August 14 1974
The Secretary of State, Mr Merlyn Rees, yesterday issued a statement stressing that what he said on ITV’s special programme on Northern Ireland did not mean Britain was “pulling out” of Northern Ireland.
In answer to a question asking if the British government’s White Paper on Northern Ireland was a prelude to disengagement, Mr Rees said: “In terms of disengagement, in the view of pulling out and let them get on with it – no.
“In the sense that I believe strongly that it is the people of Northern Ireland who must and will work out their own salvation – if that is disengagement, then the answer is yes. And I accept that in one sense it is,” he added.
Further asked – “It is a British political disengagement” – the Secretary of State said: “Yes. But not meaning that we have no ultimate responsibility, because on the way through things may go wrong and we have a responsibility.
“But I want to see the people of Northern Ireland taking decisions about their own province and working together in a way that they don’t yet, so I’m not talking about next week or even the next month.
“I believe this is a beginning of a pull-out and let them get on with it. It’s a beginning, in my view, of facing up to the reality that was shown in May of this year.”
Merlyn Rees, while trying to be clear on British withdrawal, arguably added to confusion with his muddled statement on the government’s plans for the north.
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Killer Blast Ours Say Provos
The second battalion of the Provisional IRA, in Crossmaglen, last night claimed responsibility for yesterday’s bomb blast near the south Armagh border in which two British soldiers were killed.
The men who died were Cpl Denis Alfred Leach (24), from Leeds, and Marine Michael John Southern (19), of Markyate, near St Albans, Hertfordshire. They were members of 45 Royal Marine Commando, and both were unmarried.
Yesterday’s deaths bring to 25 the number of soldiers killed in the Crossmaglen area since the northern troubles began in 1969.
