That 'Escaped' Nun

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 20, 20 May 1909, Page 22

That ' Escaped ' Nun

Mr. Sloan, an Ulster Orange member of the Westminster Parliament, has been very ' onaisy in his mind ' over the East Berghold Convent incident, which the 'yellow' or sensational press worked up into an 'escape.' He threw his ' onaisiness ' into a rather anguished question to the Home Secretary (Mr. Gladstone), and coupled it with an application for information as to the prospects of a Royal Commission of inquiry into the necessity of ' Government inspection into all- such institutions.' Mr. Gladstone's reply hosed question and questioner with much cold water. ' I have made inquiry,' said he, ' and have received a full report from the Chief Constable of Suffolk, from which it appears that no attempt was mad.c to use force to bring the lady, back to the convent, and that she did not in fact return. Two Sisters overtook her when on the way to the railway station and tried to induce her to- go back with them, but she refused to do so. The Chief Constable tells me that the reports of this case published in the press were of a garbled and sensational nature. There is no ground for any further a,ction on my part.'