'Soupers'

New Zealand Tablet, 6 September 1906, Page 22

'Soupers '

In • the 'National Review ' -ior December, 1897", the Rev. H. Herislcy Henson, a - noted Anglican", clergyman and writer, said of a certain ' class of- non-Catholic missionary reports : 'He ' (the missionary), •is generally, in a thoroughly false position— the reporter and" judge of his. own achievements. He works under thoroughly bad conditions; for his reports are the advertisements of a money-rais-ing society, and- they are addressed to constituents— '-the rank and file of the denomina-flions— who are -as greedy of " sensation as they are" credulous of prodigies.'. The description is a skin-fit for the reports of an. organisation ..(commonly called ' soupers ') for _ the ' conversion*' of ■ Irish ' Romanists.' We recently - had occasion to, refer to the - hopeless barrenness of - its efforts- and.- to. the deplorable to which "its agentsi resort in order -to ohbrm. coins from the" pockets- of too trusting and gullible ' friends in England. 3 0toe 'of these methods— satirised in the broad^ farce humor of • Mick/ McQuaid, - Evangelist '—is ' the publication- of . round-number, '.statistics' of ' con^verts from Romanism ' and of inquiring and interested 1 ' Rbmanis'ts •" who are alleged to turn :up in portentous num/bers.at the meetings of the paid i'tiner^ ant •evangelists.'. It is, however, jwor-thy _-of note that the names of persons an 4' localities are in every case studiously withheld. But this clumsy and transparent old ruse apparently succeeds, "all the same, and the mpneyepmes rolling in from "cross-Channel from the pockets of uncritical constituents ' who are ' as greedy sensation as they are credulous of. prodigies. 1 Thus far every effort to check the returns of •converts' and 'inquirers' has failed. The latest at-

tempt was made by Mr. Samuel Young, an Ulster Presbyterian and Member of the Imperial Parliament. There, xame into his bands the issue of the ' St.Thomas's Parish Magazine '" (Belfast) for last ' June. It contained the customary reports' of' ! great concourses of many hundreds of ' Irish Romanists ' attending* at one time,' in ' a village '" (unnamed), and • a district ' (likewise nameless), the meetings of . two of the itinerant, missionaries.' The sto"ry .wound up with the customary unctuous appeal to — ' English Christians ' for funds to bring those inquiring" ' Koihanists' 'to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.' Mr: Young wrote to his friend, the Rev. Mr. "Dowse (publisher of the magazine), requesting- information as to '>the places and the dates- of these occurrences.' Mr. Dowse was," however, unable to furnish the "particulars, and referred his inquiring friend "'to "the secretary of the ' souper ' organisation in Dublin. "He was likewise iinabie" to give any details ' -emd -referred the matter to thehead-qiuarters of the organis-aMcm in London. "And from there Mr.- Young received- at length a. communication absolutely declining to give 1 the name of the~ locality in -which the meetings were held; or the date on whioh they took place.' Mr. Young returned a courteous reply, with 'the'- following sting in its tail : • You" will admit, to be sent ..from, Belfast to Dublin, and then from Dublin to Lomdon, "and then refused information, will - look in the. eyes of the public like evasion.' To this"letter he r received no answer. He then published the whole correspondence" in the Belfast 'Irish Weekly' of July 7, and in a dull season it has added to " the gaiety of 'life in , the Green Isle.