Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1927. MR. COSGRAVE'S TASK

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 71, 21 September 1927, Page 8

Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1927. MR. COSGRAVE'S TASK

The best news from Ireland this morning is that with five returns to come the Free State Government still has a lead of five; that the Dublin correspondent of the "Daily Express" has "the highest authority" for stating that so long as the Government has a lead of even one Mr. Cosgrave will not resign; and that having spent £130,000 on the second General Election within four months, Ireland does not want a third. The resolution with which Mr. Cosgrave is facing a most distressing position indicates an even higher type of courage than that which inspired him after winning the two by-elections last month to risk another appeal to the country. Ireland has always been strong irf-the dashing courage which' Mr. Cosgrave displayed on that occasion. The hold-on courage which the new position demands is less congenial to the national temperament. "Sick, sore, and sorry, physically worn out, and in the kind of temporary collapse which comes when a fierce struggle has ended ambiguously," was " Mr. Stephen Gwynn's description of Mr. Cosgrave and his colleagues after the General Election in June. If, as he said, it was natural that, in the face of such a reward for the years of disinterested service which had rescued Ireland from anarchy, they should be talking of washing their hands of the job and letting who would govern Ireland, the temptation is obviously far greater now. The strongest member of the team has been murdered. The physical and nervous exhaustion of the survivors has been carried much further. There is hardly a ray of hope to relieve the darkness. Yet Mr. Cosgrave refuses to dospair of the State—we must not say "of the Republic," for that is Mr. de Valera's function—and holds bravely on. A strange feature of the neck-nnd-neck running is that it has not been confined to the two principal parties. The groups which give a general support to Mr. Cosgrave and Mr. de Valera respectively have been having, an equally close struggle. The progress report which we received on Monday gave the Government 39 to Fianna Fail's 37, but this majority of two was increased to four by an equal majority in the Independent votes favouring the Government—l 4 to 12. The first of to-day's returns showed a similar result. With 55 all the Government Party and Fianna *ail had tied, but the Independent groups with 17 to 15 gave the Government a lead of two. The reduction both in the aggregate and in the relative strength of these groups is one of the few thoroughly satisfactory features of the figures. In June the Government won 46 seats, Fianna Fail 44, Labour 22, Independents 14 and Farmers 11. With five returns stdl outstanding, the corresponding figures now are 59, 56, 12, 12, and 5! The two. principal parties have thus an aggregate of 115 against a previous aggregate of 90, while the strength of the three principal independent groups has fallen from 47 to 29. It is at once the strength and the weakness of proportional representation' that it gives minorities a chance, but without any change in the system the good sense of the electors seems to be putting a check on too minute a subdivision. A multiplicity of irresponsible and irreconcilable groups might be fatal to party government.

As we write, the final verdict comes to hand. With 79 to 73 the Government has a lead of six, and as the Speaker, who has wisely been given the right to hold his seat without a contest, is not included, this will not be reduced to five as soon as the Dail meets. Six is a precarious majority in a House of 152 members, but is slightly better than any of the interim returns allowed one to expect with any confidence,., and it is six better than the 71 to 71 which, in the unaccountable sbsence of Mr. Johri Jinks, allowed the Speaker's casting vote to save the Government from defeat in the previous Dail. It is something to the good that the ousting of the Government on the first test vote is out of the question, but that with such a majority they should carry on effectively even for a single session seems almost equally improbable. Some rearrangement is imperatively demanded if the third General Election, which nobody wants, but which financially would probably trouble the Government least of all, is to be avoided. To which of the other parties or groups jb Mx, GpfigrayE fo gim-fra; the addi-

tional support? Labour was willing to consider ah alliance after the June elections, but the terms were regarded by the Government as impossible, and the fierce platform controversy which the negotiations excited during the by-election campaigns hetween Mr. Johnson, the Labour leader, and one of Mr. Cosgrave's colleagues has doubtless made it even harder for Mr. Johnson's successor than it was for Mr. Johnson himself to come to an understanding with the Government. The National League, in which Captain Redmond's original following of 10 has now been reduced to one, is fortunately out of the reckoning, and Mr. Jim Larkin, who follows himself alone, will not fill the gap. By a process of exhaustion one therefore arrives at Mr. de Valera as the highly unpromising residuum, and we were told yesterday that "it has already been hinted that the remedy is a working understanding between the two big parties." Mr. de Valera's advance during the last few. weeks has been so rapid: that it is difficult to say where he will stop. Two months ago his conscience would not allow him to take the oath, but an adverse majority in his party settled the trouble. Since then he has repudiated "the allegation against the Republicans of a sinister design aiming at a sudden revolutionary upheaval" and spoken of a responsible constitutional Government" in a manner that must have set both friend and foe gasping. If the leopard has really changed his spots, Mr. Cosgrave will surely be thankful to recognise the fact.