have chapters of our organization in many cities, including Boston, San Francisco, Portland, and Atlanta, a total of 70 in all.

The primary task of each chapter is to raise the much needed funds to ease the suffering of the embattled people of Northeast Ulster Charters are issued to all chapters subscribing to the five principles laid down by the executive committee of the Northern Irish Aid Committee. They are as follows:

1. To provide financial assistance to local defense committees, who maintain the defense patrols that protect innocent people from the violence of British imperialism.

2. To alleviate the hardships of people who have lost their jobs and those who cannot take up employment or collect welfare benefits, be cause of fear of arrest or of being shot by sectarian extremists.

3. To provide financial assistance, clothing, and medicine to the helpless and homeless.

4. To provide assistance for persons imprisoned for defending their homes against attacks.

5. To provide for defensive measures, including first aid services

MONEY, CLOTHES, TOYS

To date, our committee has sent to Northeast Ulster financial assist ance, new and used clothing, and this Christmas many cartons of to donated by the American people. We have also been in constant touc with the elected representatives of the American people at all levels of government in an effort to solicit their help and support for the nationalist people in Northeast Ulster.

It is our firm belief that the way Ireland was partitioned by an art of the British Government in 1920 against the wishes of over 80 per cent of the Irish people is the root cause of the turmoil, death, and destruction now rampaging in Northeast Ireland. The setting up the sectarian Stormont Government in 1921 was a gross travesty of justice inflicted on the Irish people and nation.

With the exception of the Government of the U.S.S.R. the Northern Ireland Government is the oldest reigning government in Europe perhaps even in the world. Its callous system of misgovernment is no known to all parts of the world. Its role has been one of oppression and repression against all those who have opposed and now oppose it. Those opposing the government endured all forms of discrimination from the cradle to the grave.

It is our opinion that all that has happened in Northern Ireland since October 5, 1968--the date of the first Civil Rights March in Derry, which was dispersed by the batons of the Stormont govern ment's political police has been predictable and due to a bankruņi British policy of repression.

A CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS

The chronology of those events has been:

The death of a 9-year-old boy, John Rooney, who was shot in his bed by the B. Specials the private army of the Stormont government

The burning to the ground of 500 homes of the unfortunate ghetto residents in Belfast in August, 1969, resulting in nine deaths;

Brutal murder by the British occupation army of Harry Thorton when the small truck he was driving malfunctioned and backfired on August 7, 1971;

Britain's international judicial disgrace when it interned on August 9, 1971, over 500 men without charge or trial or right to counsel;

The corruption of the British Army and its loss of honor when it lent itself to the role of torturing defenseless and innocent men in the police stations, jails, and now the concentration camps that have sprung up in that unhappy part of Ireland;

The terrible day of Britain's infamy, Bloody Sunday, when the crack parachute regiment following operational plans that were conceived 72 hours before, fired with cold-blooded intent into a peaceful civil rights march, in which 20,000 people were participating, and murdered 13 men aged from 17 to 41 years and wounded 17 others.

PROVISION OF SPECIAL POWERS ACT

Exemplifying the repressive nature of the Stormont regime is the existence and the implementation of the Special Powers Act. Its provisions are as follows:

1. Arrest without warrant; 2. Imprison without charge or trial and deny recourse to habeas corpus or court of law; 3. Enter and search homes without warrant, and with force, at any hour of day or night; 4. Declare a curfew and prohibit meeting assemblies-including fairs and markets and processions; 5. Permit punishment by flogging; 6. Deny claim to a trial by jury; 7. Arrest persons it is desired to examine as witnesses, forcibly detain them and compel them to answer questions, under penalties, even if answers may incriminate them. Such a person is guilty of an offense if he refuses to be sworn or to answer a question; 8. Do any act involving interference with the rights of private property; 9. Prevent access of relatives or legal advisers to a person imprisoned without trial; 10. Prohibit the holding of an inquest after a prisoner's death; 11. Arrest a person who "by word of mouth" spreads false reports or makes false statements; 12. Prohibit the circulation of any newspaper; 13. Prohibit the possession of any film or gramophone record; 14. Arrest a person who does anything "calculated to be prejudicial to the preservation of peace or maintenance of order in Northern Ireland and not specifically provided for in the regulations."

PRINCIPLES SUPPORTED

The Irish Northern Aid Committee respectfully suggests that the following principles be embodied in a resolution expressing the sense of the House of Representatives:

That the Government of the United States of America use its good offices to bring about a change in British policy toward the Irish Nation and people by urging the Government of the United Kingdom to make a firm commitment to the unification of Ireland.

