§ 21. Mr. GINNELLasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if the powers of the Press Censor are being exercised impartially throughout the United Kingdom, will he explain why the passage in a recently reported interview with the Pope, in which His Holiness said that Cardinal Mercier had not been arrested or imprisoned but was free to move about in his diocese, freely published in Great Britain, has been suppressed from the report in Ireland; and, now that the alleged imprisonment has exhausted its purpose of assisting recruiting in Ireland, whether, in the interest of truth, he will allow the interview with the Pope to be published as fully in Ireland as in Great Britain?
§ Sir J. SIMONI have already assured the hon. Member that the Press Bureau exercises its powers impartially. I am informed that neither the Press Bureau nor the Irish Government gave instructions for the omission of the portion of the reported interview with the Pope to which the hon. Member refers; and a prohibition which has never been imposed cannot be removed.
§ Mr. GINNELLCan the right hon. Gentleman account for the omission of this particular passage in Ireland?