MR. DE VALERA’S IRELAND

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 169, 13 April 1935, Page 6

MR. DE VALERA’S IRELAND

“Republicanism without a republic” was the very apt description applied to Mr. de Valera’s policy in a debate in the Dail Eireann reported yesterday. Apparently he is satisfied to leave it at that for the present, for he declined to be associated with a motion that the Free State Government should either abandon its professions ot republicanism or seek the authority of the electorate immediately to establish a republic. Although Southern Ireland under Mr. de Valera, s regime is steadily drifting toward republican status, its ultimate arrival at that destination would not be a satisfying fulfilment of his dream, which is a united republican Ireland in which the Ulstermen and the Free Staters would march like a happy band of brothers toward a new Utopia. Whatever grounds Mr. de Valera may have for thinking that the absorption of Ulster by an Irish republic might ultimately be possible, they are not apparent to those who are well informed on the subject. The evidence is dead against it. If Ulster went to a vote on the question of union with the Free State, two-thirds of the electorate, it is considered, would reject it. When Ulstermen discuss their political status it is with the idea of strengthening their. Imperial connection rather than of relaxing their ties. In their relations with the Government at Westminster Ulstermen are,, to use a colloquialism, on a very good wicket, both financially and politically. Their principal taxes and fiscal relations with other countries are determined by the British House of Commons, in which they are represented. By virtue of that representation they are entitled to a voice in the councils, of the Empire. Their own Government is a Government of local affairs, an arrangement that makes it possible for domestic questions to be settled promptly and effectively. It does not seem likely that they would be prepared to exchange this highly privileged position for the more precarious conditions of minority representation in an all-Ireland republic.