CENSORSHIP IN IRELAND
SIR,—Referring to the letter in your issue of March 13 from Mr. B. MacMahon, Secretary, Office of Censorship of Publications, Dublin: I purported to quote and did quote from the letter he mentions and in the terms he gives. Later, I learned that the view in question had been conveyed to the Sunday Times by another party as representing a possible attitude of the censor, I had never suspected that it was not an official view, and I offer the censor an apology for having assumed that it was. But the fundamental matter is too important for me to dismiss as of no importance. The Sunday Times had obviously been acting under the impression that by .omitting from the Irish edition—which is, incidentally, the all- Ireland edition—of its issue of January 25 the promised second article by Mr. Taylor on Havelock Ellis it was making a concession to ward off a con- ceivable application of force majeure. It was bound to be concerned to keep faith with its readers by answering a query that had reached it about the missing article and it did sb very quickly.
Surely the occurrence shows how the mere existence of a censorship That is commonly credited with an excess of zeal can be detrimental to the interests of readers both inside and outside its jurisdiction, and how even serious publications may be influenced b■. a Presumedly hypercritical 'reader over your shoulder' possessed of governmental power. A big bogyman who stands mute is still a big bogyman.
Some of us remember the incident in which the Observer was involved on i:1;lortation at • Min Laoghaire a year or more ago. All good newspapers Stave consciences of their own which serve them as censors, and if sincere and serious publications of this kind are hindered at any time in their circulation by an official agency—by customs and excise; censor- ship board or otherwise—it is only to be expected that people will start thinking any of these agencies capable of harbouring such intentions as were ascribed in this latest case.—Yours faithfully,
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