DIVIDE AND by Paul Doherty

fraud. The recent border poll follows from the imposed division. Lord Carson said in retrospect of Partition "What a fool I was! I was only a puppet, and so was Ulster, and so was Ireland, in the political game that was to get the Conser+ vative Party into power". Of course it was a case of the biter bit, as when Lloyd George told Redmond that he "placed his life upon the table, and would stand or fall by the agreement come to" viz. that the six counties would be excluded from the Home Rule Bill only for the provisional emergency period due to the First World War. However, on May 29th 1916, Lloyd Goerge had already secretly written to Carson as follows: "I enclose Green's draft propositions. We must make it clear that at the end of the provisional emergency period, Ulster does not, whether she wills it or not, merge with the rest of Ireland. P.S. Will you show it to Craig?".

THE SELFISHNESS OF GREAT BUSINESS INTERESTS On the 28th September 1924 the Earl of Shelbourne ‘revealed to the Press Association a memo of _the late Walter Long, the British cabinet's adviser on Ireland, that Carson and Craig, when the Partition Act was passing through Parliament, got the cabinet wranimously to pledge to hold the six county boundary thereafter inviolable in return for the Unionists' promise to work the Bill. The Times detected in the subsequent decision of the Ulster Unionist Council to ‘patify the agreement "the selfishness of great business interests". So much for the principled behaviour of the British which led to the creation of the six counties.

The actual fixing of the border of the new state presents an even more fraudulent picture. In January 1920 Long visited Northern Ireland to sample Protestant opinion, the question of the border, and reported back to the cabinet on 3rd February that most of the people were of opinion that the whole province should be excluded; but on the other hand. the people in the tnner ec‘rcles hold the view that the new province should consist of the six counties, the idea being that the inclusion of,,Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan would provide such access of strength to the Roman Catholic party, that the supremFREE IRELAND MAY 1973 PAGE SIX wrote "Mr. Lloyd George remarked that I myself pointed out ona previous occasion that the North would be forced economically to come in. Lord Birkenhead stated in the Lords on: 9th December, 1925 that the Treaty "never could have been signed, it never would have been signed, without Artcle 12". But even before it met the findings of the Boundary Commission were already settled. Lord Birkenhead in a secret letter to Craig dated 3rd March 1922 wrote: "I understand you wish to be assured as to the meaning of clause (12) in the Articles’... the Article contemplates the maintenance of Northern Ireland as an entity already existing not a new state to be brought into being... It is regarded as a creature already constituted having its own Parliament and its own defined boundaries".

THE BIRTH OF THE ORANGE STATE The letter concluded "I have no doubt that the tribunal, not being presided over by a lunatic, will The two questtons for the voters. Free State. The present Border Poll, the results of which were announced on 9th March 1973 must be seen in this context. Words such as majority Bowler-hatted William Cosgrave ratses the first flag of the Irish and minority are stood on their heads. The questions asked by the Poll were so framed as to give no meaningful choice. Paisley and others insisted that, as Carson had demanded on 22nd July 1914, "all vote as a unit - one unit". The Loyalists, no doubt with the help of some personation, voted to remain part of the United Kingdom 57.2% of the total electorate voting this way. This poll gave the British carte-blanche to subsequently reveal thetr terms, on which Northern Ireland is to remain a part of the United Kingdom.

from it. "attack on civilised standards" -the bombs which went off in London on March 8th, it is understandable that no spate could be found for the story of Gunner Williams who had violated another set of cherished British standards ... he refused to become a child-killer on the orders of an Army Officer.

Gunner Williams was stationed in Belfast last December. "About a fortnight before Christmas" he recalled, "I was on guard duty at Hawkins Street; there was a few children playing about 25 yards away from my guard-post, a sand-bag sanger enclosed by corrugated tron. There were, oh, roughly four of those children in a group, all of them boys and certatnly not more than about 12 or 13 years of age".

SHOOT THEM!

Sunner Williams was alone in the post when an officer came in and spotted the children.

He took a look round to see if all was quiet - you can see in four different directions from the hut - and then he just turned and said to me - "Shoot them.'", looking at the children.

Horrified at the order, Gunner Williams refused, and continued to refuse as the officer repeated louder.®. "I told you to shoot those kids", and called him an "insolent bastard", He was put under arrest and charged with "disobeying a direct order" and "insubordination" and after a night in the cells, was taken back to Colchester in Essex, where he waited under close arrest for the return of his regiment.

"The regiment came home at . Christmas and everybody got leave tneluding myself, on the understanding that I would return. I was put under open arrest, with no pay."

REFUGE IN IRELAND He spent Christmas*at his parents home in London, which was constantly under surveillance by the police. It was from there that he and his brother Alf successfully escaped to Ireland and took refuge.

The British Army state that they would welcome Gunner Williams back but he seems unsure of his "welcome", saying that neither he, nor his brother can return to Britain.

Gunner Williams has thus become another of the increasing number of British soldiers who have rejected the brutal role which British Imperialism assigns to them in Ireland, and who have been forced to flee from their homes to escape

GROWING DISILLUSIONMENT WITH UDA More than 1,000 vehicles have been JOHN MACLEAN COMMEMORATION COMMITTEE Dear Comrade Editor, November 30th this year (1973), will mark the 50th ~ ATL Branches