BY-ELECTIONS IN IRELAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19721, 22 August 1927, Page 9

BY-ELECTIONS IN IRELAND.

A VIGOROUS CAMPAIGN. LABOUR AND GOVERNMENT. MINISTER CAUSES SENSATION. TERMS OF PROPOSED PACT. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received August 21, 5.5 p.m.) A. and LONDON, Aug. 21. Hie campaigns in connection with the by-elections, to bo held on Wednesday, for Dublin County and the South Dublin (city) seats in the Dail, are exciting tremendous interest. Both are yielding a spate of oratory unparalleled even at an Irish election. Hundreds of meetings are being held daily, even to-day (Sunday). The results will be announced on Thursday. The Dublin correspondent of the Times says the political situation in the Free State :s by no means any less tense. The coming week may see the tide turn either way. Everything is hinging on the two by-elections. The results will decide whether a general election will bo held immediately or late in the autumn. The correspondent says an intense cam- I paign of political advocacy is being waged in both electorates All the Free State Ministers have thrown themselves into the fray. Mr. Cosgrave More Confident. Tho President, Mr. VV. T. Cosgrave, believes recent events have strengthened his position enormously. He therefore refuses to offer the slightest concession to the Opposition parties. .Indeed, a speech he delivered on Thursday in the county electorate seemed to indicate that at least some parts of the Public Safety Act will be enforced without delay. However, the Government will probably proceed very cautiously. It may proclaim certain organisations as illegal and it may deport certain persons. Nevertheless, it is not likely to venture anything in the nature of a general round-up Minister Attacks Labour Party. The Times correspondent says the Minister of Industries, Mr. P J. McGilligan, in a speech at Dublin, made, a powerful attack on the Labour Party. He said the leader of that party, Mr. T. Johnson, had certainly offered the Government an alliance after the murder of Mr Kevin O'Higgitis, but on the following terms:— That the Fianna Fail Party should be wiped out of existence; that the 51 Republican seats in the Dail should immediately be declared vacant; and that subscription to the oath of allegiance should be made a condition precedent to nomination. It was stated that if the Government declared these seats vacant, proceeded Mr. McGilligan, the* Labour Party would secure the majority of tho votes cast for the Republicans at the last election, and would be returned to the Dail with a party of 50. The man who had proposed that, said the Minister, had now had the impudence to join the Fianna Fail in signing a demand for a suspension of the Electoral Amendment Act. How De Valera Took the Oath. Proceeding, Mr. McGilligan said it was high time the public knew what was going on behind the scenes, and that tho Labour Party aimed at being a political party, not merely a party interested in economic and social problems. The speaker vigorously attacked Mr. de Valera's attitude toward the oath of allegiance He said when Mr. de Valera took the oath he put the Bible in a corner of the room. He did not exactly kiss his thumb, as witnesses in Ireland sometimes did, under the impression that they were not taking the oath, but he solemnly swore the oath in accordance with the full formula. The Minister said Mr. do Valera had pronounced himself a perjurer in taking the oath when ho wanted to carry on his old ideas of wrecking the Constitution and the treaty. Mr. Johnson's Heated Reply. In replying to Mr. McGilligan, Mr. Johnson described tho former's speech as " a villainous misrepresentation of the truth." He said that, in view of tho Government's many difficulties after the murder of Mr. O'Higgins, he had assured Mr. Cosgrave that if any such course wero necessary to inspire public confidence, the Labour Party would join an all-party Coalition. Simple human feeling had prompted that course. The Labour Party did not contemplate that its sympathy would be spurned and flouted as it had been. The unexpected happened when the Labour and Fianna Fail Parties had recourse to the article in the Constitution, hitherto unused, suspending for 90 days legislation unpopular to two-fifths of tho members of the Dail. Tho object was to obtain a referendum on the Electoral Amendment Act. They lodged a petition with Mr. Cosgrave and this prevented the Governor-General, Mr. T. Healy, signing the Act. It now remains for the Opposition to secure a twentieth of the total electorate to sign a petition upon which a bare majoiity will decide the referendum.