WHILE the condition of David Fleming, the Belfast Jail hunger striker grows weaker, the Government authorities remain adamant in refusing all appeals for either his release or removal to an outside hospital. Yesterday a deputation consisting of Messrs Harry Diamond, MP (Socialist Republican); Robert Getgood, MP (Labour);
H G McGhee (Labour MP for Penistone and secretary of the Friends of Ireland group); Dr Fred McSorley, MP (Independent Nationalist, QUB) and Mr Jack Beattie, MP (Ind. Labour) interviewed both Prime Minister Brooke and Mr Edmond Warnock (Minister of Home Affairs) and asked to see Fleming. They sought an assurance that if the prisoner went off hunger strike he would be removed to a nursing home or hospital.
The Minister refused permission for any member of the deputation to visit the prison because, he said, a decision had been taken on this. Relatives only would be allowed in. The Minister also refused to have Fleming removed to a nursing home or hospital, even if he went off hunger strike, and contended there were ample facilities in the Crumlin Road Prison hospital for his treatment. He said that Dr McSorley would be granted facilities to visit him daily.
Mr McGhee MP said that Mr Warnock took the view that Fleming was on hunger strike to break the prison system in Northern Ireland. This was not correct. Fleming was on hunger strike, not to make conditions or secure release, but to gain for himself and other inmates at the prison the ordinary humane treatment to which every prisoner expiating his crime should be entitled.
Meanwhile, Sean McCaughey, the Belfast man on hunger strike in Portlaoise Prison, was stated to be 'very low' last night. Residents of a number of streets in North Belfast have subscribed to a fund to assist in having the matter raised with the two governments.
Camp victims' gold teeth
STOCKS of gold teeth, wrenched by SS men from concentration camp victims and stored in the vaults of the German Reichsbank, will be pictured on a cinema screen today in the Courtroom at Nuremberg as part of the prosecution's case against Walter Funk, money-raiser for the Nazis and wartime president of the Bank.
Funk looked ready to burst into tears yesterday as he told the court he had a nervous breakdown after his arrest when he was accused of 'being a thief and a murderer and I cannot remember what else'. He denied knowing anything about gold teeth being sent to the bank by the SS.
Edited by Éamon Phoenix e.phoenix@irishnews.com