Toward this end, the Irish Northern Aid Committee feels the following prior conditions must be met :

1. The immediate end of the policy of internment without charge or trial;

2. Dissolution of the Northern Ireland Government located at Stormont;

3. Withdrawal of all British military and political forces from Northeast Ulster.

4. The urging upon all parties concerned the principles laid down in the Easter 1916 Proclamation as the best guarantee for safeguarding the civil and religious freedoms of all the Irish people and granting full equality to all citizens domiciled in that country.

AN AMERICAN ARRESTED

To emphasize the tragic consequences of the repressive government in Northern Ireland, I have brought with me Thomas Duff, an American citizen who was arrested under the Special Powers Act and detained under its provisions. Also I have brought with me Father Denis Faul, of Dungannon, County Tyrone, who is extremely well informed and well versed with regard to the infamous internment policy of Northeast Ulster.

Thank you.

I also have brought with me a copy of a book just published. It came by plane for this hearing. The title is Ireland, The Facts. "The Proclamation of the Irish Republic," which is on page 7, I would commend to the committee members to please read, as it is modeled after our own Declaration of Independence here.

Mr. ROSENTHAL. Father Faul.

STATEMENT OF REV. DENIS FAUL, ST. PATRICK'S ACADEMY, DUNGANNON, COUNTY TYRONE, NORTHERN IRELAND

Father FAUL. I am very grateful for this opportunity to give testimony before the committee. I have submitted a statement, which you have. I hope you will include it in the record.

Mr. ROSENTHAL. Without objection, the entire statement will be included in the record.

BIOGRAPHY

Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I am most grateful to you for permitting me to testify here today and to the American Committee for Ulster Justice for making it possible for me to be here.

My name is Denis Faul. I am a Roman Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Armagh, Ireland. I was born in Dundalk, Co. Louth, on August 14, 1932 and was educated at St. Patrick's College, Armagh, and at St. Patrick's College Maynooth where I was ordained in 1956. I then studied for one year at the Dunboyne Institute in Maynooth and for one year at the Gregorian University, Rome.

Since 1958, I have been teaching at St. Patrick's Academy, Dungannon, Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland. This is a Grammar School for Boys. I have been most concerned that the boys are refused social justice in terms of equal job opportunities and at the lack of legal and social justice for Roman Catholics or Nationalists in the community generally. I have endeavored to promote justice, equality and fair play in the community.

STATEMENT

In my comments I would like to deal with the removal of protection of law and legal rights from the Catholic population since the introduction of internment in August 1971 and also the bias of the police and the judiciary against the minority.

I hope the American public will note these betrayals of the tradition of the Common Law and the need for a Bill of Human Rights for Northern Ireland so that the minority there can have the protection of law in theory and in fact.

In London, England, last summer (1971) the American Bar Association held its annual meeting. I was in London on vacation that week and noted how eager the American and British lawyers were to emphasize the heritage of the Common Law which they shared. This tradition of the Common Law is shared by relatively few countries in the world and those who maintain it realize the importance of its basic foundation.

SPECIAL POWERS ACT

The problem of the minority in Northern Ireland at the moment is that the most basic foundation stone of the Common Law tradition, namely the Habeas Corpus, has been suspended in regard to many of the minority of the Government of Northern Ireland.

Security and the administration of law were left in the hands of the Northern Ireland Government under the Government of Ireland Act of 1920. In 1922 they introduced the Civil Authorities Special Powers Act. In Regulation II attached to the Act provision is made for imprisonment without trial as follows:

"1. Any person authorized for the purpose by the Civil Authority or any police constable, or member of any of Her Majesty's forces on duty when the occasion for the arrest arises may arrest without warrant any person whom he suspects of acting in or having acted or being about to act in a manner prejudicial to the preservation of the peace or maintenance of order of upon whom may be found any article, book, letters, or other document, the possession of which gives grounds for such a suspicion. . . .

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2. "Any person so arrested may, on the order of the Civil Authority, be detained either in any of Her Majesty's prisons or elsewhere as may be specified in the order upon such conditions as the Civil Authority may direct until he has been discharged by direction of the Attorney General or is brought before a court of Summary Jurisdiction.

The actual arrest of the person is authorized in Regulation 10 attached to the Act as follows:

"Any officer of the Royal Ulster Constabulary for the preservation of peace and maintenance of order may authorize the arrest without warrant and detention for a period of not more than 48 hours of any person for the purpose of interrogation."

However, if the police are not satisfied with the 48 hours period of interrogation, they can use Regulation 11, Paragraph 5, to secure the Removal of a prisoner for further interrogation, as follows:

"Any person detained under this regulation may without prejudice to any other powers of removal be removed to on the order of the Civil Authority to any place where his presence is required in the interests of justice and may be detained in such place for such time as his presence is so required there

Arrest under Special Powers interrogation with methods of brutality, detention and internment, have been used five times against the minority in Northern Ireland, the most recent being in August 9, 1971, and subsequently.

