NO DESPAIR IN IRELAND.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3141, 30 October 1922, Page 8

NO DESPAIR IN IRELAND.

( By T. M. HeaK\ K.C.) Mourning unci despair are different things-. To-day there, is mourning in Ireland, but there is no despair. Only those who desire the return of the Black and Tans, or the would-be disrupters of the pence treaty with Britain, pretend that the loss of Arthur Griffith imperils the foundations of the Free State. Diehard opponents of Mr Lloyd George in England may reecho such taunts, but Ireland, with head erect under heavy blows, stands "bloody but unbowed." The madness of a handful of her children is sorrowful, yet she is not to be deflected from her goal. hi a moment so dark the grounds for n'ative confidence should be stated. Amidst propaganda emitted on all sides I ask myself: Is not government, in the ultimate analysis, a matter of police? Before death came General Collins had organised a, force adequate to cope with disorder. He did not leave us until ever\\ town had been liberated from the yoke of those whose title to obedience is the trigger-finger. Napoleon said he "could never beat the civil population;" and this impossibility is what Messrs Childer's and do, Vaiera are trying to achieve. The dead weight of public opinion has beaten them already, as it beat the. British Government in 1920-21, despite the Black and Tans. Still we must resign ourselves to the certainty that a futile campaign will continue to be waged for ;it least four months, to try to save the faces of the leaders. They have three timesmade overtures for a truce to the despised Provisional Government, in order to prevent their folly ending in sheer personal discredit. The last of then- proposals was turned down by General Collins on the day he set ou'l to meet death. The joint composers of "document number two" treat their rank and file as pawns iri. a political game. Many of the "fighting men" are under ago, and carry on through a boyish love of adventure. They have nothing to gain Iroin peace, as they would have to go back to work if peace was patched up. A midsummer insurrection is to some of them a sort of profitable picnic. One of their pundits has laid down that, if the fighting is kept up until a 'liven day in December (whether the tenth oi' the twelfth, I forget), the treaty will vanish in smoke, and both sides will then reunite to repel the returning legions of the 'British. Acquaintance with such conditions explains the tenderness which General Collins invariably showed to his adversaries, and his reluctance to take severe' measures against them. Had he been allowed to live, many of those who reckon on practising ill-doing with impunity would probably fare better hereafter. His fate, however, has now steeled the hearts of the people against leniency. "Shake hands" and cigarettes on ' surrendering is felt to be unfitting greeting for those who have wantonly shed innocent blood. Yet when Parliament assembles the members of the Provisional Government will be distracted and pestered by critics who "'want peace" but have hitherto failed to address their philanthropic declamation to the authors of the trouble. The Irish Executive will also be (as the British Government lias been) pelted with reproaches for allowing the disbandment of the R.I.C. until an efficient force had been mustered to replace it. Tins complaint indeed furnishes legitimate ground for examination, but \'v\v are aware that the 8.1.C. demanded disbandment, and declined to serve under either the Northern or the Southern Parliament. The genius of Collins and Griffith (not unattended by British good will) lias created a heritage of which their succesors are worthy heirs. Faithfully to maintain and uphold what is committed to their guardianship is a noble trust, and one which, it- may be hoped, will yet bo guerdoned by the crowning confidence of a united Ireland.