SKY BRIGHTER

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 150, 22 December 1922, Page 7

SKY BRIGHTER

OUTLOOK OF IRISH FREE STATE SMALL THOUGH DETERMINED OPPOSITION PRESIDENT COSGEAVE'S VIEWS. (UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION COPYRIGHT.) (AUGTHAUAN • NEW ZEALAND* CABLE ASSOCIATION.) LONDON, 20th December. President Coegrave, in an article in the "Daily Express," says :—"A small anned 1 faction, with the moral backing of less than 2 per cent, of the population deny the right of the Irish people to accept equal status with the other mem- , bers in the commonwealth of free nations, and are now trying to produce chaos by pillage, arson, and assassination. De Valera and his supporters say the people have no right to do 'wrong, abrogating to themselves the right of deciding what is wrong. For months we strove for peace, but our opponents were only emboldened by our restraint." After giving in detail the Irregulars' crimes in rocerit months, President Cosgrave concludes : "It is vital to the existence of the nation that the Government and Army Council show in a plain and drastic way that they are determined to safeguard the people's Parliamentary representatives. The Irregulars' leaders have been shot, not in a spirit of vindictiveness, not in hot blood or even in anger, but as part of a definite policy of counter-action. The position in Ireland may seem dark, but the clouds are breaking. The J?ree State is firmly established" 1