Peace hopes in Ulster

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33424, 4 January 1974, Page 8

Peace hopes in Ulster

The swearing-in of Northern Ireland’s new threeparty Executive should presage, as the Prime Minister, Mr Faulkner, hopes, "a period of peace “and progress in the whole of Ireland”. Certainly there is the promise of fuller co-operation between the Governments in Belfast and Dublin in the task of suppressing terrorism. Mr Cosgrave, Prime Minister of the Republic, has pledged that there will be no refuge there for members of the Irish Republican Army engaged in terrorist activities in the North. If the border area can be sealed, something will have been gained towards making the police and military offensive against the guerrillas more effective. The will to co-operate in the new Parliament at Stormont has yet to be tested, and the minority Protestant groups led by the Rev. lan Paisley and Mr William Craig are showing no signs of assisting the Executive in its power-sharing approach to government. Although they will abandon none of their anti-Catholic prejudice, they will not be in a position to prevent decisions by the Cabinet becoming operative.

One of the reasons for optimism for 1974 lies ]' in a new and more practical merging of police and ; military functions. The soldiers are not in Ulster i merely to conduct a military operation against the I I.R.A. extremists. They will undertake patrolling j almost in police style, with the aim of dominating ■ completely the particular areas in which they are stationed. This was the goal towards which the previous Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (Mr William Whitelaw) was working: and it is clearly one which his successor. Mr Francis Pym. intends to pursue. The aims of the Administration, the Army and the Royal Ulster Constabulary are now -een to be pointing m the same direction. Two relevant points about the revised role of the Army have lately been made, the military must seek to win the co-operation of the local population in root- ' mg out the terrorists: or at least, if co-operation is 1 not offered, to ensure a neutral attitude that will | deny cover to wanted men: and. through a new 1 training programme, the soldiers are beginning to ’ feel that they are engaged as much in a propaganda war as a military operation. The new liaison between regular police and regular soldiers—and co-operation from south of the border—could make concealment difficult, if not impossible, for the terrorists.

In the same way. the terrorists must know that bombings in London and elsewhere will not bring about any change in British policy. In 1973, moreover. the I.R.A. suffered heavy casualties, notably among its leaders. In the long view, with more closely integrated planning, it is possible to hope that 1974 will provide the turning-point for which the long-suffering Ulster people have been waiting or pur sears