SIR,—May I reply to Mr. Denis Ireland's simple question, which
he puts forward in your issue of May tzth with the air of one propounding in- soluble problems? The reason why there is no conscription in Northern Ireland is because the anti-British minority would never submit to it, and the support they would get from their sympathisers in Eire would cause more trouble than it would be worth. The reason why there is a travel ban between Northern Ireland and Great Britain is simply because super- vision on the Eire-Ulster border is so difficult (and lax) that the only practicable way of preventing information useful to the enemy from getting out of Eire is to isolate the whole island of which Ulster is a part.
A permanent political schism in an island on Britain's ocean flank does not contribute to the security of Britain, but the only two remedies avail- able—namely, the coercion of Eire or the coercion of Ulster—would make matters infinitely worse than they are at present. Mr. Denis Ireland would do well to cultivate a more complete grasp of the obvious before intruding
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