IRELAND’S NEW PARTY

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 February 1932, Page 6

IRELAND’S NEW PARTY

GENERAL ELECTION ISSUES. The “red menace” is raised as an issue in the Irish electorate campaign. Mr James N. Dolan, T.D., Parliamentary Secretary to the Saorstat Ministry for industry and Commerce, made a definite charge of Russian influence recently, stated the Government’s position v and declared the Saorstat to be faced with “a very serious menace in the new armed attack on the rights Of the people by the Communistic movement, which has spread from Soviet Russia. At the head of Saor Eire there were men in direct touch with Soviet Russia, and they were proposing to mobilise the manhood of the country in order to bring into existence what was called a Workers’ Republic. This estimate of the aims of revolutionary republicanism in Ireland is probably not held by any considerable section of the Irish people. The suggestion of Russian intrigue has been scouted outside the ranks of the supporters of the Saorstat Ministry. It is true that the Irish Republican Army and the new SaOr Eire movement openly avow aims of a Radical-Socialist nature; it is also true that members of these organisations have recently visited Russia. But the same could be said of George Bernard Shaw. Yet there is in Ireland a genuinely Communist organisation directly controlled from Moscow —the Workers’ Revolutionary Party. But its strength, in the Saorstat, both as regards numbers and influence, is held to be negligible, and it denounces the leaders both of Saor Eire and of the I.R.A. as “bourgeois revolutionaries” and “reformists.”

The Opposition in the Saorstat Parliament —Fiaiia Fail—has declared that both the allegations of Russian influence and the recent Constitution Amendment Act, which introduced an-ti-terrorist powers, form parts of a somewhat Machiavellian “plot” by which Cumann na n-Gaedheal (the Government Party) hopes to retain power at the coming General Election. It has accused the, Government of trying by the cry of “Communism” to enlist the backing of the Catholic Church solidly on its behalf, and by the Act to stir up civil disorder of so grave a nature as to make a “free” election impossible.

Speaking at Ballina recently Mr de Valera, the leader of the Fianna Fail (Constitutional Republican Party) said:—

[ “You remember in the 1927 election they had a Public Safety Bill and they worked up general anxiety in or- : der to get back into power . . . There is another trick this time. I have let- . ters telling me that already there are ■ agents of the Government going around the country seeing the bishops and ■ clergy, showing some ‘captured letters’ —hair-raising letters —trying to provide the proper atmosphere that they think will give them an opportunity of getting back into power for another five years.” In its general sentiment the Fianna Fail Party is even more intensely Catholic than Cumann na n-Gaedheal — it is said to aspire to the role of a “Catholic Action Party.” The fact that its leaders do not believe in the existence of any connection between the Left Wingi Republicans and Russia must c&rry some weight. DEATH OF SINN FEIN. The political as apart from the physical side of Irish opposition to British rule from 1916-1921 was carried out by an organisation known as Sinn Fein. After the signing of the AngloIrish Treaty the opponents of that settlement captured Sinn Fein, and it continued in its role of chief mouthpiece of opposition to the British connection. In 1925, when Mr de Valera and a number of deputies decided to recognise the Treaty status, take the oath of allegiance, and work for their aims within the Constitution, they were fiercely denounced as “traitors” by a majority of the organisation, and forced to leave it and form their own party, Fianna Fail. After that schism, however, Sinn Fein began to dwindle rapidly in membership. Its thesis was —and is —that the Irish Republic proclaimed by the leaders of the 1916 rising, and ratified by a majority of the elected representatives of the Irish people 1918, still exists; that the Saorstat - and Northern Ireland Governments are .

“usurping Governments” possessing no moral authority, and that those deputies who were returned at the General Election of 1921 and who have not since taken an oath to the British Crown constitute the rightful Government of all Ireland.

These deputies, -who number 27 in all, meet periodically, elect a President and Cabinet, and debate public affairs. Since, however, they possess neither army, police, nor civil service; since they have neither financial backing nor popular support, their doings are not taken very seriously. The majority of the Irish people not unnaturally feel that Sinn Fein, which is in fact a political party which has foresworn the use of the available political machinery, cannot do very much to further their interests. Hence the landslide to Fianna Fail from 1925 on —and a reported landslide to Saor Eire to-day. Sinn Fein is a movement which played a decisive part in Anglo-Irish relations from ,1916-1921 —one of the most remarkable movements of the war period. In 191 G its membership can-

not have totalled more than two or three thousand for all Ireland, and its members were regarded by the vast majority of the Irish people as cranks and eccentrics.

Yet two years later in the 1918 General Election its candidate won 73 out of a possible 193 seats, and Sinn Fein dominated Ireland as completely from 1918 until the end of 1921 as Fascism dominates Italy to-day. The wheel has turned in full cycle, and it is not improbable that the annual National Congress of Sinn Fein held in Dublin in November (the 22nd) will be the last. Sinn Fein passes into history. Fianna Fail and Saor Eire takes its place. Saor Eire, which had its unofficial beginnings in the highland of Kerry and the boglands of Galway, where there are still Irishmen who can speak no English, came to Dublin for its official birth on 28th September, when its first National Congress assembled, drew up a. constitution and elected a National Executive.

It met amid intense police activity. Motor cycle squads of armed detectives scoured the city, searching the houses of Dubliners suspected of connection with the new organisation and scrutinising visitors from the provinces. One hundred and twenty city and

provincial delegates, representative of every part of Ireland, and thirty delegates from Labour unions attended. A series of resolutions was adopted protesting against denial of political rights to Irish republican prisoners; greeting the Indian masses; urging the refusal of rent and the repudiation of land annuities payable to Great Britain;. calling on militant industrial workers to take the leadership of the struggle against the capitalist class “out of the hands of Labour officials who no longer fight the workers’ battles”; sending fraternal greetings to the U.S.S.R.; and declaring that the function of the Northern Ireland and Saorstat Governments was to beat down mass resistance to the efforts of the ruling classes and to pass on the burdens of the present economic crisis to the backs of the poor. Union of all Ireland as a “Workers’ and Working Farmers’ Republic”; vesting of all political power in the working masses, and nationalisation of banking, industry, fisheries, and transport on a co-operative basis were stated as the aims of the new organisation. A National Executive of four women and seventeen men was elected. Without active service in the I.R.A. — two took part in the 1916 rising. The recent Constitution Amendment Act has drawn resolutions of protest from a number of local bodies. A reduction of £10,569,812 in the total trade of the Saorstat is shown by the trade returns for the seven months January to July, 1931, as compared with the figures for the corresponding months of 1930. Imports were down by £4,834,977; exports by £5,307,518, and re-exports by £427,317. The adverse balance of trade shows an increase of £899,858.

Another unpleasant feature of the returns has been a sharp decline in the exports of cattle, butter, bacon, and hams. The number of tractors exported from the Saorstat last July was six, valued at £691, as against 113, valued at £12,395 in July, 1930.

The quantity of wheat and maize imported showed a great increase. Imports of all commodities from Russia were valued at £152,903 for tfie seven months as against £28,922 in the corresponding months of 1930. Exports to Russia were down from £349,000 to £1294.