Unionist anger over army failure

FROM A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT IN BELFAST
ABOLD initiative by the Army in Northern Ireland now appears to be inevitable as violence escalates and the I.R.A. seems to be scoring notable successes.
Indications are that grassroot Unionists are becoming increasingly angry over the apparent inability of the Army to combat the I.R.A. campaign, and the Stormont government fear that this could unleash a vicious and catastrophic Protestant extremist backlash.
Internment without trial is being widely canvassed on both sides of the Irish Border.
Just how serious the present crisis is was revealed at the weekend by Mr. John Taylor, a right-wing Unionist, who is Stormont's Minister of State for Home Affairs. He said it might be necessary for the army to shoot more civilians in the coming months—and that he himself would find it difficult to stay in the government unless tougher tactics were adopted by the security forces.
CREDIBILITY And Mr. Roy Bradford, the Minister of Development, adndtted that the present crisis was extremely grave. "We are past the stage where a political solution is around the corner," he said. "This is not Cyprus or Pakistan, and the British government with overall responsibility will clearly have to think again.
"The government cannot go on losing political credibility for a strategy of reform and minimum force which is not working."
At a lengthy meeting of the Stormont Cabinet on Tuesday, ministers told Prime Minister, Mr. Brian Faulkner, of the sudden dramatic hardening of attitudes in the constituencies and that people would no longer accept the "moderation policy" of the army in dealing with the I.R.A.
But Mr. Faulkner—and all his ministers—know that any new initiative such as internment must be first sanctioned by the Westminster government. who are reluctant to do anything which would further alienate the Catholic minority.
SUCCESSES At the same time he also knows that if something is not done quickly the "mad dogs" of his Unionist party will snap their leash and hurl Northern Ireland into a bloody civil war.
There are also strong indications at the moment that he is also finding it difficult to maintain unity inside his own Cabinet.
I.R.A. successes such as the spiriting away from hospital of a wounded man who was under armed police guard, the blowing up of the "Daily Mirror's" £2m. plant near Belfast, and the "execution" of two soldiers as a reprisal for the shooting of two Derry men during rioting has heightened tension throughout Northern Ireland.
So has the decision of six Social Democrat Labour Party M.P.s and six other opposition members to withdraw from Parliament became the government refused to hold a public enquiry into the death of the two Derry men.
A "people's tribunal" into the death of the two men has been set up by Miss Bernadette Devlin, the Mid-Ulster Independent M.P. The tribunal is under the chairmanship of Lord Gifford, the Labour peer, and a report is expected in about a week's time.