22 FEBRUARY 1975, Page 4

Withdrawal from Ulster

Sir: Happening upon the address of an organisation which works to further the idea of military withdrawal from Northern Ireland, I have drawn their attention to the, to me, admirable article of Senior Officer (January 25). Hold and defend is not bright enough thinking: as compared with what has long been demanded by the state of unconventional warfare, it is virtuallY static trench non-eventing. The shame of Ireland is not that change came after fifty years; it is, rather, that the originality of Boycottism has been followed by an originality incorporating untold evil. The pity is that rigidity baS tried to combat inventiveness; a view much too pithy of course but historY already seems concerned about something very like a determination of the 'right' to fail. The Irish situation won't be cured by seeing it small. No names no pack drill, but your correspondent is dogmatic.

Spectator February 22, 1975

Already years old is the $64,000 question: "If evil follows in the train of revolution, would you prefer that the French Revolution had never occurred?' J. C. Meredith Scott

1-agan n am Bann, Ballachulish, Argyl, Scotland.