Primate at Sea

Eagles that flew high over the warm bright Mediterranean last week could have espied a slim black object floating on the water beneath them. On closer scrutiny they might have noticed that it was not so slim, that it was a black, ochre-funneled yacht named the Corsair. And if they followed it they would have noticed that the yacht of J. Pierpont Morgan seemed to have no set destination, that it was just "cruising" in the Mediterranean.

Eagle-eyed hotel proprietors in newly popularized Antibes and Juan-les-Pins watched the Morgan yacht, too, for Mor gan yachts are newsworthy and news may be made into publicity for budding resorts. And though yachts seldom-have any religious significance, churchmen throughout the world wondered about the Morgan yacht. For on it was Cosmo Gordon Lang, bachelor Archbishop of Canter bury, and where the Archbishop went was important.

Since England's stern Reformation no English primate has ever set foot in Jerusalem.* A month ago the Archbishop an nounced that the Morgan yacht would take him to the Holy Land (TIME, March 25). In Palestine, the patriarchs of the Greek and Armenian Orthodox Churches announced that they would jubilantly wel come their British brother. Obviously in these celebrations the Roman Catholic Church would take no part, for the Pope, unlike the Orthodox patriarchs, does net recognize Anglican dignitaries.

Last week came sudden, potent news. The Archbishop announced that he would positively not journey to Jerusalem.

Immediately churchly rumormongers reported that the Pope had spoken to Mussolini, that he had spoken to England, and that an English potentate had "suggested" that the Corsair cancel its pilgrimage. The Pope, said rumormongers, did not want too great a rapprochement between Anglican and Orthodox Churches, preferring to see Jerusalem's present religious balance kept intact.

To the denial of the rumors then came the Archbishop. He telegraphed from the Corsair, now a cynosure indeed, that his trip had been canceled because Mr. Morgan, delayed in Paris by Reparations (see p. 21) could not join the party. All thoughts then turned toward Rome. But from the Vatican, which can be so secretive as to conceal whether there even exists a secret, issued no statement.

* In Jerusalem there is an Anglican Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Rennie Maclnnes, but he is no primate. A primate is an Archbishop or a Bishop of a see which ranks first in a province. Jerusalem is an independent see under the Archbishop of Canterbury, primate of All England.