CENSORSHIP IN EIRE
Sta.—May an Irishman living in Ireland and one who served with the Royal Air Force in the last war be allowed to make one or two comments on the article entitled "Censorship in Eire" which appeared in your issue of June 4th?
The gravamen of the writer's complaint is that the censorship, and I quote his exact words, "tends to favour the Axis at the expense of the Allies." This is the pith of the matter. It is, of course, a question,, of fact, but, unfortunately, of fact which cannot satisfactorily be proved or disproved without access to the records of the censorship, although it might be possible to establish a prima fa,:ie case for or against the writer's contention by making a thorough examination and analysis of what has actually appeared in the Irish Press day by day over a reason- able period of time. Obviously, no such searching inquiry is possible in the correspondence columns of your paper. What is possible, however, is to point out that practically all of the foreign news, including war news, which is printed by the Irish newspapers is supplied to them by news agencies which are either British or American and has been passed for publication by the British or American censors or both before it reaches this country. Is it likely, then, is it even credible, that news obtained in this way is pro-Axis in bias, even assuming the most teaden- tious presentation, an assumption for wh;ch there is not the slightest justification, and which, as anyone who reads an Irish newspaper can see for himself, is not borne out by the facts? And if the news is all right, what about the views? Here, I think, your contributor answers himself ; for what he complains of is not a lack of, but an excess of, editorial objectivity. But perhaps what he means when he says that the censorship tends to favour the Axis is merely that America and Great Britain are not allowed to make the most of the exceptional opportunity for propaganda in this country with which geography, a common lan- guage, and a host of common ties have favoured them. But is this true? By no means. Not merely are British and American newspapers allowed to be imported without restriction, but they are, in fact, imported in considerable numbers. Not merely are the American Legation and the Office of the British Representative allowed to carry on propaganda to their heart's content, but they do in fact do so, and on a scale which the Axis representatives have not attempted and are not likely to attempt, The Letter from America, for instance, of which I attach a copy that I picked up in a hairdresser's the other day, is issued by the Office ef War Information in Dublin and has a circulation of some 20,eno copies a week. I only wish that the Irish circulntion of The Spectator was big, but be their circulation big or little, both these publications are received without let or hindrance into any Irish homes that want to take them. How different is this situation from the position in some other neutral countries, which are not regarded as unfriendly to the United Nations, may be seen by anyone who takes the trouble to look up the special article on conditions in one such country which appeared in The Times of January 30th last. As for the cinema, it is perfectly true that there are a number of war pictures which have not been shown in this country and which presumably were not adowed to be shown. On the other hand, I myself have seen several war pictures in Dublin cinemas, including a news reel of an attack on a Japanese aircraft-carrier, by American warplanes, and I think it will be found that the reason the news-reels have been lately discontinued is not that there was an absolute ban by the censorship, but merely that the distributors decided that it did not pay to prepare a special edition for the Irish market. But obviously the case of the cinema and the propaganda film constitutes a very special problem. , The Irish are a temperamental and emotional people who are capable of reacting violently to scenes of horror, as in fact Swiss and Swedish cinema audiences did react when a certain type of film was shown. Are the Irish authorities to blame because they are not willing to risk similar scenes in Irish theatres?—Yours, &c.,
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