LIGHT ON ULSTER
Sut,—Two points in Rawle Knox's article on the Ulster General Election, published under the offensive heading In Darkest Belfast, call for refutation. (1) Discussing Government grants of 65 per cent. of building and maintenance cats to voluntary schools and contrasting them with the "full aid" to State schools, Mr. Knox says: "Voluntary schools, in fact, mean Roman Catholic schools . . . State schools are really Protestant." The fact is that there are about 900 voluntary primary schools (that is schools not transferred to the control of the Local Education Authorities) and -of these 600 are Roman Catholic and 300 Protestant. The innuendo that there is religious discrimination in regard to grants is false. The 65 per cent, grants are paid to all voluntary schools, whether Roman Catholic or Protestant. The principle is that full aid cannot be given (or reasonably expected) unless the schools are publicly controlled. (2) Mr. Knox asserts that for 25 years there has been a daily average of between 300 and 400 "political prisoners" in Northern Ireland gaols. This tatement is calculated to convey the im- pression that people are imprisoned in Northern Ireland because of their political views. That is nonsense. From time to time the Government has found it necessary, for reasons of public security, to exercise powers of internment, but for more than three years there have been no internees in custody. On December 21st, 1945, all internees were released, and no \one has been interned since. Often, for propaganda reasons, the term 'political prisoners" is applied to men who have committed grave crimes and have been 'convicted and sentenced after trial in the ordinary courts of law To call such men "political prisoners" grossly misleads people who do not know the facts.—Yours faithfully, D. L. SAVORY.
House of Commons.
Previous page
