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FASCISM (REIGNS SUPREME IN cNORTHERN IRELAND State of Emergency Which Has Lasted 23 Years OLDEST TOTALITARIAN The "state of emezhundreds welt. gency" has now lasted some twenty-
three years. Though under the fundamental law by ,which the British Parliament set it up, the Government could not discriminate against any religious group, the late Lord Craigavon, as Premier, did not blush to declare publicly that his was "a Protestant government for Another mina Protestant people." ister of state publicly apologised for
having nine Catholics among the hundred -odd employees in his department. Most of them were there when he came, he explained ,and civil -service rules made it hard to get rid of them. The ruling Party is the Orange Order, whose creed is briefly summed up in the chalked scrawls on street walls in Belfast: "To hell with the
'ATTLEE
-would DE VALERA
-wants the freedoms
for which the
do well to look in his own backyard.
war was fought. Perhaps Fascist is not the, best word; but judging by contemporary popular
applications of the term it will do until a better comes along. Mr. Churchill, speaking towards the end of his term at the opening of the British Parliament, vividly described he fear that hangs over much of Rusian-dominated Europe-the sudden appearance of armed police at the door, the arrest without charge or trial, the spiriting of people away to prison at the fiat of a minister or commissar. But, while Mr. Churchill's critilcisms were well 'taken, he did not need to go He need only have so far afield. boarded a steamer at Liverpool and crossed the Irish Sea to Beltast to find there the precise conditions which he described. The Government of Northern Ireland, which sits in Belfast, came into existence in 1921. In 1922 it declared a state of emergency and passed a Special Powers Act, which in effect suspended all civil liberties. Under this Act, suspect persons could be arrested and held indefinitely without trial, and
On July 12 each year the OrPope." angemen assemble in their thousands and work themselves up to fresh fervour by a rehashing of the old, old anti-popery slogans that were out of date when the Gordon rioters wreckFrom time to time this ed London. fervour erupts into a campaign of beatings, arson and murder directed The attitude of against Catholics. the Government may well be gauged from the report of an observer sent by the British Civil Liberties League on the occasion of such an outburst in 1935. He noted that a hundred police backed up by nine armoured cars seemed unable to control an Orange mob evidently bent upon destruction and looting. To speak only of what I know personally: our house in Belfast was fired into at least six times-I don't know how many shots missed our windows, My father's life' was attempted twice, though he was a man who never took any part whatever in politics. A
REGIME
IN
EUROPE
hand -grenade was thrown into the midst of a group of Catholic children playing peacefully near our doors. Despairing of police protection, the Catholics of the city armed themselves-illegally, of course-and protected themselves. X rough-and-ready vigilance and alarm system sprang up after some Catholics had been taken from their houses by "unknown men" dui,. ing curfew hours and murdered. Though this may be past histoiy, the denial of civil liberties still persists, the dominance of the Orange Order still persists: and recent reports seem to indicate that another outburst of antiCatholicism is on the way. It has always been the Orange government's strong card in meeting a crisis. The history of the past twenty-three years points only to a repetition of what has gone before. On its record, the Orange govern. ment may well claim to be the oldest totalitarian government in Europe-it was functioning on totalitarian lines before Mussolini marched on Rome, before Stalin came to the Kremlin, before Hitler staged his beer -hall Putsch at Munich. Messrs. Attlee and Bevin, therefore, would do well to look in their own backyard in the intervals of denouncing Fascism abroad. They cannot escape responsibility for the actions of the Orange government. Representatives of the Orange state sit in the British Parliament; Britain appoints its Governor General: without British aid and support it could not operate. The things that happened (and are happening) in Belfast and elsewhere in Northern Ireland were not done in a corner. They are public knowledge. Ten years ago, almost two hundred members of the British Parliament tried to bring them to the official notice of Prime Minister Baldwin, but failed to get any action. Granted, if you will, that the- Partition problem is a difficult one and that it will take time for its ultimate solution. That does not change the fact that the constitutional guarantees which are the prerogative of Britain's subjects everywhere have been shamelessly flouted for more than Oiventy-three years in a part of the Empire within actual sight of Great Britain. and that British governments during all that time have connived at it. The abolition of the Special Powers Act and the restoration of civil libel,
C HU RC HILL
-feared events in Europe with counterparts across the Channel. ,
'
ties and adequate protection for Catholics is a step that can and should be taken at once. This need not wait In fact, for the ending of Partition. it would seem that restoration of Catholic rights has been impeded by the assumption that they could be restored only by abolishing the Northern The Northern governgovernment. ment can always beat the Orange drum and whip up public sentiment against any proposal for its liquidation: the appeal for reform should have a better chance of success. .
Many thousands of Catholics from Northern Ireland have served in the British' Army during the war, with a gallantry which drew tribute from Mr. Churchill himself. Simple justice demands that when they return home they shall be able to enjoy the freedoms which they fought to bring to others --among these others being the British people themselves.
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