One afternoon last week Donald Campbell, young Edinburgh University Latin Lecturer, and his wife, returning from a Paris honeymoon, stepped up to the check room in London's crowded King's Cross Station. From beneath the counter came an explosion that destroyed the check room, burst suitcases and trunks, bowled over scores of passersby, stripped the clothes from two women. As the clouds of choking, acrid smoke rolled away Donald Campbell, both legs blown off, lay dying. Sprawled around him, 15 wounded men and women, including his bride, fed the bloody pools gathering on the cobblestones.
A few hours later a similar explosion in London's Victoria Station injured three. Late that night a wooden swing bridge across the Leeds & Liverpool Canal was demolished, the front of a Liverpool post office blasted into the street before the eyes of watching police, and a nearby street mailbox set afire. Thus ended the worst day of terrorism since the Irish Republican Army which claims to be the only legal Government of Ireland declared "war" on Great Britain last January. The casus belli was the British refusal to recognize a united Ireland and withdraw troops from the British-controlled six northern counties.
"S Plan." Last week's bombings coincided with Parliamentary consideration of a bill to free the police from ordinary legal restraint when tracking down Irish terrorists. Although 66 I.R.A. volunteers have been sentenced to prison, the police have had difficulty making a legal case against men they suspect of plotting more outrages. In the past there has been no restriction on the entry of British subjects into Great Britain. According to the bill introduced by Home Secretary Sir Samuel Hoare, to be in effect for two years, suspected terrorists could be prevented from entering the country. Suspects already resident could be compelled to register their movements with the police or be deported if they had entered the country during the past 20 years.
Sir Samuel apologized for introducing so important a measure late in the Parliamentary session, and in explanation produced a copy of the secret I.R.A. Staff "S Plan" captured during a police raid. This "remarkable document" outlined the strategy of terrorism and gave specific instructions on how to send bombs by parcel post, clog sewers with quick-drying cement, sabotage machines, and destroy public utilities. The campaign, the "S Plan" indicated, should reach its maximum effectiveness early next winter. M.P.s guffawed when Sir Samuel told of a plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament, but they were not amused when he stated: "We have reliable information in our possession that the campaign is being closely watched and actively stimulated by foreign organizations."