What is pornography ?
Sir: I am only an uneducated old soldier with no training in logic or theology, so I honestly seek enlightenment regarding Mr P. E. Mallon's letter in your issue of 5 January in which he defends the legal suppression in Ireland of literature dis- approved of by the Roman Catholic priesthood.
He writes 'When a priest in any land condemns a book, he does so in his capacity as prophet or spokesman for God' (my italics). Please, how does this apply to Hindu Brahman priests seeking to suppress books which advocate cow slaughter in the interests of Indian agriculture; or Pakistani Muslim mullahs' books describing the nutritional values of pig meat? In their respective national re- ligions these are mortal sins condemned by God.
Mr Mallon writes, 'The state has no control over internal acts but has the right to control all public acts. The distribution of books is one of the things it has a right to control.' (My italics.) I. poor simple soul, see this as meaning that the state has the right to legal suppression of all overt opposition and is justified in imposing imprisonment on the pattern of Nazi Germany, Russia, Portugal, South Africa and elsewhere. Further, if we accept that the state has the right to control the distribution of books
then we must accept the Russian state's right to control the distribution of Christian literature and the propriety of the recent Russian trial of authors.
If learned Irish Roman Catholic theologians say this is so, I suppose it must be so, but it.all sounds pretty odd to me. Or can it be that Mr Mallon believes that what is mistaken or unjust in Russia or India is right and proper in Ireland? May I please be enlightened?
F. E. C. Hughes The Old Vicarage, Latton. near Cricklade, Wilts
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