THE ULSTER ELECTIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19027, 26 May 1925, Page 7

THE ULSTER ELECTIONS.

Sir, —The details of the six county elections in Ireland are to hand and, show some surprising results. Launched by Sir James Craig as a gesture to the Boundary Commissioners the result to him must be disquieting. -Prior to the elections out of the 52 seats Sir James held 39; now ha has but 32. Four years ago the senior members of nine constituencies supported him; now only the senior members of two constituencies support him. Of 26 candidates who opposed him, 20 have been returned. It is somewhat of a record to find 80-per cent, of men nominated' against a Government party to have been returned. Belfast City itself, by a majority of over 8000, voted no confidence in tho Government. ( At the elections of 1921 Sir James Craig gained 15 out of the 16 seats in Belfast City; only by securing the return of one of'his followers without a quota has he now succeeded in retaining half the seats. Of 11 candidates seeking election in Belfast as opponents 6f tho Government all but three were successful. Tho Parliamentary Secretary for Homo Affairs and the Junior Whip both lost their seats. In West Belfast, Mr. Joseph Devlin, Nationalist, polled 17,558 votes, tlie highest in the whole election contest. Mr. Devlin claimed to havs received 5000 Protestant votes and, in returning thanks, said : "The most blessed work that could be done now. would bo to bring them together and burv sectarian feud and bitterness." Mr. Devlin received his huge vote on tho first count; Colonel Woods, who came next, got 9599, being 296 short of' the quota, but on allotment Colonel Woods' votes totalled 11,071. Much interest centred in the double constituency, Fermanagh-Tyrone, where, in October" last, two members were returned by the Unionists to sit in the British Parliament because tho, Nationalists refrained from the contest.. This election the Nationalists fought and secured four seats, and tho Unionists four. The Nationalists combined polled 42,270 votes, and' the combined Unionists 40,457, the latter falling short by oyer 4000 from tltf general election of last October. In Ffcrmanlagh and Tyrone, being border counties, the fight was waged over inclusion in the Free State. "Ulster is not yet safe," says the Belfast News Letter, ""and 1 it cannot be safe so long as there is a Boundary Commission with legal authority to change the boundary without the consent of our Government. It was on this issue the election was fought, and we regret the response of the electors of Belfast to the appeal which Sir James Craig made to them is not all that he had a right to expect." "It is well," says the Northern Whig, "to meet, the stern fact that so far as the electors in Belfast are concerned they have recorded a rather decided vote of no confidence in the Northern Government. No matter how we face the situation this, hostility- to the Government is emphasised." Tho Derry Journal said: "The results of the six county elections must prove dreadfully disconcerting for bir James Craig. The citadel of ascendency has been shaken." _ _ Justitia. -