[unclear: Ireland]

The ugly spectre of "terrorism" has hit [unclear: ess] headlines lately over the assassination [unclear: Airey] Neave, British Conservative spokes [unclear: n] on Northern Ireland by a breakaway [unclear: tion] of the Irish Republican Army.

In the best traditions of bourgeois [unclear: jour-ism], the issues at stake have been left [unclear: be-id] completely and all attention has [unclear: focu-I] on the threat which terrorism presents "British" and I suppose, western a vision's way of life. Anyone who saw [unclear: Mar-er] Thatcher on the television news last [unclear: ek] will be aware of the old world [unclear: quaint-s] of this view (she spoke of "being moved [unclear: with] the way the British people closed rands [unclear: inst] the threat" on this occasion).

So let's look a little closer at the issue [unclear: ing] not to fall into the trap which I [unclear: con-id] the press has fallen into, if not set in [unclear: as] first place.

The greatest act or terrorism to have [unclear: r] taken place in "Britain" has been the [unclear: tory] of the systematic rape of the Irish [unclear: ple] and the vicious reprisals taken against [unclear: vements] for self determination and a [unclear: uni-d] nation of Ireland. To read books [unclear: writ-by] Irish patriots gives you an [unclear: understan-g] of how much the Irish people, in the [unclear: th] and in the south, resent the English [unclear: upation], past and present, of their [unclear: coun-] and the imposition of a "divided Ireland" [unclear: icy] on them. It is only when you realise depth of feeling that you begin to [unclear: under-d] the bitterness and hatred that drives people to bomb and assassinate.

Of course this does not in itself justify the tactics of one or two Republican groups of attacks on innocent working people in England and Ireland, and their refusal to engage In building up the Irish people's movement at home, but does this in anyway detract from the just cause of the Irish.

This piece is simply putting, perhaps, the other side of the question, which is not to deny that the situation is a complex one full of hooks and barbs, most of which were planted there by sucessive English regimes, over the last few hundred years. I urge readers to follow this up by informing themselves further with [unclear: th] history of the struggle for Ireland.

German [unclear: In]

A little closer to home perhaps; just prior to the departure of the West German industrialists, the leader of the group gave a speech at the Auckland Chamber of Commerce. You could say that he let the cat out of the bag somewhat by stating that one of the main reasons West German industrialists have become interested in us an investment prospect is not so much our abundant supplies of energy (Germany after all has large natural reserves of coal), but the fact that wages in New Zealand are so low in a country with a relatively high "investment safety rating". Now that Muldoon has prepared the way for the influx of foreign investment, we may soon see many similar delegations travelling through the country inspecting prospects for a good return on their money.

Malaysian Air Systems

The National Overseas Student Service of Australia has sent a message of support for Australian unions who blacked the Malaysian Air Systems DC 10 as a response to reprisals by the Malaysian Government on striking airline workers and officials of the International Transport Workers Federation in Kuala Lumpur.

The MAS staff wont on a strike over pay negotiations, but officials of both the local and international unions were jailed under the Internal Security Act, after the government had decided that any threat to MAS was a threat to the security of the country.

In order to patch up bad relations with the Malaysian government and the ASEAN group, Australian PM Malcolm Fraser sent in the Royal Australian Air Force to break the strike and "hijack" the DC 10 back to Malaysia.

Pakistan

Last Wednesday ex-Prime Minister of Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was executed by the present Zia regime.

Zia's decision to hang Bhutto, could mean trouble for a nation that has been very finely balanced on the brink of civil war for the last few years. Add the fact that Pakistan occupies, more now than ever, a key spot in the strategic balance of Asia and the world, and you have a potentially explosive situation.

Other factors that could trigger large scale violence are religious conflicts between Shi'ites and Sunni's, regional antagonisms which were kept under control while Bhutto was in power, and the instability of the border with Afghanistan, heavily influenced by the Soviet Union.

Vietnam

It is reported that the Vietnamese army is building up troops along the Laotian border with Kampuchea to prepare for another desperate offensive against the increasingly successful and confident Khymer Rouge. Laotian troops are also being used in this proposed new offensive.

Despite China's withdrawal from Vietnam, the present state of peace is only very shakey and judging by Vietnam's new call up of all able-bodied people between the ages of 16 and 45 and their latest troop build ups in northern Vietnam and Laos, it is likely that new outbreaks of fighting will occur in the near future.

We all make mistakes. Last week I said that Giscard d'Estaing was Prime Minister of France. He is of course the President. Ray-monde Barre is the PM, not the finance Minister as I reported last week.

International Correspondant.