The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1911. CATHOLIC SCHOOLS IN INDIA

New Zealand Tablet, 7 September 1911, Page 1749

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1911. CATHOLIC SCHOOLS IN INDIA

~ ”*** WEET are the uses of advertisement/ says \GC|jAi the up-to-date aphorism ; and presumably , they are not the less sweet if, by any / chance, the advertisement is obtained at the other fellow’s expense. And this occasionally happens. It has always been a source of wonder to us how it is that our friends of the ultra-Protestant school never seem to realise that in bringing false testimony and railing accusations against the Catholic Church they are adopting a course which not only defeats its own object but which is almost certain, sooner or later, to bring into still clearer relief the merits and excellences of the very organisation which it-is intended to decry. An unfounded charge or an exaggerated statement is put forward against the Church or an, alleged quotation from some widely respected authority

is made. Fairminded men to whom the true facts in relation to the specific charge are known, are revolted; and are. moved not only to refute the calumny, but to put on record a positive tribute to the slandered Church. Or the alleged quotation is referred to the original authority; when it transpires that the citation' is a distortion, both of the writer's words and of his sentiments, and that instead of blame he has words of praise and appreciation for the Church.

An excellent, and doubtless much appreciated advertisement of this sort has just been enjoyed by the Catholic educational institutions in India. It appears that, chagrined at the remarkable success and progress of Catholic educational work among the European and Eurasian population, and at the way in which it has completely outstripped all Protestant effort, a number of bigoted individuals have inaugurated what has been called an All-India Protestant Education movement—the object of which is, first, to discredit, and ultimately to destroy, the Catholic schools and colleges, which -are to be superseded by highly-equipped up-to-date Protestant institutions. In furtherance of these objects numerous letters and articles have appeared in the papers of Bengal and Northern India and—as giving tone and weight and standing to the movement—lengthy article on the subject, by a Mr. H. P. Skipton, was published in the Nineteenth Century for May last. In the course of the article the writer made the following alleged quotation, and the following charges against the Catholic schools: ' The Roman Church in India is distinctly an alien Church, manned and directed by French, Belgian, Italian, and German clergy, with a sprinkling of Irish Roman Catholics, none of whom—and the, last named unfortunately least of all—can be reckoned as our friends politically or otherwise "The condition of things," writes Sir Andrew Fraser (late Lieutenant-Governor of India) in reference to _ this fact, "is only to be stated to show how serious it is. The children are not trained to represent Great Britain in its religion and special characteristics before the peoples of India." The part that the population thus trained will take in the day of trouble will depend on the direction they get from their spiritual pastors and masters,. upon whom the fate of India might thus come to depend.' .' •'. • r

The charges implied in the Skipton paragraph and m the alleged statement of Sir Andrew Fraser—which were at once refuted, effectively and in detail, by the Catholic Herald of In^a— elicited some emphatic protests and some interesting tributes to the Catholic Church from the Indian secular press. Thus the paper Capital, m its column ' Current Coin,' gives utterance to the following pungent criticism of the Nineteenth Century strictures, and of the All-India Protestant Education proposal. 'We can understand,' it says the proposition that Roman Catholic schools in India are not the best places to train Protestant children whom their parents wish to grow up strong in the old hard belief that the Church of Rome is the Scarlet Woman and an abomination in the sight of the Lord But what about the children of Roman Catholics, especially Irish Roman Catholics who, we presume, are Europeans and representatives of the British race. Would Sir Andrew have these youths forced into Protestant schools to acquire the characteristics of the Covenanter and the Puritan? We are inclined to think 'that our late Lieutenant-Governor is not a clear thinker nor a consistent upholder of fairplay. When he was in Bengal he had nothing but praise for the Roman Catholic schools, which he declared were training upright and useful citizens, and Domiciled youths can hardly be that without possessing some of the qualities of which the ordinary Englishman or Englishwoman is proud The evangel of Sir Andrew Fraser and Mr. Arden Wood and others is, to collect funds to supplement Sir Robert Laidlaw's gift of £50,000 to make the Protestant' schools in India as efficient and morally good as the Roman Catholic schools. The latter wlllTot benefit under Sir Robert Laidlaw's benefaction or theSliJ subscriptions supplementing it; but we did not think that these sinews of war were to be used to crush (fro

