JUSTICE FOR ULSTER - [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR]
SIR,—AS an old subscriber I wish to add my protest against the attempt, through your columns, to poison the wells of Truth. Possibly the following may supply an antidote.
In Belfast one of the Resident Magistrates must be a repre- sentative of the minority. These magistrates are stipendiary,‘ entitled to pensions, and independent in their judicial capacity. The magistrate whose decision Janus censured in his Notebook is that representative. The district mentioned, Andersonstown and the Falls Road, are the centre. of the Nationalist quarter, the backbone of the late Mr. Joseph Devlin's constituency,. almost an irredenta of Eire. The boy who was punished was one of a gang infected by rabid Anglophobia, whose activities mainly consist in shadowing and denouncing to the Irish Republican Army inoffensive members of their own party, calling them police touts. Justice is meted out by these irresponsibles by chaining their victims to lamp-posts, pouring paint or tar on their heads, occasionally much worse has hap- pened. The magistrate in question would have his feelings of annoyance at what must be an intolerable °nuisance. I do not discuss the sentence, nor why any citizen who might wish to assist the forces- of law and order should be persecuted. My
protest against the incident being used to throw •a stone against the Ulster Government, who are quite outside the matter.—Yours;-&c., - - •
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