Crisis after resignation of Northern Irish P.M.

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32561, 22 March 1971, Page 1

Crisis after resignation of Northern Irish P.M.

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) BELFAST (Northern Ireland), March 21. Northern Ireland today searched for a new leader as the resignation of the Prime Minister (Major James Chichester-Clark) touched off one of the worst crises in the British province’s troubled 50-year history.

Major ChichesterClark, a 48-year-old former Irish Guards officer with an upper-class English accent, quit after apparently failing to win British Government backing for stern measures against Irish Republican extremists.

U.P.I. reported that, on hearing of the resignation, the British Prime Minister (Mr Heath) postponed a visit to West Germany. Major Chichester-Clark’s resignation touched off whoops of joy in Protestant areas of Belfast, but Catholics adopted a cautious wait-and-see attitude. Moments after the announcement was broadcast, two petrol bombs were thrown from an alley into a bar, but only one of them exploded, causing minor damage. Major Chichester-Clark waited until the bars had closed to make his announcement. A.P.-Reuter reported that his resignation after 689 stormy days in office has presented Mr Heath with one of

his biggest headaches since his Conservative Government won power last June. Major Chichester-Clark is expected to be succeeded by the Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Brian Faulkner). The British Government is committed to making reforms in Northern Ireland aimed at ending discrimination against the province’s one-third Catholic minority.

But, the British Government is also faced with growing anger from the province’s Protestant majority at Irish Republican extremist activity, which two weeks ago claimed the lives of three young British soldiers. Today Mr Heath will meet the Labour Leader (Mr Harold Wilson), at Mr Wilson’s request, to discuss the crisis. Mr Wilson has pledged full backing of the Government as long as the reform programme is followed. The Chichester-Clark resignation is bound to have repercussions within Mr Heath’s party. On Monday eight Northern Ireland members of the British Parliament will meet to consider their future ties with the Conservative Party. Mr Heath has a majority in Parliament of 31 and a defection of eight M.P.s would be a major political embarrassment.

Mr Faulkner, aged 50, is regarded as an agile politician who has managed to retain trust among many militant Protestants while at the same time pushing through reforms aimed at satisfying the Catholic minority. Mr Faulkner is opposed by a former Home Minister, Mr

William Craig, leader of the extremist wing of the ruling Unionist Party, who last night said he would be a contender. Also opposing Mr Faulkner is the Rev. lan Paisley, leader of the Protestant extremists, who regards him as a turncoat.

Major Chichester-Clark quit yesterday after the British Government sent the Minister of Defence (Lord Carrington) and Chief of Staff (Sir Geoffrey Baker) to Belfast to ask him to stay. In his resignation statement, Major Chichester-Clark said: “I have decided to resign because I see no other way of bringing home to all concerned the realities of the present constitutional, political and security situation. “The situation is simply this: it is apparent that the public and Parliamentary opinion in Northern Ireland looks to the Northern Ireland Government for measures which can bring the current I.R.A. campaign swiftly to an end.

“I have expressed to British Ministers the full force of this and have pressed upon them my view that some further initiative is required.” Profiles of Major Chichester-Clark and Mr Faulkner: page 15.