IRISH RECALCITRANTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18317, 6 February 1923, Page 6

IRISH RECALCITRANTS.

would be a grim humour about De Valera's latest outburst of threats and bluster if the situation in Ireland left anyone with the desire or faculty ,to appreciate its humorous aspects. To cite just one! point, to whom is this American-born son of a Spanish father referring when he speaks of foreign aggression in Ireland? How far his protestations are from the realities of the situation is shown by his declaration that the Irish government must be. determined by the people, not dictated from outside. The people, by a decisive vote, did signify their determination to accept the treaty. De Valera and his associates have been the cause of unlimited bloodshed, terrorism, and destruction in their insane efforts to render that determination of no effect. He sketches conditions of peace which amount to no less than a complete surrender to the dictates of the Republicans, a body well proved to be numerically a decided minority of the people. Yet their spokesman arrogates to his side sovereign power/ and seeks to classify his opponents as tyrants flouting the popular will. Men of the De Valera type, like the members of a certain European royal house, learn nothing and forget nothing. His latest utterance shows nothing but the same petulant insistence on his right to decide the fate of Ireland that has characterised his policy through all her unhappy recent history.