15 FEBRUARY 1975, Page 2

IRA crumbles

It would be a great mistake to assume that the declaration of a ceasefire by the Provisional IRA was — as he assumed in his statement to the House of Commons on Tuesday — a triumph for Mr Merlyn Rees's patient diplomacy. It was, in fact, a remarkable victory for the solid and uncompromising policy of Mr Liam Cosgrave and his government. Mr Rees tried to cover up that uncomfortable fact in his statement, but it remains clearly true that, Mr Cosgrave having taken the first firm step against terrorism in six years, the terrorists' front crumbled. We should like to see a British government adopting the same firmness as that displayed in Dublin.