THE New Zealand Herald AND DaILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, JANUARY 9, 1922. THE IRISH SETTLEMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17984, 9 January 1922, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DaILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, JANUARY 9, 1922. THE IRISH SETTLEMENT.

The Irish Free State may be said to

be virtually in being. The ratification by the Dail Eireann clears the air of much doubt. It is not, bo it noted, precisely the ratification provided for in the treaty. The provision of the treaty on this point is that it must be submitted to a meeting of the members elected under the 1920 Act to sit in the House of Commons of Southern Ireland. To a large extent the Dail consists of the same persons, but there are in it some Northern Sinn Feiners who have no seats in the Parliament of Southern Ireland and there are absent from it some Southern Unionists who were elected to the constitutional Parliament, but who have never sought seats in the Dail. The number of members entitled to vote in the Southern Irish Parliament is 128, and as the vote in the Dail shows a total of 121, with a majority of only seven, there in just a shade of doubt, but from the display of emotion at the close of the sitting it may be assumed that I Mr. de Valera and the other rejeci tioiiists have accepted the decision jas final, and probably no one j knows better than they how the 'absent votes will be cast. On the ! whole it is sow fairly safe to assume : that the Parliament of Southern Ireland will ratify, and that the Free 1 State will be fully established as soon as the necessary legislation can ;be passed and a new Parliament j can be elected. j A critical time for Ireland lies | ahead. It is evident that within the j Dail Eireann there is a large and I hostile minority, including many who will do all in their power to wreck the settlement. While the Provisional Government is in office those extremists will have abundant opportunities. Many of them are mem- ; bers of the Provisional Parliament, | but fortunately the treaty provides : that the active Government shall : consist of members each one of • whom shall have signified in writing his, or her, acceptance of the treaty. It is likely, therefore, that several of the Sinn Fein Ministers will resign with Mi', de Yalera and leave the Provisional Government in the hands of men who are anxious to see the new State launched successfully and peacefully. The limit of the term set to the Provisional Government is one year. All friends of Ireland will wish that this interregnum may 'be considerably curtailed. The feeling of Southern Ireland is believed 100 be Btrongly in favour of the treaty and it would seem that there is much more prospect of good government from a Parliament elected to make that treaty eixective than from the present assembly with its strong republican leanings and its 57 malcontents. The essential condition is that there Bhould be free election with no background of boycotting or terrorism. Whenever that condition can be fulfilled in Ireland no time should be lost in making tho great experiment for which Irishmen have fought so long and so bitterly. The futuio of the Irish Free State is wholly in the hands of the Irish people themselves. They have oSered to them self-government .as full and complete as we have it in New Zealand, The outlook for peace and contentment is marred by the cleavage in the Dail, but in "spite i of that unfortunate circumstance it ; can bei said that there has been no

. stage of recent Irish history holding I*o saiush promise. For the first time Sy&S&em Ireland has accepted separation from Ulster and it would not seem that this phase of the : treaty wa3 a material factor in the : opposition of De Valera and his associates. Ulster is singularly silent and apparently resentful, but !if active opposition was to come from that quarter it would surely have developed ere now. For the time being at all events there can bo no prospect of Ulster joining the Free State. Had there been any movement in that direction the proceedings in the Dail would have killed it. The feature of newsi from Dublin which can escape no one is that it shows the Dail Eireann to be 47* per cent, republican and hostile to Britain. There is no hope of the co-operation of Ulster unleas the elections eliminate this element and indicate progress toward good internal government and loyalty to the British Crown. As things are Ulster will be a critical onlooker, happy if she can live her own life free from the republican agitation which must for a time at least be a thorn in the side of the Free State Government.