Welsh Journals

rise of interest, but Mr. Williams's estimate of £ 45,000 a year is much too high. The fact of the matter is that under the Welsh Church Act as it stands the Church in Wales, apart from surviving vested interests, would lose on the day the war ends ancient en- dowments which now yield a net income of about £ 200,000 a year, MR. W. LLEWELYN WILLIAMS' REPLY. (With the view of saving time, a proof of the Bishop of St. Davids' remarks, as given above, Was sent to Mr. W. Llewelyn Williams, K.C., M.P., and his comments are given below. In our December number we shall be pleased to reserve space for a reply from the Bishop of St. Davids, after which the controversy must close.-Editor.) To the Editor of the Welsh Outlook. Sir, — should like to make one or two comments, as briefly as I may, upon the Bishop of St. Davids' letter. i. The good Bishop expresses his sorrow that I should repeat the manifest errors which ap- peared in my letter in the Times of March 26th last, which he corrected on April 10th, and to which I made no reply. As a matter of fact, I did send a reply to the Times, which after sending me a proof, neglected to publish it. Such are the amenities of modern journalism, and such the difficulties Welsh- men have to fight against with the" Hide-the-Truth Press." ii. The Bishop only gives extracts from his letter of April. Let me supply, to some degree, the omission. (a) "I have no doubt that the postponement (of the Welsh Church Act after the War) by Lord Salisbury and others will be granted." It would be interesting to know the grounds of the Bishop's confidence In April, and if he is still of the same opinion. (a) The Bishop laid exaggerated emphasis on the difficulty of the problem of reconstructing the whole constitution of the Church in Wales, which is what Disestablishment means." He went on to say Mr. Hugh Vincent is right in laying stress on the extreme difficulty of constitutional reconstruction in time of War as the main ground of postponement." The Cardiff Convention has dis- pelled these doubts and fears. We were all rejoiced to find that the Convention triumphantly achieved the difficult task of reconstruction. Will the Bishop, now that "the main ground of postponement has been removed, take his stand frankly by his countrymen and accept the situation without more ado? Has he the courage, the patriotism, and the statesmanship to do this? Such a declaration would at once soften many asperities and would be of real service to the emancipated Church by recon- ciling her to the people among whom she dwells. (out of which about £ 165,000 a year comes from tithe). On account of the financial exhaustion of the country through the prolonga- tion of the war, the difficulty of replacing these ancient endow- ments, notwithstanding some increase of interest on a diminishing commutation capital, would be appalling." (c) The Bishop hints, though with hierophantic obscurity, that several representative Noncon- formists who before the War were strong supporters of the Welsh Church Act have now been con- vinced of the error of their ways. I would respect- fully challenge the Bishop to mention a single such representative Nonconformist." iii. As for what I stated about the financial position, I have nothing to correct or retract. Some may not endorse my estimate that the rate of interest on trustee securities after the War will be 6 per cent. I expressly stated that this was merely a conjec- tural estimate." But there is no financier in Great Britain who will deny that the rate of interest has increased, is increasing, and will increase, and that the Church will make a handsome profit on that account out of Commutation. Others may think that tithe will not go up by the beginning of 1919 to 105. But the Bishop in paragraph 4 of the extracts given above impliedly admits that the income of the Church has gone up from £ 156,000 to £ 200,000. Why? Because, to take the Bishop's figure, the income from tithe alone last year was greater than that derived in 1913 from tithe and glebe combined. It should also be noted that in my final conclusion that the net benefit arising to the Church from the War is at least One Million Pounds," I liberally discounted my own conjectural estimates." If I had rigidly adhered to them, the figure would be nearer two millions than one. But this, of course, is beneath episcopal notice. The rise of tithe up to the date of Disestab- lishment," says the Bishop, "is a personal benefit to those clergy who hold vested interest in tithe." Does the Bishop really think that Welshmen cannot see that the higher the price of tithe at the date of Disendowment the greater will be the sum of Com- mutation Money which will be used for the general benefit of the Church of Wales (as I trust it will be called)?