In May 1969, a secret British Home Office memo for the then prime minister, Mr Harold Wilson, outlined the problems of recruiting Roman Catholics to the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
Under the heading, "Needs of the Future", Mr D.E.R. Faulkner at the Home Office told Mr Wilson on May 16th that part of the reason the RUC was viewed with suspicion and even hostility in the North was the fact that it was a Protestant force designed to resist the IRA.
He wrote that the situation might be improved if the number of Catholics in the force could be raised from the then proportion of about 11 per cent to 25 per cent.
He said there had always been an understanding that up to one third of the places in the force should be available to Catholics yet Catholics had never been willing to join in sufficient numbers. Northern Ireland ministers might be asked to consider the possibility of a special recruiting campaign among Catholics.
The briefing was prepared ahead of a meeting between Mr Wilson and the Northern Ireland prime minister, Major James Chichester-Clark. Mr Faulkner told Mr Wilson that while political and social reform was needed the loudest voices calling for it were also those calling for a united Ireland.
It was important to convince Major Chichester-Clark and the Ulster Unionists, the official remarked, that in proposing social reform London was not calling into question Northern Ireland's constitutional position.
It was important if possible to separate legitimate demands for social reform from demands for the unification of Ireland, and to enable the government and the population to work for social reform without calling into question the constitution, or giving any grounds for suspicion that this was their intention.