CHURCH AS A PRISON

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 121, 15 February 1935, Page 3

CHURCH AS A PRISON

Spanish Revolt and After In twelve mouths the. occupants of Spain’s prisons have increased- from 11,000 to 30,000. Just before the recent uprising took place there were 16,000 prisoners under lock and key, and this number was duplicated almost overnight. Of the prisoners lately detained, 2900 were what arc termed in Spain "governmenta prisoners,” that is to say that they are held at the disposition of some authority without having been charged with any specific offence, a procedure which is possible in view of the non-existence of an equivalent of the “Habeas Corpus.” The triplicating of the number of prisoners caused serious strain to the prison system. In Gijon during the revolt a church belonging to the Jesuit Order was used as a prison for GOO persons. The lights of the high altar were used to illumine the temporary prison, and a good deal of damage was inevitably done to the church before the ecclesiastical authorities intervened and had the statues and other sacred objects removed, and elemental provisions of a hygienic character installed.

In Bilbao, Barcelona, and other ports the surplus prisoners were placed on ships commandeered for the purpose. In the former port rt serious accident nearly occurred on the occasion-of a storm when a ship broke adrift from its moorings and only just missed crashing into the prison ship. In Barcelona the whole former Cabinet of the Generalitat of Catalonia was confined aboard ship. The former Premier. Senor Azana; was for some weeks detained witii another prisoner in a small second class cabin of the Uruguay. He was afterward trans-ft-rred to it destroyer, as a result of a protest made to the Government by prominent personalities. It is proposed to open four concentration camps and to establish a penal colony on (lie Isle of Annnbon, off West Africa, in order to relieve the overcrowding.