ORANGE SQUEEZE
An Irish Correspondent writes : IF British hospitals under the charge of religious orders are unwilling (or unable, owing to their constitution) to come into the national health service, they are allowed to remain outside it, but to draw payments from the State for services rendered. Mr. Chuter Ede gave an undertaking that this prin- ciple would also apply in Northern Ireland; but the Northern Ireland Government has since repudiated his pledge. They, have been insisting that the Catholic Mater hospital (a large proportion of whose patients are Protestants) must come into the State service 100 per cent., or receive no State aid at all. This has been criticised by so prominent a Unionist as Mr. Nat Minford, MP (he in turn has been censured by his constituency Unionist Association), by the Northern Ireland Medical Prac- titioners' Association, and by a committee set up to examine the workings of the Act in Northern Ireland; but the govern- • ment has ignored the criticisms. It is not surprising that the Orange Wing of the party should be displaying its usual bigotry, but it is curious that men of the probity of Lord Brookeborough and Mr. W. B. Maginness should lend their authority to so mean a piece of religious discrimination.
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