Cardinal's peace call defended

I completely fail to understand the point being made in last week's letter by Miss A. M. M. Westcott complaining that Cardinal Hume's suggestion that peace must come even before justice in Northern Ireland is "pragmatic".
To hope for peace must certainly seem to those in that trouble-torn land far more idealistic and optimistic than pragmatic. Is Miss Westcott maintaining that the bombing must go on until every injustice is rectified? If not, what is she saying? I entirely agree with Cardinal Home's statement — as 1 think every right-thinking Christian must be.
I am not at all clear what injustices Miss Westcott is referring to; but no injustices can justify the wanton killing and maiming of men, women and children.
Miss Westcott, writing from Hampshire, talks of dismay among the "Irish community" because of the Cardinal's statement.
Is she maintaining that the Irish community in Hampshire supports the bombing? If so, the least these people can do is go to Belfast and themselves face the violence instead of staying safely over here.
Those who support the bombing and believe that by doing so they are supporting Ireland are making a great mistake. The violence in Ulster has not only impoverished the country materially`— and also, incidentally, impoverished Eire because of damage to the tourist trade. It is also leading to a situation where Ireland and the Irish will he regarded with hatred and contempt. Despite the long-standing feud between Britain and Ireland, many English people have always had an affection for the Irish and have an opinion of them as a gentle, humorous people. But — thanks to the violence — this opinion is changing. Jokes against the Irish were always common, and were generally good-natured. But a recent trend is not only for anti-lrish.jokes to become more frequent, but also more bitter, with Irishmen depicted as both stupid and vicious.
The best turn any Catholic, Irish or otherwise, can do for Ireland now is to dissociate himself from the violence — to speak against it at every opportunity — to make _it clear that this is not a' true reflection of the Ireland we know and love.
I attended the Peace Rally in London in November. And I found
that this was the first time in recent years when I was able to listen to the singing of "When Irish Eyes are
Smiling" without a sick memory of a cartoon in a national paper which had the title of the song as its caption, with the drawing showing a leering figur planting a bomb.
Miss Westcott asks: "What is the Cardinal's definition of peace?" The first victim of violence in Ulster this year was a five-month-old baby, I think the Cardinal's definition of peace is a situation where such a tragedy would be impossible. (Mrs) Elizabeth Payne London W5.
One can only deplore the umust onslaught directed against HE Cardinal Hume by Miss A. M. M. Westcott in her letter of December 31.
Pope Paul has wisely said that "peace begins in the mind". Cardinal Suenens has stressed in his writings and addresses that only in an atmosphere of tranquillity and goodwill between Christians of different denominations can ecumenism have a future.
Any psychologist would agree that only in an atmosphere of calm and tolerance can we formulate constructive decisions — the perquisite of justice. Elizabeth Hamilton London, W8.
As Cardinal Hume has been criticised in your letter page I am writing in his defence.
There are few occasions in life when one experiences the joy which comes from being in the presence of holiness. Two I can remember— meeting Poor Clares in their parlour on a special day, and being present in the crowded Cathedral when the Cardinal returned from Rome. Here is holiness and undoubted integrity.
There must be many people w ho, like me. find truth and logic in any statement he has made. When he became Cardinal it was a joyous surprise, when one had become almost stoic about the greyness of things.
Patricia M. Smith Twickenham,
Middlesex.