BORDER KILLING Angry reaction to stand by Lynch

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32701, 2 September 1971, Page 13

BORDER KILLING Angry reaction to stand by Lynch

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) BELFAST, September 1. The situation in Northern Ireland appears today to have turned into a war of words, Dublin, Belfast and London having become immersed in angry exchanges over the responsibility for the week-end border incident in which one British soldier died and another was seriously wounded by machine-gun fire from I.R.A. terrorists.

In both London and Belfast, Cabinet Ministers have been angered by yesterday’s statement by the Irish Republic Prime Minister (Mr Lynch), in which he accused Britain of failing to control troop movements on the border.

Mr Lynch said there was evidence that the fatal shots were fired from the Northern Ireland side of the border, and not, as had been stated by the British Ministry of Defence, from the republic side.

Fuel was added to the fire today by a British Army statement, issued in Belfast, admitting that another patrol had accidentally crossed into the republic less than 24 horn’s after Sunday’s incident. This time, however, there was no trouble.

Mr Lynch said in his statement: “I have given Britain details of the incident, together with a strong complaint about her failure to control movements of her troops in border areas, which could be prejudicial to peace. "Neither members of the Army nor Garda Siochana at any time saw any firing from the 26 counties into the six counties, and allegations that our Army allowed such firing to take place without intervention are entirely without foundation.” ‘Civilians challenged’ He added that armed civilians seen on the southern side of the border were challenged by Irish Republic

He added that armed civilians seen on the southern side of the border were challenged by Irish Republic troops, but they had disappeared, “presumably recrossing into Northern Ireland.” Mr Lynch recalled that during the last two years British troops had crossed the border 30 times, and that these incursions had been brought to the attention of Britain when they occurred. “Assurances were received that they were accidental, and that stringent instructions had been re-issued to the British troops to avoid such infringements,” he said.

The British Ambassador to Dublin (Sir John Peck) will today give the British version of the ambush to the Irish Republic Foreign Minister (Dr Patrick Hillery).

The British Prime Minister (Mr Heath) and his Cabinet colleagues are said to have been embittered by Mr Lynch’s statement, which expressed no regret for the soldier’s death. There will be a full Cabinet meeting in London later today to discuss the situation in Ulster.

The Northern Ireland Cabinet considered Mr Lynch’s statement at a special meeting yesterday, and Govern-

ment sources say that the Ministers viewed it with disbelief and disappointment. The Roman Catholic Primate of Ireland (Cardinal Conway) yesterday made an impassioned plea for an end to the violence.

“I appeal to those who are seeking a solution by violent means: For God’s sake stop, and give peaceful means a chance.”

Gunner Clifford Loring, who was hit in the head by a sniper’s bullet while he was manning a road-block on the outskirts of Belfast on Sunday, died in hospital today. He was the twenty-seventh person and the seventh British soldier to die since the Northern Ireland Government introduced its intem-ment-without-trial policy on August 9. Private army? There is more speculation in Belfast that an all-Protes-tant private army is about to be mobilised to fight the I.R.A.

At a meeting called for this Friday by former members of the disbanded Ulster Special Constabulary, known as the “B” Specials, men will be asked to register their names for the establishment of a new civilian defence force.

Most of the former “B” Specials have retained their arms since they were disbanded by order of the former British Labour Government, and have been meeting regularly for target practice. There were more shooting and bombing incidents in Belfast last night. One soldier was shot, but not seriously wounded, while diinking in a city bar, and another soldier was slightly hurt when a terrorist sniper opened fire. A Presbyterian church hall was extensively damaged by a gelignite bomb, • and at Newry, to the south, a huge explosion damaged a sewagecontrol point.