Modest initiative on Ireland

Press, 1 September 1977, Page 8

Modest initiative on Ireland

vNZPA - Reuter Washington

President Carter has taken .the modest first American initiative to help end the decades of bloodshed between Northern Ireland’s warring Protestants and Roman Catholics. He appealed to both sides to seek a peaceful solution to their problems, working with the Governments of Britain and Ireland. He held out a promise to “join with others to see how additional job-creating investments” could be encouraged in Ulster once peace was restored. Administration sources I said the statement grew out of a recent meeting between Mr Carter and Irish-Ameri-can Congressmen. “You could say the statement was as much of a gesture towards those the President met with as it was towards Northern Ireland,” the sources added.

Another Administration source said the President’s statement “could almost be taken as a message that the Administration doesn’t plan to get embroiled anywhere else in the world.” The President also pledged to crack down on anyone materially supporting any side in the conflict.