The Dispute Re Cambrian Lodge, No. 656, Sydney, N.S.W.

THE DISPUTE RE CAMBRIAN LODGE , No . 656 , SYDNEY , N . S . W .

There is no society or institution in which it is so necessary that the rights and privileges of individual members and small sections of members should be strictly respected as Freemasonry . Men offer themselves , freely and voluntarily , as candidates for our mysteries and privileges ; they are as free to quit our ranks as they were to join them ; and while they remain

members they are free to exercise all those rights and privileges which are secured to them by the laws of that particular jurisdiction to which they happen to belong . Nor if these rights and privileges are as strictly respected as they deserve to be , is there the least likelihood that any serious detriment will happen to the general body of Masons . In the case of the older

jurisdictions , and especially in that over which the Grand Lodge of England presides , the laws or Constitutions have been so wisely and judiciously framed that no difficulties ought ever to arise either in interpreting or administering them . Indeed , few , if any , difficulties ever do arise in the internal administration of the English Craft , and it is only when , for the sake of

expediency , a strained interpretation has been placed upon one of our laws by some of our own people , or when the executive of some other jurisdiction has claimed superiority for its rights and privileges over ours , that we have found ourselves landed in a difference or dispute . Thus , as regards the Quebec difficulty , about which till quite recently we heard so much , the quarrel

was none of our seeking , and having drawn the attention of our opponents to the legal aspect of the question they had raised , so far as it affected us , we went on to pursue a policy of masterly inactivity , with the result that things are precisely as they were when the difference WHS forced upon our Grand Lodge . As regards the Cambrian Lodge , No . 656 , Sydney , N . S . W .

—and in a lesser degree the lodges in New Zealand—the difficulty which has arisen , and which is apparently on the eve of assuming a more acute form locally , the difficulty is rather of our own creation . Had Article 219 of our Book of Constitutions been allowed to speak for itself , the rights of the minority which it had been framed to secure would have been respected ;

the condition on which our Grand Lodge agreed to recognise the United Grand Lodge of New South Wales would have been observed ; and the danger—and with it the disgrace—which now threatens Freemasonry in that colony would have been avoided . But everyone who has any respect for Freemasonry—and there are millions of people in the world

who do respect it —must hope that determined steps will be taken which will tender the appearance of any of its members or any sections of its members in a court of law impossible . It were far better that the Grand Lodge of New South Wales should forego its alleged claims to the cancelled Charter or that the minority of the Cambrian Lodge should surrender without

further question its right to work under the old warrant than that the two should figure in thc law courts as sworn enemies . But surely matters cannot have gone so far as to demand such extreme sacrifices as these . There must be some way out of the difficulty by which Freemasonry—which claims par excellence to be the Society of Brotherly Love—may be spared the

degradation and disgrace which in the circumstances must be associated with litigation . There must be in Sydney , or if not in Sydney in the Colony of New South Wales , a number of brethren of recognised impartiality who might be constituted as a Board of Conciliation , and invited „ to decide the Point in dispute , both parties agreeing beforehand to be bound by the

decision arrived at . Every now and then it happens that some person or persons who are above suspicion of being likely to be biassed are called "pon to intervene as arbitrators in some trade dispute , and they do so intervene with great advantage to the several disputants . But what is done in

trade , where the keeness of competition is terrible , ought not to be found impossible in Freemasonry , in which there is no competition whatever , but onl y an honourable rivalry among the members and lodges as to who or which of them shall carry out most religiously the beneficent principles on which the Society is founded .

There is yet another solution of the difficulty which deserves considerall ° n , especially as it would bring the matter to an issue at once , and without reference to any Board of Conciliation . Those English lodges which joined l « e United Grand Lodge of New South Wales were permitted by his Royal ' •'ghness the Grand Master to retain their warrants as mementoes of their

connection with the United Grand Lodge of England , and these warrants 1 ve been since cancelled and replaced by warrants issued by the Grand -odge of New South Wales . But , as regards the warrant of the Camr , ; "i Lodge , our Book of Constitutions contains no law which entitles mere majority of the members of a lodge to retain its Arrant ; if there were any such law , then Article 219 would

The Dispute Re Cambrian Lodge, No. 656, Sydney, N.S.W.

be an absurdity . It being thus indisputable that only a majority of the members of the Cambrian Lodge were in favour of joining the New South Wales Constitution , while a minority of at least three desired to remain under the Grand Lodge of England ; and there being , as we have said , no law in our Constitutions which entitles the majority to retain the warrant ,

why should not the United Grand Lodge of New South Wales take tlie bull by the horns and lay it down boldly , that the warrant of the Cambrian Lodge having been cancelled in error , through a misunderstanding of the law , its cancellation is void and of no effect , and the warrant itself remains in the hands of the minority , which is entitled to it under our Article 219 ,

and will be accountable for it henceforth to the Grand Lodge of England . This would be a graceful act on the part of the Grand Lodge of New South Wales , and an honourable one , and would do more to enhance that body in public estimation than the addition 20 times repeated of 20 such minorities as that which is now resisting its action .

