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ESTABLISHMENT OF CAPUCHIN ORDER IN INDIA- II 509 latest statistics were in every way heartening. While scores of natives worked as diocesan clergy, the ranks of the religious embraced a far greater number. By then there were already 671 natives among the men religious, including 206 Carmelites and 170 Jesuits. Contrastively, the Capuchins had no Indians among them, despite the fact that it was nearly three centuries since they had arrived on the scene and administered five expansive Missions in India. Before giving the final go-ahead to the establishment of the Novitiate the General thought it wise to inspect in person the proposed Novitiate House in Sardhana. He reached Sardhana on 13 December and the inspection helped to alleviate his fears about the project's viability, and forthwith he wrote reassuringly to Rome. He desired that the process for getting fyom the Propaganda Fide the rescript for establishing the Order in India be speeded up so that the Novitiate could be opened at the earliest. In order to facilitate the curial procedures, he referred to an earlier recommendation of the Propaganda Fide on the "cons– titution of a monastic province of the Order in this vast Empire" 24 . The General had by now no second thoughts and announced his intention to personally open the Novitiate. But even after a full month had lapsed the requisite rescript was yet to arrive, and he decided to delegate the would-be Commissary for the Novitiate to officiate at the inauguration. To his surprise, the General got the impression that not all the Regular Superiors shared his enthusiasm for the Novitiate in the offing. Some of them were not as good as their word when it came to getting the show on the road 25 • At the gathering of the Regular Superiors of Agra, Ajmer, Allahabad, Lahore and Simla held in Agra on 17-19 February 1922, the General spoke of the Order's plans for laying the foundation of a Capuchin Commissariat in India with a view to giving shape to an Indian Province in the fullness of time. This 24 AGCap G 68 II, Novizjato eStud.to: Fr General's letter to Fr·General Procurator, Lahore 8 January 1922: ''Da Sardhana scrissi alla P.V. R.ma per il Rescritto della S. Congr. e per l'erezione del S. Noviziato. Ritengo che tutto si otterra con la desiderata sollecitudine...". 25 AGCap G 68, II, Noviziato eStud.to: Fr General to Fr General Procurator, Agra 9 Feb– ruary 1922: "Quantunque tutti desiderano che finalmente il Noviziato venga aperto, pure non vi e troppa smania di prendervi parte e di mandarvi un qualche padre. Anche per il luogo non vi e tanto da scegliere, che altri luoghi non ve ne sono. Anche per il luogo di Studio ancora non si e potuto stabilire nulla di concrete, che un luogo adatto senza intonvenienti non si e potuto ancora trovare. Mons. Vescovo di Allahabad, quando venne a Roma present<'> un luogo, che avrebbe avuto delle buone qualita; adesso invece, di quel luogo non intende piu disporne a vantaggio dell'Ordine, ma intende servirsene per la Missione". This observation of the General was to prove to be a grim presage of the future course of events.