FRANCE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8314, 18 December 1906, Page 5

FRANCE.

CHURCH AND STATE. OWNERSHIP OF RELIGIOUS BUILDINGS. Receivpd December 17, 8.15 a.ui. PARIS, December 16. M. Brinnd, Minister of Education and Public Worship, has introduced a Bill in the Chamber of Deputies, giving the communes, departments, and State immediate ownership ot the churches, vicarages, and seminaries, arranging for the organisation of the services, and suppressing the stipends of priests officiating without conforming to the law. Fifteen arch-episcopal and episcopal palaces and eighteen large seminaries were vacated on Friday. Received December 17, 10.10 p.m. MADRID, December 17. At the Pope's instance, Senor Ojeda, Spanish Ambassador at the Vatican, hap. sounded Senor Castillo, Spanish Ambassador in Paris, relative to the protection of the Papal archives. Senor Caballero, Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, has directed Senor Castillo to abstain from intervention. King Alfonso remarked that Spain must not run the slightest risk of coolness with France.

Received December 17, 10 18 p.m. PARIS, December 17. The archives of the Nunciature at Paris included Nuncio's diary narrating delicate interviews with diplomatists and leading French personages, and also tbe Vatican's famous cipher. SUNDAY PASSES WITHOUT INCIDENT iteceived December 17, 10.35 p.m. PARIS, December 17. The first Sunday under the separation regime passed in Paris without incident. Large congregations v attended the churches. A fow manifestations occurred in the provinces in connection with the evacuation of seminaries and episcopal palaces. ..,The resistance was almost formal, receiving little active popular support.