ULSTER SPEAKS.

Evening Star, Issue 22881, 12 February 1938, Page 14

ULSTER SPEAKS.

Ulster has spoken. Lord Oraigavon is elated at the result of the General Election in Northern Ireland, and Mr de Valera .must be disappointed at the emphasis with • which the verdict was given. In launching the new Constitution for Eire, and in all of the developments connected with it, Eire’s Prime Minister, as Mr de Valera is now called, has kept the word “ unity ” well in the forefront. Lord Craigavon states that the decision at the polls is unmistakable and final. Ulster will not exchange its unity with the United Kingdom for unity with Southern Ireland. Since the new Constitution for Eire claims to apply in theory to the whole of Ireland, official cognisance had to be taken of it by the British Government. A statement was issued in London in December to the effect that His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom, in agreement with the Governments of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, had decided that the new Constitution should be regarded as making no change in the relations between the Irish Free State and the other members of the Commonwealth. At the same time it was explicitly declared that the new Government in Dublin could no more than the old bo regarded as having any jurisdiction over the six counties of Northern Ireland. Tlu Constitution of Eire includes the whole of the island within the new State. That is, in effect, merely a declaration pointing to an ideal which there is no hope of reaching in the meantime. Ulster cannot be subordinated to Dublin except by consent, and it is quite clear that such consent will not be forthcoming in the near future. The difficulties of abolishing partition in the meantime are easy to understand. Eire has twenty-six counties and Ulster six. There are marked differences of opinion in the religious and social structure of the two sections, and in the circumstances it is quite natural that Ulster should prefer to be an integral part of the United Kingdom rather than to share in a Parliament in Dublin in which her representatives would! be in an inferior position in point of numbers. One curious point is that if the referendum on the new Constitution had been held over the whole of the territory to which the document claims to apply it would have been rejected by a majority of the voters. Along with Mr de Valera’s idealism there is a strong vein, of practical common sense. He is held in veneration by a majority of the people of the twenty-six counties. Desiring above everything the welfare of the country, it would bo natural to suppose that, realising that there is no hope of achieving unity in tho meantime, he will concentrate his efforts on consummating a trade agreement with the British Government,' the prospects for which seem to be encouraging at the moment. Such an accomplishment would be of great value to Southern Ireland, and would do much to bring about harmonious relations between the Administrations of Britain and Eire. Friendly demonstrations to the Unionists of the North would also be of decided advantage.