IRELAND TO-DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 243, 13 October 1936, Page 6

IRELAND TO-DAY.

(By MARC T. GREENE.)

MR. DE VALERA'S REGIME. PROBLEMS OF "PARTITION."

e I. DUBLIN. fi As you travel about the Irish Free State to-day you find that resentment against the partition is the disturbing element among all classes. Except 111 the extreme Republican n group, there is no distinct feeling of bitter--11 ness against England, and if you ask thought- " ful Irishmen whether, in the event that the partition were abolished, they would accept s membership in the British Commonwealth of s Nations, the ajiswer is almost always in the f affirmative. There are, of course, intransigent j. Republicans who, as they insist, would rather die fighting against Britain than live in prosperity within the Empire. But. they are a small minority, and Mr. de Valera himself L is determined to suppress their militant ) activities. j It is clear, then, that the moot question , is that of the partition, the division of this small country into two political units, Northern ■ Ireland and the Irisli Free State, or "Saorstat," ' as it is in the Gaelic. The Free State position , is that the majority should rule the whole country, and the Unionists constitute only about one-eighth of the people. Even in Northern Ireland itself at least one-third of the population are strong Nationalists. In , a united Ireland, the Free State man insists, time would close the breach between tb» great majority of Nationalists and the relatively few Unionist's, and then Ireland would at < last enjoy the peace and prosperity she has never yet known. He holds that the only basis for a permanent peace with Great Britain | is "the recognition of Ireland's rights as a ( free, united and independent people." That , recognition, he believes, can be gained, first, '■ by unity within the Free State itself (some- 1 thing that lias never yet existed), and, second, by consolidation of all the forces in Northern . Ireland which stand for unity. ]

What Mr. de Valera Has Done. On this point the Government and the Opposition, led by Mr. Cosgrave, Fine Gael, are not so far apart, but they are a long way apart in their idea of how unity ia to be achieved. Mr. Cosjrrave himself has stated that the attainment of 'political unity in Ireland overshadows every other question and ought to command the earnest attention of all elements. He lias also declared that "only on the 'basis of the Commonwealth of Nations could the ultimate unity of the country be restored." And while Mr. de Valera has never gone so far as that, he has promised, very lately, that "the Irish Free State will never permit its territory to be used by any foreign Power as a base for attacking England." He has, of course, abolished the oath of allegiance, made the position of Governor-General merely nominal, denied the right of appeal from the Irish Supreme Court to the British Privy Council, and withheld the land annuities. He has done other things, apparently of less significance, but quite as symbolic. Among these have been the adoption of a Free State flag and of a new coinage, the silver pieces being adorned with graphic representations of domestic animals, the horse, bull, dog and also the rooster. This is now the Free State money, and if you carry it into England you must pay a small commission to change it into British currency. But there is, on the whole, some indication that Mr. de Valera's obsessive antipathy toward England has become a little softened, and this is one of the causes of bitter hostility to him on the part of the extreme Republican element. They say he has "betrayed" Ireland. I listened to a Republican orator 011 College! Green, in Dublin, who shrieked that de Valera had "tears to shed for Abyssinia but none for poor distressed Ireland." 1 The Economic War. j■ That is not at all fair to the Free State | j President, who has, beyond any doubt what- j ever, greatly improved the economic condition of the country within the past half-dozen years, and that despite the world-wide depres- ' sion. The withholding of the land annuities, , roughly, £5,000,000 annually, was, of course, 1 met by England with a heavy tariff 011 Irish , cattle and dairy products. De Valera countered that by a subsidy to Irish farmers. That sub- j sidy has now been discontinued since England has materially reduced the import tariff 011 ' cattle and raised the quota. Nevertheless, that duty remains high enough to lead Mr. ' de Valera's critics to insist that the annuities J are still going to England, but at present "on ! the horns of Irish cattle." ' ' As a result of the economic war inaugurated ] through the withholding of the land annuities, , Mr. de Valera has had to attempt economic ■( nationalism in the Free State. He has cut j down imports through high import tariffs, 1 increased the production of wheat, adopted ( the American policy of killing cattle in order to encourage the leather and meat industries l c through increased prices, and, most important of all perhaps, greatly stimulated the beet- t sugar industry until SO per cent of all the sugar used in the Free State is now produced from the root of the beet.