John Bull's Six Counties
SIR,-1 am astonished that such a responsible journal as the Spectator should publish without proper sub- stantiation such an allegation as that in your issue of April 2 last. A correspondent in your 'Letters' column states unequivocally that 'Unionist Head- quarters issued an instruction to their polling agents to impersonate people not likely to vote.' There is no ground whatever for any such charge. I can state that there is no foundation for any charge that any directive of such a nature was issued to polling agents or anyone else from this or any other Unionist centre.
Your correspondent writes about 'Photostat' copies of a document relating to impersonation having been found. This presumably refers to a polling register alleged to have been discovered among the papers in an unlocked caravan which had been used as a Unionist tally room some considerable time after the close of the poll. This was sent to the police authori- ties and after investigating the Attorney-General subsequently reported to Parliament that he did not consider that it constituted sufficient evidence to warrant any prosecution.
As for the suggestion that registers arc inaccurate and that by denying the minority houses the Unionists thereby deny its members votes, these charges were completely refuted, item by item, at the recent conference of the Civil Liberties Council in London.
J. 0. BAILIE
Ulster Unionist Council, Secretary 3 Glen gall Street, Belfast, 12
Previous page
