Northern Ireland (Compton Committee's Report)

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 17 November 1971.

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Photo of Lord  Balniel Lord Balniel , Hertford 12:00, 17 November 1971

We have been discussing very serious and grave matters. It is right to look at the actions of the security forces against a realistic examination of part of what is going on in Northern Ireland today.

The aim of the I.R.A. is so to terrorise the population that co-operation with the Government becomes impossible. It aims to destroy the normal political processes. It aims so to terrorise witnesses that the courts of law are unable to operate, so that its own members can act with impunity. It aims through bloodshed to establish its own rules and its own authority instead of the laws of the country. Its methods are brutal, callous, barbaric. My hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Aberdeenshire, West (Lieut.-Colonel Mitchell) said that we are engaged in a test of will. The I.R.A. now knows that the troops will not give way before gunpower—but it hopes to sap the will-power of ordinary men and women in this country, so that sickened with the horror of what is going on, we shall despair.

Many allegations have been made of brutality against the security forces—allegations about both the period of arrest and the period immediately following that when the arrested persons remained in custody. These have been repeated in different media and so appear to be numerous but they are based upon a handful of statements made by men to the Association of Legal Justice and they were not corroborated by any other evidence. I am sure that the great majority of the public who have watched the Army on television month after month, going about its extremely difficult task, have found many of these allegations totally unconvincing. As a Government we could not brush them aside and ignore them. Some people might have believed the allegations, however unlikely they sounded. Some people probably had no idea what to believe. It was for this reason, at the request of the Army, rightly concerned for its good name, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Harrogate (Mr. Ramsden) said, that the impartial inquiry was set up by the Home Secretary. The allegations which were examined by the Committee fall broadly into two classes—