Sir: Surely when you say in your editorial, `Mr Faulkner's
Ulster' (27 March) that 'This is not a "war" against an "enemy" unless it be clearly understood that the "enemy" is a hundred or two people; the Army in Ulster sup- ports the civil authority, is not engaged in warfare', you are leav- ing out of account the fact that the 'hundred or two people' (it is more in the region of eight thousand or so people) do believe they are engaged in war, both with Britain and with the Ulster Unionists, and have so declared publicly, time and times without number. It is true they, the IRA, were 'stood down' in 1962, and their High Command then declared that the campaign against Britain (mainly carried out by attacking the a Specials and the auc at that time) was over for the tinid being. But following this the great infiltration by the Leninists- Communists of the IRA began, cul- minating in the Communist party's activating the CR campaign, and the petrol bombs, and the destruc- tion of property, and the murders, the lies, the denials, the whole wretched rotten business that makes one feel diminished in own- ing to the very name 'Irish'.
Moreover, even if one were to take your figure of a 'hundred or two people' as being actively engag- ed in war (and there were many more I saw on television marching in military style with berets and jackets at funerals than that num- ber), yet even a hundred can cause havoc if they have the passive sup- port of a substantial portion of the population around—and over the Border!
The fact is (and I speak as a
loyal citizen of this country, as well as an Irishman. just as James
Stephens declared he wished to be
considered British when the last war broke out) the Protestant people of Northern Ireland are fighting not only for their 'freedom, religion and laws' but for Britain's too! They are in the front line against the spread of Leninist- Communism today—fighting Bri- tain's battle, and not for the first
time. Catholic Ireland is fighting tor Absolutism, with a growing
minority fighting for Leninist-Com-
munist Absolutism, and between those two there is a growing rap-
prochment, whereas between that Democracy which is the British way and Absolutism whether Catholic or Leninist—there is no possible basis of agreement.
And I am afraid that, whether you like it or not, Catholic-Gaelic Ireland is Britain's enemy. They want apartheid, that is, separate de- velopment, from the British way. They have a right to it, but not to endangering the security of Britain or its people, not to say of Europe and its western Christian civilisa- tion, which are threatened now by the infiltration of the Leninists. Wasn't there something about large issues growing from small acorns? And could you, please, instead of talking about handing back bits of the Six Counties piecemeal, begin instead to discuss a Federal or Confederal solution for these islands, comprising England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Irish Republic, and the Isle of Man? It would really make more sense—I would say, the only sense, in this untangling of a too tangled skein?
Ewant Milne 46 De Parys Avenue, Bedford
Ps. What's wrong with a 'con- federation of the British Isles' or 'Western Isles' if Britain offends the Gaels beyong bearing! I mean under The Crown, of course.
Previous page
