alone. The confiscation of property woul of property which the Church had held undisputedly for three hundred years, and its diversion to secular objects, "’ere wholly indefensible. Mr Lloyd George (Chancellor of the Exchequer) denied that funds derived from tithes were the property of the Church; they were held in trust for the nation. The Church, while accumulating endowments, accented the principle that the maintenance of the poor was a service to God. But the poor’s share of the tithes had been annexed. The Government had been charged with pillaging the Church, but the Church had set the example when it severed its connection with the ancient faith. Property intended for the use of the poor and -sick went to great families. The Duke of Devonshire had issued a circular accusing the Government of the robbery of God, yet tho foundation of the Duke's fortune lay in property taken from the Church. Such an accusation should not bo made by those whose family troo was laden with the fruits of sacrilege. At the reformation, Catholic churches, monasteries, almshouses for the poor, even The dead were robbed. Now. when the Welsh wore seeking to recover part of the pillage for tho poor, thost* dripping with the fat of sacrilege ventured to accuse the Government of robbing God. Messrs Edgar Jones and T. Richards indicated that the Welsh people, while desiring a settlement. did not went the Church’s money. The Church had faded in its trust, and must surrender it to the nation. MR. BON All LAW’S SPEECH. Mr Bonar Law (leader of the Opposition) taunted the Government that it ua.s not proud of its prooosai. The motive of tho Welsh members was to weakon tho Anglican Clnireh, not to strengthen the Free Churches. He consul ed Mr Lloyd George for his attack on the Duke of Devonshire, iihieh was the most extraordinary he had over heaid made in the Hon.se of Commons. Did Mr Lloyd Giorge mean that tho Duke ought to hand over his property to the State ? It was unfair to attack a man lor what his ancestors may have done four centuries ago. Mr McKenna defended diseiidownient. Parliament ought not, after disestablishment, to impose a tax mi Welshmen for the benefit of a Church which was not national.