Letters | 21 April 2016

Safe keeping?

Sir: James Delingpole will be relieved to hear that not everyone follows the fashion for demanding repatriation of historical treasures (‘Give thanks for the tomb raiders’, 9 April). When presenting my ambassadorial letters of credence to the President of Haiti, René Preval, in 2010, I mentioned in passing that a rare (possibly unique) copy of Haiti’s Declaration of Independence had recently been discovered in our National Archives at Kew. At this point Preval’s foreign minister leaned forward and suggested that Her Majesty’s Government might wish to repatriate the document. Preval laughed at the suggestion. ‘No no, ambassador,’ he said with rueful acknowledgement of Haiti’s troubled past and precarious present; ‘It’s better that you look after it for us.’
Steven Fisher

HM Ambassador to Haiti (2009–2015)

Dr Welby is correct

Sir: Charles Moore refers to the Archbishop of Canterbury as plain ‘Mr Welby’ (Notes, 16 April), and insists ‘it is correct’ because ‘he was an oil executive and not a theologian’. This is a little like saying that Mrs Hughes of Downton Abbey ought to have been called ‘Miss’, because until she conjoined with Mr Carson she was an unmarried housekeeper. What is ‘correct’ in social forms of address is not always courteous in occupational etiquette.

Since Lambeth doctorates are no longer awarded honoris causa to diocesan bishops, there is no absolute Crockford’s protocol on the form of address for an archbishop without a DD. But Justin Welby would not need a particular doctorate in theology (or, indeed, to be a theologian) to be styled ‘Dr’. In fact, the Archbishop holds two doctorates (honorary; Coventry and Durham). If the current Bishop of London may correctly be styled ‘Dr Chartres’ (including in this magazine) by virtue of his honorary degrees; and if Samuel Johnson’s doctorates (honorary; Trinity College, Dublin and Oxford) are universally recognised out of respect for a distinguished man of letters, then courtesy and consistency demand that Dr Moore (honorary; Buckingham) recognise Dr Welby.