OXFORD GROUP

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 October 1941, Page 6

OXFORD GROUP

REFUSAL OF EXEMPTION FOR LAY PREACHERS CRITICISED IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. MR BEVIN STOUTLY DEFENDS DECISION. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.55 p.m.) LONDON. October 7. Criticism of the refusal of the Minister of Labour (Mr Bevin) to exempt Oxford Group lay preachers from military service was voiced in the House of Commons by Mr G. Mathers (Lab.) who said the question was one of principle and not one of pleading for conscientious objectors. Strong opposition to Mr Bevin’s decision had come from every section of the forces. The suggestion that they were not men with a serious call to Christian duty, but merely young idlers anxious to avoid military service, was a lying innuendo.

Colonel Sir G. L. Courthope said eight of the eleven men concerned were specially commissioned for evangelistic work in 1933. The Archbishop of Canterbury had adhered to his opinion that this was religious work and that these men should be reserved. and had written Mr Bovin to that effect.

Mr Bovin, in replying, said this was not a question of religion at all. “Speaking as Minister of Labour, and I believe with the full concurrence of my colleagues in the Government," he added, “we are not prepared to abandon either our obligations or duties to an Anglican bishop or anyone else. I and my advisers consider that by no stretch of imagination could these men be brought within the terms of the expressed exemptions in the Act. Bodies like Toe H and the Y.M.C.A, have been told that they do not come within the definition and have patriotically accepted that decision. Let it once get into the heads of the people of Britain that any Minister ran away because of religious, organised or any other form of pressure and you will have lost this war. I would advise this group to be a little more careful. Oxford groupers told a provincial mayor that my attitude could be understood because I was an atheist. That is going a bit too far. I say to the Oxford Group: ‘You will win the confidence of Britain if you are prepared to take your corner in this great struggle.’ ”