17 JUNE 1960, Page 15

Catholic Persecution in Spain P. L. Daniel, Bruce M. Cooper

Public Relations Harvey Mitchell, Colin Mann, Sylvia Burls-Hunt

Riddle of the Sands . Erskine B. Childers The Nationalised Industries Tom Baistow Homosexual Prosecutions A. E. G. Wright The Schizoid State Nicholas Mosley Rough Boys and Smooth E. W. Hildick

Little Magazines David Wright, Robert Hardy, Charles Davison

The Christian Line Rev. John C. King Rally Driving Kenneth H. Ross 'Treasure Island' Felix Watkins Discontented Cows S. G. W. Lane CATHOLIC PERSECUTION IN SPAIN SIR,—Your comment on Catholic protest in 'Spain Next?' last week is unjustified if you mean to imply, why is there not an official Catholic protest against Spanish illiberality organised from Britain or the US? Whatever action is being taken by the Madrid authorities is against Catalonian nationalism and not against Catholics as such. Democrats anywhere, in- cluding many millions of Catholics, deplore it and take whatever means of showing it which seems appropriate to them in the same way as they would protest against similar deeds, whether behind the Iron Curtain, in Central Africa or Central America. But it is disingenuous to expect 'Catholics,' in the sense presumably of the Catholic Hierarchies, to organise solemn protests except where the Church as such is impeded in its religious task. Public Catholic protest in this sense has been against the persecution of religion; but any intelligent reader of Catholic publications here or on the Continent knows that there has been a sustained and continuous protest against political persecution which has not spared so-called Catholic countries or governments.—Yours faithfully,