c ,MA arms ,sirE C ongratulations on publishing Godfrey Barker's 7 r ti cle on
American support for the IRA ('Thee _ish-American file'), For too long this aspect of the _war. crucial though it is, has been under-reported in ti.ntain. and even more so in the United States. No tnicloubt this underplaying has been done for the best of Tves in the past, despite involving granting the can easy propaganda victory, but it has always Med with it the risk of undermining goodwill in this oy towards America, The British people are not aiols and when they see something they suspect to be
important not discussed thoroughly by the news media, they become irritated.
Many friends of America in this country (I include myself in this category, having an American wife) have been disappointed by the lack of public response by politicians and commentators there to the facts of American financed and supplied murder and maiming in this country, even after making allowances for the touchiness of American ethnic politics. Some will feel that events have now reached a stage where those in a position to influence opinion in America can no longer shirk their responsibilities in this matter without risking serious harm to Anglo-American relations. The damage is not being inflicted at the highest level of government relations necessarily, but lower down in the general regard felt for the United States. In the long run this can be the more important. If it takes a greater exposure before the British public of the IRA's vital American connection to jog people into action, then so be it. The Americans cannot complain that we have not been patient. Certainly, if the present muteness from America continues and the rate of IRA violence is kept up into 1976, many people will wonder whether the Queen's visit to the bicentennial celebrations next summer is such a good
idea after all.
Kenneth Hunter
76 Hervey Close, London N3
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