CORPORAL PUNISHMENT [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,-It would
be interesting to read the comments of Sir Chartres Biron on the following extract from Ian Colvin's Life of Lord Carson. It deals with an outburst in Northern Ireland of burnings, bombings, and murders organised by the " Irish Republican Army " in 1922.
" Sir James Craig and his Government were not only reso- lute but practical. They passed a law instituting the punishment of the lash for carrying guns or bombs. . . . Craig was not to be moved either by threats or cajoleries ; a brace of stout sailors cheerfully laid the cat-o'-nine tails across the backs of both Catholic and Protestant gunmen. It worked like a charm. Some hundreds of indignant patriots presently trooped out of Belfast and made for the South."
This renders obsolete the perpetual debates as to whether the " cat " did or did not put down garrotting. And it proves beyond question that flogging does deter some people.—Yours
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