"CommunismOurCommon Foe" Anglican Dean Tells Catholic Meeting

By a Staff Reporter The Anglican Dean of Chichester, Dr. Duncan-Jones, was among the speakers a crowded meeting called by the Chichester Guild of the Blessed Sacrament last Thursday. The subject was the Communist Challenge to Christianity.
He had asked to be allowed to speak there, said the Dean, because he felt the truth of this dash and believed that the choice to-day was between Christianity and Communism.
It was possible, he said, to come together to-day " because there are profound moral prim ciples which come directly from the Christian Faith which are threatened."
There were matters on which Christians would differ strongly. But in meeting the challenge of Communism, he believed they had everything in common.
" The power of the Devil—whom we have much too much forgotten is behind Communism. It is impossible for Christianity and Communism to agree," he concluded.
FIRST BIG MEETING
It was Chichester's first big Catholic public meeting. With what some considered unjustifiable optimism the Guild of the Blessed Sacrament had booked the largest hall in the old cathedral town. Mr. Richard O'Sullivan, K.C., and .Mr. Douglas Hyde were asked as speakers and the local Anglican clergy and others were invited to be present.
Not only did they respond--there were some eight or nine present— but the Dean asked to be allowed to speak.
On Thursday night the local, and very scattered, Catholics turned up in force, two motor coach loads came from Bognor and others came from neighbouring towns.
And the local townsfolk supported so well that the hall was packed with many -standing. Present also were the Mayor of Chichester—and a number of local councillors.
LOCAL COMMUNISTS
Some very vocal Chichester Communists also put in an appearance and added to, rather than detracted from the interest of the occasion. An attempt to sell Communist pamphlets (on the pretence that they were Catholic) inside the hall was effectively countered by the stewards.
An attentive and appreciative audience heard Mr. Hyde outline Communist thought, methods and organisation and suggest the means by which they might be defeated. Mr. Hyde answered a number of questions.
Mr. Richard O'Sullivan traced the position occupied by the individual in medieval British law and the development away from the rights of the Individual in recent years.