Ireland—the vicious escalation
The vicious escalation of the conflict in Ulster has clearly deeply shocked ministers only beginning to find their feet in the Northern Ireland Office for, although both Mr Rees and Mr Orme have long personal experience of the Problems of the province, the burden of ministerial responsibility is not one which it is easy to learn to carry. The problem is aggravated, moreover, by certain other considerations: Mr Faulkner's Executive clearly received a resounding vote of no confidence in the recent general election; though the Dublin government has again stepped up its efforts against the IRA it does not yet seem that the use by that organisation of the Republic as a base has been seriously hindered; and the army seems now to find it impossible to keep the central streets of cities free from the murderers.
More than a word of praise is due to Mr Cosgrave's government. Hampered though they have been by an uncertain public opinion and an ambiguous opposition, not to mention laws of control difficult to interpret and apply, they have taken large strides to improve even their own early performance in the struggle a.gainst the IRA. An army and a police force Inadequate in numbers for their task have nonetheless uncovered and confiscated large stores of IRA arms and made many arrests of senior members of that dreaded gang. Further, the Irish government has in hand further plans to increase the strength both of the Gardai and the army, difficult though recruitment is, while Mr Cosgrave's last statement regarding the position of Northern Ireland as a part of the United Kingdon can have left nothing to be desired even by the most suspicious Protestant: Dublin policy has indeed come a long way since the tightrope policy of Mr Jack Lynch. All Dublin seems to be asking in return is the establishment of a Council of Ireland and the full implementation of Sunningdale.
There is no conceivable Protestant reason to resist this modest claim for, in any imaginable circumstances, the Ulster representation would have the power to veto any proposals it found repugnantly likely to lead towards a united Ireland. In this context, therefore, there is everything to be said for the pleas of Mr Rees and Mr Orme for the full and unstinting support of the people of Ulster, of all creeds and factions, for the security forces in the war against terrorism, whatever its source. Of course it is difficult for frightened people to give such support, and the sternest measures must be taken to protect those who do. But if it is not forthcoming, and if the Protestant majority in Ulster continue to deliver their hearts and votes to such curiously motivated politicians as Mr Craig and Mr West, then very serious questions will inevitably be raised in Britian about the involvement of the army and the Westminster government in an apparently unceasing struggle in Ulster. It has always, of course, been Mr Craig's contention that Ulster could go it alone: she may yet have to; and it may come about that we see three declarations of independence, one from London, one from Dublin, and one from Ulster. The matter will shortly be decided.
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