Direct rule if Faulkner fails
I by no means go along with the policies ad- vocated by Humphry Berkeley in these pages, although with much of the diagnosis and some of the remedies I would not argue very strongly. It is. I think, pretty generally agreed that as things stand at present, Brian Faulkner is not only the best Prime Minister Northern Ireland has got, he is also the last. There is no ground for supposing that the British government has changed its attitude that, were Faulkner to be defeated at the polls by Paisleyites with or without right- wing unionists, or were he to be replaced after a Unionist putsch by a hard-liner like William Craig, then the time would have ar- rived for the winding-up of Stormont and the imposition of direct rule.
Now the Ulster Protestants might just about stomach direct rule if it were to be made absolutely clear that this was a strengthening of their union with Great Bri- tain; but in no other way would they stand for it. Certainly they would not, I think, stand for a United Nations peacekeeping force as suggested by Mr Berkeley.
This suggestion, which to my mind is as foolish as the idea that Rhodesia long after UDI be bombed by the British, would precipitate quite the reverse of its intention. Far from keeping the peace, a UN peace- keeping force could only cause and make and wage war. The idea is fanciful for quite another reason: Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom and the United Kingdom is a member of the Security Council and how, under these circumstances, the United Kingdom could invite foreign UN troops of
"I'll have French bread and you'd better make it New Zealand Butler".
whatever nationality into these shores passes my understanding. It would be political suicide for any British government, of whatever political persuasion, to do so. -I reckon that Mr Berkeley wth all his new- found enthusiasm for the Labour party to whose doctrines he has lately been converted hopes to persuade his old party, Conservative and Unionist, to abandon all political reason.
Sometimes, on subjects like Northern Ireland and Rhodesia, I think dear Humphry is a bit potty. But because his pottiness on such subjects is very widespread. indeed almost endemic, it is worth giving his pro- posed remedies an airing. At least he has a go; and there is little the matter with his diagnosis.
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