Let us examine these four steps:

ARRESTS ON AUGUST 9, 1971

On the 9th of August, 342 men were arrested under Special Powers. The total number of arrests under Special Powers in the six-month period since August 9th has been 2.357 persons. These have been all members of the minority, or Catholic community with about five exceptions. When one considers that the adult Catholic male population of Northern Ireland numbers about 100,000 persons it can be seen that the British Army acting under the instructions of the Unionist Government in the operation of the Special Powers Act have arrested two and one half per cent of the adult, Catholic male population of the province.

The impact of arrest without warrant and detention without trial in a small. tightly-knit quasi-ghetto community has been pernicious. For every man arrested about 10 members of his family have been affected and many of his neighbors. One can say that the whole Catholic population of Northern Ireland has been affected and terrorized by the use of these Special Powers or the imminent threat that they can be used any day on any particular Catholic family. In detail the arrest procedure is as follows:

The soldiers enter a house in Belfast, Derry or in the countryside at three or four o'clock a.m. They usually beat down the door of the humble home of the poor and treat the people roughly until they get the man they are looking for. They search the house and quite often do a considerable amount of unnecessary damage. This damage can cost $500 or $1,000 to fix. In Section Eleven of the Special Powers Act provision is made for compensation for damage done to property when action is constituted under the Special Powers Act, but, in fact. it takes a long time to secure compensation and there is a legal dispute on at present on the question of who is liable to pay the compensation. The person is then taken away and disappears for 48 hours and is held "incommunicado" from his relatives, lawyers, and clergymen during that time.

INQUIRIES ON DETAINEES

I have made a point of pursuing inquiries about the whereabouts of persons arrested under the Special Powers Act. On occasion I have made as many as 12 to 15 telephone calls to police and military barracks and the Ministry of Home Affairs and usually one receives rebuffs in official stereotyped and useless an swers. I have known others, including members of Parliament, to have made two dozen phone calls without effect. The person arrested disappears for 48 hours and has no legal rights. The authorities refuse to say where the persons arrested under the Special Powers Act are being detained, and great care is taken in transporting the persons to the interrogation centers to ensure that they do not know where they are being taken. Helicopters and jeeps have their windows blacked out, men are often hooded in transit, the vehicles often driven around in circles, and the journey often occupies two or three times the space of time necessary for it.

By a process of bluff and enquiry and questioning of persons released we have been able to establish that there are four interrogation centers in use in Northern Ireland.

1. Palace Military Barracks, Hollywood, Co. Down (5 miles from Belfast) 2. Girdwood Military Barracks, Belfast

3. Gough Military Barracks, Armagh

4. Ballykelly Royal Air Force Station, Co. Derry.

In connection with arrest under Special Powers, one must emphasize the traumatic effect it has on a poor Catholic family for a husband, brother or son to disappear for 48 hours to an unknown destination to be interrogated by faceless men, with an expectation of brutal treatment, of being detained and finally imprisoned without charge or trial. I had occasion to publish in the daily press a list of points of procedure and telephone numbers to help people whose relatives had been "lifted" under the Special Powers Act. As a result of this several hundred cases have been phoned to me and I have tried to deal with them. One notes the intense distress and mental agony of the relatives during this 48 hour period when their loved ones have disappeared without trace. I have known women who are normally calm, composed and collected to become hysterical, to weep and to require urgent medical attention. At the other side of my enquiries about men arrested, I have found the Special Branch Police and the Ministry of Home Affairs, Northern Ireland, to be totally without sympathy or pity or mercy or any notion of what is a moral or decent, or civilized or Christian way to treat people.

The number released in the six-month period, August 9-February 9 was 1,403.

BRUTALITY IN INTERROGATION CENTERS

On the 9th of August, 342 men were arrested under the Special Powers Act with a view to internment. Of these 185 were brought to Girdwood Park Barracks, Belfast, 89 were brought to Ballykinler Camp, Co. Down and 68 were brought to McGilligan Camp, Co. Derry. Of these the people at McGilligan were treated reasonably well except for one or two men who were beaten by the police and the custom of handcuffing them while in transit but they were kept in dirty huts and they were given bad food.

Those who were taken to Ballykinler were subjected to ill-treatment by the military police. They were forced to do a number of exercises commonly described as positions of discomfort. This consisted in holding your arms out straight in front of you for periods of 10 to 20 minutes, then holding your arms behind your head, then above your head and performing these actions standing,