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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, DECEMBER 13, 1985
There must be, at least, very deep misgivings among officials
with experience of Northern Ireland about all this.
But I
wonder whether certain officials, and perhaps also certain
politicians, do not alread y discern a possib le silver lining to
the gathering clouds. •s ilver lining" thinking, which could
never be public ly avowed, might run more or less like this:
"Maybe this thing will work, and the Unionists will simmer
down, having let off steam. If so, fine. But maybe they will
not settle down. Maybe they'11 keep on raising hel l, so that
we can no longer really govern the place. But might not that
outcome be quite good, too? It could give us the opportunity
to get rid of Northern Ireland once and for all, in a way that
would be fully understandab le to pub lic opinion.••••
In a book called States of Ireland, published in 1972, I
contemplated a •benign scenario
1
and a •malign scenario" for
the future of Northern Ireland•••• The benign scenario is•••not
under way. The •malign scenario" runs as follows:
Britain
finds that it cannot defeat the IRA and its allies. So, having
registered the hostility of the great majority of the
population of Northern Ireland, Britain decides to withdraw.
The withdrawal is followed !!I, the Protestants setting .!:!12 .!!!
independent government.
This precipitates savage fighting
between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland, fol lowed
by intervention by the Republic and civil � involving all
Ireland. I am afraid we now appear to be moving, rather fast,
towards the fulfillment of the "malign scenario."
The
potential for its fulfillment was always implicit in the
sustained effort to move a million Ulster Protestants in the
direction in which they refuse to move: a united Ireland.
Sanctuary Movement Spreads
Cities across the United States, under
pressure from liberal and minority activist groups, are declaring
themselves as sanctuaries for illegal aliens. The trend is sure to speed
up the influx of illegals already pouring into the country. Los Angeles
became the biggest city to do so when, on November 27, its city council
voted 8 to 6 to declare itself a sanctuary city.
The resolution
instructs city employees not to voluntarily assist the o.s. Immigration
and Naturalization Service in finding and deporting illegal aliens.
Police are instructed not to arrest or detain an illegal merely for being
in the country. Police cannot even notify the INS of the whereabouts of
an illegal unless he or she has been booked for a felony offense or
multiple misdemeanors.
The INS is frustrated and furious at the growing sanctuary movement,
which is also fueled by liberal activist ministers tur ning their churches
into sanctuaries.
However, the motive behind both the municipal and
church policies is clearly political and intended as a slap against the
Reagan Administration's Central American policy.
The L.A. resolution
singles out refugees from Guatemala and El Salvador, two countries whose
governments are supported by the
u.
s. and who face communist-supported
insurgencies. The INS has clear provisions for accepting people who can
prove that their return would be dangerous to their lives--but such
approval is rare since most "political refugees• really aren't so: They
leave for economic reasons, not political persecution.
•