Supreme Grand Chapter.

SUPREME GRAND CHAPTER .

The Quarterly Convocation of Supreme Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of England was held on Wednesday at Freemasons' Hall . Comp . W . W . B . Beach , M . P ., G . H ., acted as G . M . E . Z . ; Comp . Rev . H . Adair Pickard , M . A ., G . Supt . Oxon , acted as G . H ., and Comp . Thos . Fenn , as G . J . There were also present :

Comps . E . Letchworth , G . Scribe E . ; Robert Grey , President of the Committee of General Purposes ; Samuel Cochrane , Grand Treas . ; L . G . Gordon Robbins , Deputy G . Reg . ; F . W . Macdonald , Principal Grand Sojourner ; W . G . Lemon , as ist A . G . S . ; Ralph Gooding , M . D ., as 2 nd A . G . S . ; Clement Godson , G . S . B . ; H . Ward , 6 th G . Std . Br . j Alfred C . Spaull , Deputy G . D . C P . W . Wright , Asst . G . D . C . ; John Read , G . Org .: C . A . Cottebrune , 2 nd A . G .

D . of C . ; S . Vallentine , 3 rd A . G . D . C . ; S . V . Abraham , 4 th . A . G . D . C . ; A . A , Pendlebury , A . G . S . E . ; J . Glaisher , P . A . G . S . ; Eugene Monteuuis , P . Dep . G . D . C . I ; H . J . Adams , P . Dep . G . D . C ; W . M . Bywater , P . G . Std . Br . ; T . B . Purcbas , P . G . Std . Br . ; T . VV . Whitmarsh , P . A . G . D . C ; J . E . Le Feuvre , P . G . S . B . ; Charles Belton , P . G . Std . Br . ; F . H . Goldney , P . G . S . B . ; Fiederick Mead , P . D . G . D . C ; Charles F . Hogard , P . G . D C ; H . J . Strong , M . D ., Charles H .

Driver , J . Lewis Thomas , and Col . C . Harding , P . G . Std . Brs . ; Henry J . ' P . Dumas , P . G . S . B . ; C . F . " Matier , P . Dep . G . D . C . ; R . G . Glover , P . G . Std . Br . ; Peter de Lande Long , P . G . P . S . ; Walter Kiddle , J . 2277 ( l . C . ); John O . Carter , P . Z . 771 , Prov . G . J . Berks ; John Wyer , H . 2345 ; R . D . Hewett , J . 1155 ; A . M . Wyatt , Z . 5 ; J . S . Cumberland , P . Z . 236 , P . P . G . J . N . and E . Yorks ; Neville Green , P . Z . 1524 ; H . Massey , P . Z . 1928 , 619 ; Thomas Minstrel ! , P . Z . 1928 ; and Henry Sadler , Grand Janitor .

After the chapter had been formally opened , The ACTING M . E . Z . informed the companions that he had the request of the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe , G . H ., to apologise for his absence , which was due to unavoidable circumstances , otherwise he would have been very much pleased to be at that Grand Chapter . The minutes of the May convocation were then read by the G . S . E ., Comp . LETCHWORTH .

Comp . the Rev . H . ADAIR PICKARD said he rose to take a very unusual course , which was to propose a certain alteration in the minutes . They had hot been read in full , but they were fully recorded . On page 286 of the Report , Comp . Thomas Fenn was represented to have said with respect to Comp . Mclntyre North's motion : " It is well known that many lodges , especially in the provinces , have their peculiar methods of working , and it is not very long ago that the University of Oxford invented a brand new

ritual of its own , with all modern improvements up to date . " Now , he had to say something on that . He thought the record was not quite correct , but that the words must have been misrepresented , and that a lodge was meant . The University of Oxford had published prayer-books and bibles , but it had never published a ritual of Freemasonry .- It had done many things , but it had never committed itself to printing a ritual , and therefore he begged to move that the words so representing what was said be omitted . Comp . BEACH said the reference was to lodges not to chapters .

Comp . THOMAS FENN said that what he said , or what he intended . to say , was that a lodge connected with the University of Oxford . Comp . the Rev . H . ADAIR PICKARD remarked that that was what he intended to say he wished to have inserted—a lodge connected with the University . There was no chapter in existence . Comp . FENN said he was speaking with reference to Craft Masonry .

Comp . the Rev . H . ADAIR PICKARD said it was a lodge . Comp . LETCHWORTH proposed to alter the record to " a lodge connected with the University of Oxford . " Comp . THOMAS FENN ( to Comp . Pickard ) : Will that satisfy you ? Comp . the Rev . H . ADAIR PICKARD : That is what I want it to say . The alteration was made , and the minutes as altered were confirmed .

Comp . the Right Hon . A . Akers-Douglas , M . P ., Junior Grand Warden in Grand Lodge , who was absent at the installation convocation of . Grand Chapter in May , was then invested with the robe and insignia of the office of Grand Scribe N ., and conducted to his seat . The following Report of the Committee of General Purposes was taken as read , and ordered to be received and entered on the ijijnutes :