Roman Catholic schools and proselytize the Domiciled Papists.' And the Delhi Morning Post, of June 8, was still more emphatic. 'We do not think,' it says, 'Mr. Skipton has exaggerated the situation; but we totally disagree with his contention that the education given to Christian boys and girls in Roman Catholic institutions is a political danger. In our opinion the striking contrast between the success of Roman Catholic educational work in this country with the comparative failure of the Protestant Church only shows the greater zeal and the more earnest energy of the Catholic priesthood. Mr. Skipton probably has little knowledge of the educational work of the great Roman Catholic institutions in Calcutta, Darjeeling, and Bombay; and if these institutions had not existed there would hardly have been any education worth the name among the domiciled community. We know as an absolute and incontrovertible fact that the education given in Roman Catholic schools and convents and colleges is, so far as other denominations are concerned, of a wholly nonsectarian character; and it is due to this reason, and also to the greater culture and polish obtainable in these institutions rather than in Anglican schools, that fo many Hindus and Mahomedans are attracted to these institutions. St. Xavier's College in Calcutta, has, for instance, among its "alumni" men of the highest positions and character who are a living testimony to the character of the education imparted by the Jesuit Fathers; while the supremacy of that and other schools in all branches of sport is a conclusive proof that the special characteristics of Great Britain do not flourish the less in these admirable institutions than in those which are wholly controlled by English Protestants, who, probably, have not the same self-sacrificing love for their work as has been abundantly shown by the Jesuits and the Irish Brothers in India.' .These are words of which— as they do from such an entirely disinterested and independent source —Catholic educators in India, and our co-religionists there generally, have very great reason to be- proud.

In the meantime, the editor of the Catholic Herald of India (Father Neut, S.J.) had written to the late Lieutenant-Governor to ask whether in the sentence quoted by Mr. Skipton he (Sir Andrew Fraser) really meant to imply that the training imparted by the Catholic schools-constituted a political danger. Sir Andrew Fraser's reply was most explicit and emphatic: ' From this passage,' he wrote, ' in its language and intention, I entirely dissent. Mr. Skipton, in quoting me, most distinctly, though no doubt unintentionally, misrepresents my views. I regard many of the foreign priests referred to as my friends, and consider that we owe them a great debt of gratitude for the work they have done in India; and I emphatically dissociate myself from the x statement made about the Irish Roman Catholics, whom, though differing from me in religion, I recognise as my fellow countrymen, animated by the same patriotic and philanthropic interest in India which I hope I have in some measure myself.' 'I do not know,' he continued, ' where it is that Mr. Skipton has found the quotation which he gives. The first part of the quotation does certainly not apply to the Roman Catholic schools. The seriousness of the condition of things arises from the want of education, not from the existence of these schools. I can only recall one document in which I have referred to the work of the Roman Church in education in India.' He then proceeds to give the reference, portion of which is as follows : ' Apart from the Roman Catholics, no denomination of Christians has been able to command liberal pecuniary assistance from abroad for European and Eurasian schools. There are many well staffed and equipped Roman Catholic schools which contrast favourably' with our older schools. Many children of our communions have been attracted to them; and they have done good work.' And before concluding, he repeatedly refers to the Catholic Church as" ' the only section of the Christian Church which has hitherto made anything like a successful effort to deal with the question ' (of education). Thus is an effective extinguisher administered to the unscrupulous Skipton.

The net result of the whole episode has been to give wide publicity to the attractiveness and flourishing condition of the Catholic schools, and to furnish a unique and magnificent advertisement to the value and success of Catholic educational work in India. Even the clerical promoters of the All-India, etc., movement, in their very zeal to decry Catholic schools, unwittingly and unintentionally assist in this advertisement. Thus, in a long article in the June number of the Indian Church News, the Rev. Joshua Brookes, Chaplain of Rawalpindi, laments: ' With priests and nuns as teachers, who accept no salaries, and aided by funds from Europe, they enter into an uneven competition with the Anglican Chaplain, who finds it ever more difficult to obtain efficient teachers for the very inadequate salaries that he is able to offer. Here in Rawalpindi, for instance, where once a station school flourished with 100 pupils, now it is reduced to less than 50; whilst the Roman Catholic school which was only opened in recent years is so prosperous that it can afford an omnibus to collect its pupils. The tuition moreover that the nuns give in music, painting, French, and needlework is a very great attraction to the parents of Protestant girls.' The appeal of the advocates of the Anglo-Indian Protestant Education scheme is for a sum of no less than £300,000. Towards this, £50,000 appears to have been given by Sir Robert Laidlaw; and some £20,000 has, we believe, been raised from other sources. _ The appeal may or may not be successful; but if its promoters have ordinary penetration and reasonable capacity for profiting by experience they will have learnt by this time the desirableness of dropping the policy of attacking other religious' bodies, and, in particular, the Wisdom of leaving the Catholic schools severely alone. For it is very evident that multiplied attack means only multiplied advertisement, and multiplied friends for the Indian Catholic schools.