It is obvious that Sir Nevil Macready, though he means
to restore order, will not have it restored by undisciplined means. This is absolutely right and only what we should have expected in spite of all the malicious misrepresentations to the contrary. Like all soldiers in high command, General Macready knows that an army that is allowed to act in accordance with its own ideas and not under strict orders soon becomes useless for any purpose whatever. And this is true even though wild and disordered action may have seemed temporarily to be gaining its ends. Much of the talk about reprisals is entirely irrelevant. There are right reprisals and wrong reprisals,. So long as reprisals_ hitting back at those who commit crimes—are carried out under proper authority, they are not only justifiable but are the only policy which the Army in Ireland ought to pursue.
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