Madam, - According to RTÉ (June 23rd) the Sinn Féin president has said there was nothing in principle to hinder his meeting the Chief Constable in Northern Ireland, but that there is no reason for him to do so. Mr Adams's comments followed a meeting he had recently with the most senior police officer in Britain. But isn't it in Northern Ireland that Sinn Féin's problems with the police authority reside?
It cannot see its way to endorse the current policing there until the Patten Report is fully implemented. What does Patten himself think? According to the Guardian (August 18th) last he told Sinn Féin to "get off the fence ... It's about time that they ensured that their community gets decent policing rather than policing shooting peoples' knee caps off." - Yours, etc.,
TOM WOULFE, Rathgar, Dublin 6.