Sir, - I hope that the Tanaiste and Foreign Minister, Mr Dick Spring, and the present Government do not intend to make April Fools of us all with the ongoing pressure once again on Irish neutrality and our independence in foreign policy. It was alarming to see Mr Spring on board the US destroyer, USS Comte De Grasse, in Cobh recently. Surely such routine visits, if they are routine, don't ordinarily warrant a welcome from the Minister for Foreign Affairs?
Is there some other agenda, other than cadging votes in the Cobh area, that a key Government minister and leader of a political party, committed to maintaining Irish neutrality, at least on paper, should be on board a US destroyer which is assigned to NATO, while berthed in the lovely Cove of Cork, a safe and neutral harbour? The present Government is very wishy washy about our neutrality, no matter how you dress it up! The bottom line for nearly 70 per cent of the Irish population is that we don't want to lose our neutral status, especially to an alliance such as NATO or the WEU which is fundamentally committed to maintaining and using nuclear weapons if necessary.
Last December, NATO ministers stated: "We reaffirm that the nuclear forces of the Allies continue to play a unique and essential role in the Alliance's strategy of war prevention." Recently retired US General Lee Butler, a man who had his finger on the nuclear button, stated that nuclear weapons were the "glue" that held NATO together. The WEU is also a force committed to the use of nuclear weapons and is, indeed, glued to NATO type nuclear strategies!
Further recent speculation on a summer Amsterdam Treaty, Maastricht Mark 2, which would sew us up for partaking in joint European defence and security requirements - again, in military arrangements which ultimately would have a nuclear fist in an Armani-type glove - leave little left to reassure the peace loving and anti nuclear people of Ireland. We had to read that it would be the UK Government which would lead the charge against such proposals, or the other neutral countries! - Is mise, le meas,
National secretary, CND,
St. Luke's,
Cork.