Ireland—North arid South

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 68, 13 December 1933, Page 11

Ireland—North arid South

Sir, —I observe your correspondent “All Irelander” expresses the hope that some dav the North and the South will be united as of yore. But I fear he will have a very long time to wait ere tnis comes to pass; his prophecy may be fulfilled during the Millennium! But the union of North and South will never come to. pass under present conditions, nor as a Republic under de Valera. ( I was interested to learn from All Irelander” that Mr. de Valera is. a perfect gentleman,” who pledges his word and keeps it. What are the facts. today’s “Dominion” reports in its cable news that during the recent debate m the British House of Lords on the Free State question Lord Carson stated that “The Oath had gone, other safeguards had been abolished, and now the last remaining safeguard, appeal to tne rn\y Council, had gone.” The Irish Free State authorities have thus cut off one after another the ties that bind them to Great R rlt a’ n a . nd 1 o 91 other Dominions. The Treaty of 1921 had been treated as “a scrap of paper. Mr. de Valera was the prime mover in all these changes. Your correspondent further states tnat his Roman Catholic friends of the Free State are not anxious to. leave it, and are quite content to remain in the Free State among their Protestant neighbours. He seems to be unaware of the fact that the Protestants in the Free State are a diminishing quantity, and at the present time are only 7 per cent, of the population, while forces and influences are tending to reduce this small n'inority or to eliminate it altogether. In Southern Ireland loyalists and Protestants have to observe great caution, and. they, find it safer not to proclaim their principles: their religious faith is a bar to many appointments. _ ... At the same time Roman Catholicism has been slowly and surely peaceably penetrating into almost every district m Northern Ireland.—l am, effiG. W. BLAIR. ■Featherston, December 8.