IN AN address last Sunday at Glasgow Dr. Hensley Henson demanded the suppression of Communist Sunday schools. He was careful to explain that he was not attacking the Labour Party, nor even the idealistic Socialist Sunday schools. Ten years ago his lordship might have been less moderate; but he insisted that these Communist educational centres must be put down by law. We need hardly say that in his protest against the teaching of disgusting immorality the Bishop has our entire sympathy. That the Bolshevists have given such teaching in Russian schools is doubtless a fact, and it is possible that the evil example is followed in a few hole-and-corner British schools. If such is the case, the police can doubtless deal with it. If, on the other hand, the Communist schools merely teach that marriage is a terminable contract we fail to see how anything can be done unless the noble lords who support the so-called reform of the divorce law are also cited. When Dr. Henson demands the suppression of Communist and atheistic teaching, he is on even more unsound ground. An attack on Communistic teaching, even supposing it to be possible under the existing law, would bring Mr. H. G. Wells into the field, and sufficient Liberals and Socialists would support him to make it impossible for the Government to take any action, even if it desired to do so. In regard to the teaching of atheism, provided it to be given in decent language, the case is equally hopeless. In 1917 the House of Lords, against the opinion of Lord Finlay, decided that a legacy to the Secular Society is quite good in law. If the teaching of these Communist schools does not go beyond that of the Secular Society it is perfectly legal. And, regrettable as may be the facts, we fear that to attack Communism in the schools would be to interfere with the rights of parents, which no Catholic can safely challenge, as on it rests our whole case as citizens for Christian education. Nothing, therefore, can be done under the existing law, and there is not the slightest possibility of the law being changed. If the Bishop really wishes, as we believe he does, to stop atheistic teaching among the young, his duty is to cease his absurd crusade against Catholicism, which is the one possible bulwark against Bolshevism and all the destruction and beastliness that it implies.

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