The dangers of withdrawal
Sir: Terrorism lives by publicity and some terrorist movements are recorded as having died for want of attention from press and broadcast. Your editorial of 9 May can thus only strengthen the lingering belief that the 'British can be blasted, or bored, out of Northern Ireland — as out of Palestine.
You question the manner of our withdrawal thence and from India as though we owed more to dependencies overseas than to a part of the homeland. Would not the expulsion of fellow citizens, by no means all Protestant, who desire and vote to remain within the United Kingdom be an unprecedented dishonour? Might not a civil war ensue that would not stop at the Irish border or the Irish Sea? Would not the success through violence of a small minority of a minority in removing British soldiers and sovereignty from Northern Ireland embolden the extremes of Scots and Welsh nationalism to do likewise? And, recalling that when neutral Eire left the Commonwealth a Labour Cabinet paper ruled out any departure of Northern Ireland because of its 'first class strategic importance', would you reflect upon the effect on British and NATO strategy?
John Biggs-Davison House of Commons, London SW1
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