Mr. Colin Wallace (Hansard, 23 May 1988)

§ Mr. Freeman

The text of my letter was as followsThank you for your letter of 22 March. I can confirm that Mr. Wallace was granted a commission as a part-time member of the UDR in the rank of second lieutenant and granted the acting rank of captain with effect from 18 January 1972. His resignation of this commission took effect from 14 November 1975. As an acting captain, he would have been paid as a captain for all military duties carried out with the UDR, would have been entitled to wear the rank badges of a UDR captain, and in the course of his duties would have been addressed by the rank of "Captain"; all this is in accordance with normal Army practice. My reply to your Parliamentary Question of course referred to his substantive rank. It has not been possible to trace the memorandum to which you refer in your letter, and I cannot therefore comment upon it. There are no records available of what duties Mr. Wallace carried out with the UDR. I understand that Mr. Brian Parker was an Information Officer based at HQ UDR. and that he was responsible to the Commander UDR for public relations and all press matters affecting the UDR. You ask for assurances on a number of points. I am aware of no evidence whatsoever that explosives were supplied by a member or members of the UDR for the bombings in the Irish Republic on 17 May 1974; or that any serving member or members of the UDR were involved in the murder of John Francis Green or the bombing of a public house in Silverbridge; or that military intelligence personnel have ever supplied weapons or explosives to civilians for unlawful use in Northern Ireland or the Irish Republic; or that Robert Jackson has ever had any connections with military intelligence authorities.