Sir, – Margaretta D'Arcy complained that the library at Limerick Prison is poor and appealed for donations (Keith Duggan, Weekend Review, February 1st). In response, the Russell Foundation is sending a copy of Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy , written by Bertrand Russell while imprisoned in Brixton in 1918 for having suggested that US soldiers may be used to break strikes in Britain, as they were accustomed to do at home.
We're also sending a copy of Russell's Ju stice in War-Time , published earlier in the first World War. Here, Russell records how, in September 1916, he was forbidden to enter any prohibited area without permission in writing from the competent military authority. When he pointed out that this would prevent him from lecturing in certain locations and so earning his living, he was informed that he must submit the lectures to the War Office censorship. When he replied that his lectures would be spoken, not read, the military authorities requested that he give an "honourable undertaking" as regards his lectures that he would not "use them as a vehicle for propaganda". Russell was unable to do this, pointing out that:
“If I enter into a bargain by which I secure certain advantages in return for a promise, I am precluded from further protest against their tyranny. Now it is just as imperative a duty to me to fight against tyranny at home as it is to others to fight against the Germans abroad. I will not, on any consideration, surrender one particle of spiritual liberty.”
Some 40 years later, Russell expressed some relief on his return to Brixton Prison in 1961 (for sitting down in Whitehall in protest at Britain’s hydrogen bombs) that the surroundings were familiar.
We urge others also to respond positively to Margaretta D’Arcy’s constructive appeal for good books to be sent to the library in Limerick Prison. – Yours, etc,
TONY SIMPSON,
Editor, The Spokesman,
Journal of The Bertrand
Russell Peace Foundation,
Bulwell Lane,
Nottingham, England.