WAR ITEMS.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 219, 25 November 1916, Page 2

WAR ITEMS.

BISHOP AND THE SWORD. ANSWER TO MR. TILLETT ON "WAR-SHY" CLERGY. . Dr. Gore, Bishop of Birmingham, has taken up arms against Mr. Ben Tillett's suggestion at the British Trades' Union Congress that the clergy show a desire to avoid combatant service. "We (the clergy) are not a distinct caste in any way," says the bis.hip. •'We all have the same patriotic feelings as other people have. I am persuaded that Mr. Ben Tillett was speak ling somewhat thoughtlessly, and that If he could only get into touch with a lew of us he would see that his position was quite an unfair one. I have myself seen the clergy serving in the trenches. This is the wrong time to take up any kind of religious animosity." As to his own attitude. Dr. Gore says:— "My di.Ticnliy has been to keep my young fellows of the clergy from joining the ccrabatant ranks. I have never absolutely refused to allow them, but I have always pointed cut ways in which they could be of service as chaplains and in other ways in connection with the Hospitals, etc. "Some of the clergy from this diocese have been wounded, and one at least, who was a chaplain, has been killed. The same spirit that animates the young laymen is also present in the young clergymen."