Police appeal to bombers for earlier warnings

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33942, 8 September 1975, Page 13

Police appeal to bombers for earlier warnings

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter—Copyright)

LONDON, Sept. 7.

After five bombings in nine days which have left three dead and over

100 injured, London police have appealed for mystery bombers to give code words and precise locations in bomb warnings to avert further carnage.

The appeal came from Scotland Yard after yesterday’s bombing at the London Hilton Hotel in which two people were killed and more than 60 injured. The high toll could have been averted had the Irishaccented person telephoning the bomb warning minutes earlier said exactly where the bqmb was placed, the bomb disposal squad commander, Mr Roy Habershon, told reporters here. “These so-called warnings are not real warnings at all ... all they seem to succeed in doing is killing people,” he said.

No-one has claimed responsibility for any of the five

blasts, but there is wide speculation that they are the work of a splinter Irish Republican Army group which wants to undermine the seven-month ceasefire with the British Army. Commander Habershon, replying to criticism that the police acted too slowly in searching for yesterday’s bomb and should have evacuated the hotel, said Scotland Yard was being inundated with hoax calls — receiving more than 250 yesterday and 30 up to noon today. He said that if the real bombers were at all serious in wanting to minimise danger. they would put some identifying feature in their warning calls. Under the heading “Bloody Dollars,” the London Sunday Times said in an editorial today: "Nobody knows for sure yet who were the cowardly murderers who planted the bomb in the Hilton Hotel, killing two and maiming others for life.

“It may have been the provisional Irish Republican Army or anarchist groups. “But there is one clear set of culprits who can be identified for these and for the

other outrages on innocent people —• the American citizens who maintain' the terrorists and pay for the bombs and guns. “There is irony in the fact that the Hilton is American and many of the guests are American. There can only be bitterness here for the blood money from the United States which explodes in London and Ireland. “Several hundreds of thousands of dollars every year are subscribed by Americans, mostly of Irish extraction, for the support of the I.R.A. and fringe republican groups . . . “The United States Government has done something to

cut down on the illegal traffic in guns. It could do more to inhibit the collection of blood money.”

The Sunday Express said: “What will happen to the terrorists who killed a man and a woman in the Hilton Hotel? If they are caught they will get life sentences which can mean only a few years jail and then parole. No [doubt the thugs will regard lit as a cheap price. . . . “When hanging was abolished in 1965, it Was done against the known wishes of the people. Every test of public opinion suggests that today there is an overwhelming majority in favour of restitution of the death penalty. The “Sunday Telegraph” wrote that the responsibility 'of Merlyn Rees, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, for Ulster affairs “can do no further good and it is time a new and more effective hand was charged with grasping this nettle in ]the only way possible: with I the grip of cold steel.”