Dr. Temple is literally irreplaceable, in the sense that no
one can be appointed to St. Augustine's chair of whom it can reasonably be expected, at first at any rate, that he would be comparable to its late occupant. The question of possible successors was can- vassed with almost indecent haste by some of the daily papers, and among their candidates were included some to whom there were obvious and almost fatal objections. Curiously, no one, so far as I have observed in my limited survey of the Press, men- tioned the man who immediately occurred to me as least removed from Dr. Temple's stature, Dr. Mervyn Haigh, now Bishop of Win- chester and till 1942 Bishop of Coventry. What is in favour of Dr. Haigh is his personality, his age, which is 57, and the fact that he was for four years Resident Chaplain and Private Secretary to Archbishop Davidson; and for another three to Archbishop Lang. What may have to be put on the other side of the balance-sheet is his health—but it would be all to the good if arrangements were made whereby the new Archbishop, whoever he may be, were required to serve tables much less than Archbishops have had to do in the recent past. In recommending a name to the King the Prime Minister has an immense responsibility on him. It may be assumed that he will take early counsel, if he has not already done so, of Archbishop Lord Lang, who was 8o on Tuesday, when he preached at Dr. Temple's funeral.
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