THE IRISH RAIDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18016, 15 February 1922, Page 6

THE IRISH RAIDS.

Tho situation which has arisen in Ireland as a result of the raids on the Ulster frontier is undeniably dangerous. There is highly inflammable material in all parts of Ireland, in Ulster as in the South, and a spark may light fires that will not easily be extinguished. There is no reason to doubt either tho capacity or the sincerity of the Provisional Government—indeed, the loyal attempts being made by Mr. Collins and Mr. Griffith to discharge their duties under the treaty are an exceedingly good augury for the future of Ireland—but the new Government lacks experience, and it has to deal with lawless aud irreconcilable elements which would as readily destroy it as they would coerce Ulster, tear up the treaty, and break faith with the Empire. Those elements are formidable enough to lead Mr. Collins to speak of their efforts as an attempted coup d'etat, and they probably lack nothing in recklessness and criminality. Such a campaign as the Sinn Fein conducted against the British forces cannot bo carried on without employing a large number of desperadoes. Retaining something of the organisation of the Republican army theso gunmen, many of them happily not Irishmen, have turned their attention to Ulster, and, as they are by this time expert in all forms of violence, it may not be easy to bring them to justice. Yet to the combined forces of the Free State, Ulster and the British troops on the border the task should prove one of neither insuperable difficulty nor inordinate length. The only condition of success is that Ulster and the Free State should remember that they are co-operating against a common enemy and refuse to be manoeuvred into antagonism. It is an attitude difficult of realisation because the Provisional Government is legally responsible for the conduct of its subjects, but if Ulster shows restraint and the South exhibits loyalty to the treaty it can be maintained, and it is the key to the peace of Ireland.