THE BRITISH LABOUR MOVEMENT AND THE BRITISH ARMY IN IRELAND' Conwey Hall, Red Lion Square (Hoiborn tube), Saturday 19 May. Details from Anti-Internment League, 88 Rosiyn Road, London N. 15.
British Army recruiting is expected to maintain a fall over the year of more than 30 per dent. This is despite the expenditure of an additional 65% million since the beginning of the year to boost it, as well as the pensions increase announced on 2 May, which raises some beneTits to ten times their previous level. When the recruitment figures for November 1972 showing a fall of 43% were assessed at the Ministry of Defence, panic action was taken in an attempt to arrest this decline by the month of May 1973.
May was picked with the hope of pulling off a major morale boost lt is traditionally the best month for recruiting in the British Army, for example, in 1972, despite an overall reducation over the year of 33%, Anny recruitment went up in May by 17%, The British Ministry of Defence hopes to repeat this for May 1973. THREE AREAS The extra E5% million allocated for this purpose was directed to three main areas. Firstly it was intended to increase the number of potential officer recruits to balance the serious fall in this type of recruit, and the even greater fall in re enlistment figures. The services of a senior Management Consultants firm to advise on the attitudes of university undergraduates to the army were employed, on their advice, massive one page advertisements have regularly been placed in all the quality newspapers.
The object of this exercise is not so much that the adverts themselves should gain more recruits, but that the placing of the adverts should encourage a more "responsible" attitude by the press. In plain English, they are a "bribe"" to the newspapers to play down the "problems" affecting army recruiting, the role of the British army in Ireland.
A quick perusal of the quality press, weeklies and dailies, reveals their new responsible attitude.
The second main use for the extra money was in a campaign in selected off-centre areas of Britain to entice Career Masters and Youth Employment Officers to take a more positive: attitude. This drive is being reinforced in even more carefully selected areas by using Boy Scout, Outward Bound Schools, and Church Youth Clubs - including Roman Catholic Church Youth Clubs - to orientate theig youth towards an Army career.
The third use was in a massive advertising campaign in, and a PR job on, the local press in certain arcas.
WIVES Side by side with this, inside the Army, great efforts are being made to uplift the morale of serving middle-cadre elements, and particularly the morale of the wives in married quarters of NCOs, and long serving soldiers. This included the setting up of special counselling services in all married quarters to deal with the problems of Army wives, and establishment of wives clubs, with pressure on officers wives to join these clubs and shum it with the Other Ranks* WIVES The new pension boost announced on 2 May by lan Gilmour, Minister of State for Defence Procurement, is also aimed mainly at servicemen's wives. To spell it out, the wires are being given a financial interest in the possible death of their men.
MORALE Despite the endeavours of Procurer Gilmour, however, morale inside the British Army continues to plummet. In particular, the strain on the Ist and 2nd Battalions of the Parachute Regiment has led to the return to action in Ireland of the 3rd Battalion. Previous Army folicy had been to organise the regiment so that all doubtful morale or security cases were placed in the 3rd Battalion, which was not intended to return to Ireland.
But before going, replacements had to be found for some 40-odd NCOs who were already in the process of buying their way out. The "Glorious" Gioucester march through Bristol Ios year in an attempt to boost flagging recruitment and mor The replacements for such a crack unit could only come from another crack unit if they were not to dilute the esprit-de-corps. The reinforcements were found from the Special Air Service. In many cases they were withdrawn from Oman and seconded to the Paras: this followed one month's "valley" leave dunng which the officers, but not the Otber Ranks, were given an extensive course on the bistory, politics and social structure of Ireland. The Other Ranks, denied this orientation course, have been behaving as they were trained to behave in Oman, ie. any suspect IRA man, or someone who looks like a suspect IRA man, has been shot on sight The effect of this has been further to muck up Whitelaw's policy, reinforce public support for the IRA in the areas concerned, and harden resistance to Whitelawism; it has therefore made the task of the British Army much more difficult. This has led in turn to the possibility of an even further decline in the morale of the British Army, and certainly to a spread of the problem from the regular troops to units like the SAS.
The effect of this can be seen in some pubs in the Herefordshire area, where members of the SAS, who heretofore have displayed an almost Puritan attitude to drink and associated problems, are now being banned from pubs for misbehaviour. Many too are under threats from their wives that either they leave the SAS or their wives will leave them BLACK PROPAGANDA In an attempt to arrest this potential disintogration of a crack regiment, British Army Irish Command is bringing its Black Propaganda experts to play on any journalist who as much as asks questions about the SAS When the frish Times on the 24th April published a factual article on the morale of the SAS, Army HQ in Lisburn attempted to get the Ministry of Defence to issue a denial of the story. When the Ministry of Defence failed to do this, that old friend of the British Army, Brigadier W.F.K. Thompson, defence correspondent of the Dully Telegraph, pitched in with an attack on the frish Times article. He amalgamated this with a photograph of a British soldier, which he claimed was a fake becouse it abowed the soldier carrying an Armalite rifle. This claimed the brave Brigadie was not a British Army rifle.
However the British Army admitted in the early summer of 1971 that the Royal Green • Jackets were now training with the Armalite rifle. Moreover, less than a week later, the British Army issued a statement admitting that • Thompson sub-machine gun which a Para Officer had been charged with using in an attempted murder case was 'officially held und accounted for as an item of Anny equipment The willingness of the Brigadier to put his credi bility at stake and of his Army friends to bring it into question only a week Inter is directly connected with the despcrate attempt by sup porters of the British Army in Ireland to turn the tide and stop the fall in army recruitment. Much has been staked on achieving a similar upturn in recruitment figures in May 1972 as was schieved in May 1972. If this can be pulled off, then the possibility exists for building on this to stop the haemorrhage in the British Army's ranks CLEAR LESSON The lesson from this for opponents of the British Army in Ireland is clear. All measures necessary must be used in this crucial month and beyond to bring home to the British labour movement the full implication of the role of the British Army in Ireland. By these means it will be possible to surround the Any in its present role with a sea of hostility which can further contribute to the decline of Army re cruitment and hence aid objectively the Irish national liberation strugele.
This underlines the importance of building the Anti-Internment League conference on 19 Ma on the role of the troops in Ireland.