A paper written by the Bishop of Calcutta, but read
for him by the Bishop of Exeter, gave rise to a lively discussion on Mr. Rudyard Kipling's writings. The Bishop of Calcutta some- what unnecessarily went out of his way to assert that a. totally erroneous idea as to Europeans in India had arisen owing to Mr. Kipling's writings. He did not believe that Europeans in India were worse than they were at home. Very likely ; but did Mr. Kipling ever suggest that they were ? We wonder, indeed, if the Bishop had read the author he was criticising. The Bishop of Lohdon, we are delighted to note, defended Mr. Kipling's writings, and warmly eulogised "our great Imperial poet." The Bishop's instinct was a per- fectly sound one. Taken as a whole, no saner, no more wholesome, no manlier influence has been exercised of recent years in our literature than that exercised by Mr. Kipling. No Bishop need apologise for standing up to defend Mr. Kipling in a Church Congress. Owing to the very great pressure on our space, we cannot notice more of the papers read this week, but may record the fact that the Brighton Congress has been a very successful one.
Previous page
