25 JUNE 1937, Page 20

CHRISTIANITY AND THE CHURCH

"[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sit,—Major-General H. Lethbridge Alexander's letter pub- lished in your June 18th issue will evoke considerable agree- ment.

A disquieting feature of the case is, that having paid his price and gone into voluntary exile, the Duke of Windsor now appears to be the object of organised ostracism by those in high places both in State and Church. The inhuman counsels which precluded one solitary member of his own family from attending his wedding is a case in point.

Christ has laid down the sole qualification for "casting the first stone." It" is one which none of us fulfils. The Archbishops' Call to religious revival would gain enormously, and would inteipret-the conception of real religion held bY vast numbers of ordinary men and women, were it accom- panied by the practical evidence of a more Christlike attitude on the part of the Church towards a man for whom, despite his defection, there is a deep and widespread affection.

Apart from the fact that such action would be Christian, its effect might be years of useful service 'again among the Duke's own people and in his own land.