Sir, - Northern Ireland is armed to the teeth and disarmament is an urgent necessity. The demand that paramilitary supporters of the agreement "decommission" arms is a lesser and indeed a dangerous thing because it would leave substantial arms in the hands of opponents of the agreement.
The arms of the dissident paramilitaries would be untouched, along with those of the RUC and RIR, many of whose members are nervous of the agreement, to say the least. It would also leave untouched the arms of such men as those who waved their gun licences in the air at the behest of Mr Paisley some years ago.
Without doubt there is a large collection of arms legally held in Northern Ireland, most of them in Protestant hands and many in the hands of men determined to destroy the agreement.
One of the benefits of membership of the UK should surely be the extension to Northern Ireland of the GB legislation prohibiting the ownership of hand guns. The Northern Ireland MPs could then demonstrate their loyalty by giving a lead - surrendering their guns as a first step in "decommissioning". - Yours, etc.,
Eric E. Robinson,
Ardlougher, Ardara, Co Donegal.