The Orange Order hopes to make a submission to the Police
Commission this month, pressing for the retention of the Royal
Ulster Constabulary which has served Northern Ireland so well
since 1921, and for the symbols and insignia of the Force
to be kept.
The Orange will have the support and backing of all right-thinking
and law-abiding people in Northern Ireland. Any radical 'reform'
of the R.U.C. which would emasculate the Force and leave it
powerless to do its job would have drastic and far-reaching
consequences for this Province.
Northern Ireland cannot afford to drop its main bulwark and
its defence against total anarchy, namely the Royal Ulster
Constabulary.
To reduce the Force significantly in size, to change its
recruitment policy in order to meet 'demographic' requirements
- in other words reduce the Protestant percentage - would
be the height of folly.
Already there are suggestions of petty restriction being
imposed on police officers, including a ban on membership
of the Loyal Orders. Such bans would be very unfair, but while
the Loyal Orders would be rightly outraged if such a ban was
to be implemented, the possibility of more radical changes
to the structure and recruitment of the police would be even
more unacceptable.
Talk of Roman Catholics from the Republic being recruited
in order to reduce the Protestant proportion in the Force,
on the grounds that they would be less likely to be intimidated
than Northern Ireland Roman Catholics is totally unrealistic.
Northern Ireland needs an R.U.C. which is left alone to do
its job, without interference with its membership or its make-up
- in other words no change, apart from constructive ones,
in the present Royal Ulster Constabulary.
While all decent people hope that Northern Ireland is set
for better things and a more peaceful future, that cannot
be assumed and it would be folly to reduce the size of the
R.U.C. until it is fairly safe to predict that the 'Troubles'
are over.
And even if the political violence has ended, does anyone
imagine that Northern Ireland will revert to the peaceful
pre-1968 society? No, the harsh facts are that Northern Ireland
has an infinitely greater crime problem today than it had
30 years ago, due in large measure to the operations of the
I.R.A. and other paramilitary organisations.
Even if those organisations are persuaded to give up their
weaponry - and it is a big 'if' - there is still a huge drugs
problem, and there is proof of organised gangs operating in
Belfast and other cities and towns.
Northern Ireland needs a strong, well equipped R.U.C., with
no attempts to dilute its efficiency - an efficiency which
is admired by police services throughout the world - without
any outside interference. The Ulster people deserve nothing
less and are entitled to expect Her Majesty's Government will
give the R.U.C. 100 per cent backing in its present form.
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