SPIES IN ULSTER

Evening Star, Issue 24004, 1 October 1941, Page 2

SPIES IN ULSTER

NUMEROUS GERMAN AGENTS All tho British defences in Ulster for repulsing any German attempt to invade Ireland are known to the Nazis, probably down to the last tank and gun, telegraphed William Barr from London to the Sydney ‘ Sun.’ This disquieting situation was revealed _to visiting war correspondents by a high British officer during a full scale mock battle to test Ulster’s military preparedness. Unfortunately the exercise, which was of vital military importance, was_ held against the background of the titanic Russo-German war, giving it an air of unreality. The use of bogus “ fifth columnists ” in tho exercises increased this atmosphere because the whole of Ireland is swarming with genuine enemy agents and German sympathisers. The presence of these anti-British elements in Ulster is not due to Jack of British prudence, but to the fact that, despite a constant watch on roads and railways, it is impossible to prevent German informers slipping across the frontier at some remote spot at night from neutral Eire.

They are then able to carry put espionage activities, often after contacting German sympathisers, among whom, unhappily, there must be numbered about 5,000 Irish Republican Army malcontents known to be in Ulster

The British officer emphasised that the Army authorities were doing evei’ything in their power to deal with these spies. The closest guard -was kepi over aerodromes and 'tank depots, and no one was allowed within spying distance until his bona fides had been exhaustively checked. But these agents obviously have little difficulty in gauging the strength of our forces and conveying tbe information to Germ&n military attaches, who still function in Dublin. This disadvantage for Britain is another result of the political dissension which has made the whole of Ireland, even after the bombing of Belfast and Dublin, a land of bitterness and resentment. This, of course, applies chiefly to Eire, but it cannot even be said that public opinion in Ulster is 100 per cent- behind the British war effort.

Where there is loyalty in Ulster—and it is considerable—it is as strong as anywhere in Britain. But among some sections there is a resentment against Britain that has made Eire, if not Germany’s ally, at least her unwilling helpmate. This feeling of half-heartedness for the British war effort is fostered not only by Tro’and’s apparently insoluble political difficulties, but bv periodical outbreaks of hooligar ; sm and terrorism bv Nationalist hotheads.