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ESTABLISHMENT OF CAPUCHIN ORDER IN INDIA- II 503 mind-set of the missionaries was to condition to a great extent the work of implanting the Order in India. Mgr Poli found himself driven to the wall because his Mission, like the other Capuchin Missions in India, was in dire need of reinforcements and his own Province of Bologna did not raise his hopes too much. The only stopgap measure he could think of was to bring up a diocesan clergy6. As he realized that the prospects of reactivating the Capuchin Novitiate in India were dimming out, he was constrained into asking the young men who came forward to enter the Order to proceed with their ecclesiastical studies and become diocesan priests. And then, they were told, he would see if they could be accepted into the Capuchin Order. An on-the-spot survey of the Capuchin Missions in India carried out by a General Visitor in 1920 makes mention of four such postulants in Allahabad while some others instead had already joined the Jesuits 7 • The Visitor's recommendation for the urgent actualization of the old project of opening a common Novitiate for the five Capuchin Missions in India now appeared to be cogent enough as to force the issue 8 • Meanwhile the great strides that the other religious Institutes were making in India in the areas of evangelization, establishment of local communities, and education provided the Capuchins with a great deal of food for thought. These Institutes had been relying heavily on native vocations and their ministries were 6 APCapBologna, Classe III, Serie 8 B-7, N.2 c, Annual Report of Regular Superior to Provincial, 20 July 1918: "In queste circostanze io non vedo altra via di salvamento, se non di fare quanta prima un Seminario pel Clero Indigeno". 7 APCapBologna, Classe III, Serie 8 B-7, N.1, Fr Gerard of Bevilacqua to Fr General, 13 June 1920: "Gia mi e occorso di sentire, come pel passato non pochi giovani indigeni (Indiani e anche Europei naturalizzati) abbiano espresso il desiderio di farsi Missionari Cappuccini, i quali poi sarebber stati accolti dai PP. Gesuiti, che, a differenza di noi, tengono cola Noviziato e Studentato". 8 APCapBologna, Classe III, Serie 8 B-7, N.1, Fr Gerard to Fr General, 13 June 1920: "In India, attorno alla nostra, quattro altre Missioni Cappuccine lavorano in condizioni quasi identiche alla nostra; non sarebbe quindi il caso di studiare un mezzo pratico, affine di pater aprire un unico Noviziato ed uno Studentato comune a tutte e cinque le Missioni nostre? Questa idea non e nuova; Mons. Vescovo ed altri Missionari egregi ne ritengono indispensabile la realizzazione, per l'incremento e il bene delle Missioni". At the meeting of the General Definitory held on 19 June 1920, the Visitor's report and the question of the appointment of a General Commissary were discussed. AGCap AH 12: "Acta Definitorii Generalis 1920-1930", 5: "Discutitur consilium nominandi Commissarium Generalem pro omnibus missionibus Indiarum necnon erigendi ibidem novitiatum pro candidatis clericis vel laicis natis in illis regionibus".