Page "Ulster Defence Regiment" Paragraph 9

The Belfast Telegraph disagreed with the critics.

In editorials several days apart it declared: " In no sense can the new Regiment be regarded like the old USC, as a vigilante force and a law unto itself.

Inevitably the members of the new force will be provided by present B Specials and just as inevitably it is already being smeared in some quarters as simply the old force in new uniform.

Every effort must be made to ensure that this is not so.

No-one must be able to put a denominational tag on the UDR and if one of the senior officers in the force happened to be a Roman Catholic, so much the better ....

The establishment of this new force should be regarded as a turning point in the life of the community.