ANTI-ULSTER PROPAGANDA
Snt,—A group of Labour men in the House of Commons, calling them- selves the Friends of Ireland, has lately popped up from obscurity. Its members turn out to 'be'friends of Eire and enemies of the Six Counties ; and they are performing all the stale old tricks that were outworn long ago. One of them, a Mr. Lester Hutchinson, recently wrote an article in the Daily Worker in which he recorded his impressions of Ulster. Until I was shown his atticle, I had never heard of him. After I had read it, I could think of no 'reason why anyone should want to hear .of him. In this article he told his readers that "it is estimated that there is a policeman to every sbitiatnilies " in Northern Ireland. One would have thought that this siateftient 'could not have been made even by a cretin,
and that -a man esteeming himself able and wise enough to represent a constituency in Parliament would have taken the elementary trouble to check his statistics by consulting some work of reference. But Mr. Lester Hutchinson is not that sort of man. Mr. Hutc,hinson is like OH Eccles in Caste, indifferent to fact. Any rant will do for the Daily Worker. "The heavy cost of this police force," he said, "does not leave much out of revenue for social services."
According to the last census, taken in 5937, the number of families in the Six Counties of Northern Ireland is 302,631. It appears, therefore, from Mr. Lester Hutchinson's singular arithmetic that the police force numbers 50,440! Stupendous, sir! Shattering! But what is the fact? The Northern Ireland Government's estimates for 1945-6 show that the total number of police in the Six Counties is 2,926, and that the total net cost of the force is £1,062,6o9, as against estimated total receipts in the provinces -of £56,5oo,000. The total estimated expenditure by the Northern Ireland Government is £21,785,000--N.1. contributes very sub- stantially to the Imperial Exchequer—and the social services are exactly the same as those in Great Britain. Mr. Lester Hutchinson could en- lighten himself, if he is capable of being enlightened, were he to ascertain what the social services in Eire are. He might, for example, compare unemployment benefit itt Belfast with unemployment benefit in Dublin. The difference will surprise him.—Yours faithfully,
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