(Continued from p. 365.)
IN 1929 the Secretary of State for Scotland was asked in the House of Commons if he would state the number of convicted prisoners, Borstal inmates, and criminal lunatics in Scotland for the last three years for which figures were available and the number and percentage of these who were natives of the Irish Free State. He answered as follows: “The following table gives the information desired for the years 1926, 1927, 1928 so far as available: 1926, Convicted prisoners, 15,685, of whom 3,566 were of Irish nationality, being a percentage of 22.7. Borstal inmates, 126; of whom 21 were of Irish nationality, being 16.6 per cent. Criminal lunatics, 17; of whom 4 were of Irish nationality, being 23.6 per cent. In 1927 the figures were: Convicted prisoners, 14,839; of whom 3,298 were of Irish nationality being a percentage of 22.2. Borstal inmates, 139; of whom 18 were of Irish nationality being a percentage of 12.9. Criminal lunatics, 24; of whom 3 were of Irish nationality, being a percentage of 12.5. In 1928 the figures were: Convicted prisoners, 14,737; of whom 3,063 were of Irish nationality, being a percentage of 20.8. Borstal inmates, 140; of whom 13 were of Irish nationality, being a percentage 9.2. Criminal lunatics, 18; of whom 3 were of Irish nationality, being a percentage of 16.7. The words, Irish nationality, include persons born in the Irish Free State and in Northern Ireland and also persons born elsewhere, if the father was Irish. Separate figures for Irish Free State cases
were not available. The figures for 1935, 1936, 1937, show a remarkable improvement. The percentage for the different classes (criminal lunatics being excluded) are as follows: 1935: 12.2 and 2.2. 1936: 10.5 and 2.5. 1937: 11.7 and 4.6.
The Committee of Church and Nation of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in their report for 1930 analysed the figures of the Annual Report of Prison Commissioners for Scotland for the year 1928. This analysis yields the following results of the religious persuasions of the 14,737 convicted in that year: Presbyterians, 8,407; Roman Catholics, 5,524; Episcopalians, 701; other denominations, 105. That is, that of the prison population of 1927 no less than 37.48 per cent. were Roman Catholics, while the total Roman Catholic population of Scotland is only 13.26 of the whole. This works out that the Roman Catholics have nearly three times their due proportion of criminals in Scotland.
In the matter of parish relief the Secretary of Scotland was asked if he would state the number of persons in Scotland receiving parish relief and the number of such who were natives of the Irish Free State. The answer indicated that in 1932 there were 17,575 with 8,722 dependants who were natives of Ireland. The figures for 1935 were 23,621 with 11,873 dependants and for 1936: 21,765 with 10,286 dependants.
We come now to the figures for the Roman Catholic school population and for the purpose of comparison we select the school years 1913-14 and 1936-37. In 1913-14 there was the following number of Roman Catholic pupils in the Burgh Roman Catholic Schools of Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Leith, Glasgow and Govan respectively, viz.: 780, 4,583, 4,714, 29,452. The number of pupils in these schools, in the above order, for 1936-7 follows: 735, 5,943, 6,420, 44,887. All these schools show a marked increase with the exception of Aberdeen. In the case of the counties we give the figures for 1913-14 followed by those for 1936-37—Aberdeen, 167 and 54; Angus, 91 and 72; Argyll, 228 and 269; Ayr, 3,452 and 4,398; Banff, 747 and 656; Berwick,
none; Bute, 243 and 206; Caithness, none; Clackmannan, 160 and 262; Dumbarton, 5,254 and 6,369; Dumfries, 572 and 595; East Lothian, 250 and 403; Fife, 1,637 and 2,575; Inverness, 485 and 506; Kincardine, none; Kirkcudbright 232 and 219; Lanark (excluding Glasgow), 19,394 and 21,624; Midlothian, 1,311 and 1,261; Moray and Nairn, 81 and 122; Orkney, none; Peebles, 34 and 37; Perth and Kinross, 487 and 517; Renfrew, 9,521 and 11,680; Ross and Cromarty, none; Roxburgh, 101 and 102; Selkirk, 158 and 105; Shetland, none; Stirling, 2,074 and 3,100; Sutherland, none; West Lothian, 1,748 and 2,070; Wigtown, 140 and 140. It is not to be understood that these figures cover the total of the Roman Catholic school population; they are the figures of the Roman Catholic transferred Voluntary Schools. In South Uist and Barra there were national schools which were Roman Catholic or largely so. Besides this there may be Roman Catholic children in the national schools in the counties that are credited with having none in the above lists. In fact in the schools of some of the counties so marked we know of Roman Catholic pupils in them. In 1913-14 the Roman Catholic schools had a population of 88,096; in 1936-7 it was 115,327 thus showing an increase in this period of 27,231.
The foregoing may prove dry reading to many of our readers, bristling as it does with figures, but the information conveyed in this and the preceding article will, we trust, supply information to many who are not conversant with Rome’s steady penetration in Scotland. The iniquitous provision of the Education (Scotland) Act of 1918 that Protestant ratepayers should be responsible for building, maintaining and equipping schools in which the false doctrines of the Church of Rome must be taught makes one wonder at times if we are living in a land that made such a clean sweep of Romanism in the days gone bye. We would heartily recommend to our readers Dr. Cockburn’s pamphlet, to which we are indebted for the figures presented in the above articles—The Protestant Outlook in Scotland—which may be had from the World’s Evangelical Alliance, 19 Russell Square, London, W.C.1. Price, 2d.