THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 1937 THE PRESENT IRISH QUESTION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22629, 18 January 1937, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 1937 THE PRESENT IRISH QUESTION

If wishes for Ireland could dictate thought about it., there would be only one outside opinion of the news that steps have been taken toward a happy settlement of the questions long ago raised by Mr. de Valcra's policy for the Free State. At the outset of his career as head of the Free State he frankly announced his determination to drive a jauntingcar through the Act of Union. He has driven it some distance on that difficult road, and most of his passengers, chiefly the farmers, have found the travelling uncomfortable. To see him turn back would give a great deal of pleasure to a great host in the Dominions as well as in the United Kingdom. But consideration of the position makes impossible an optimistic view of the outcome of the conversations he has had with Mr. Malcolm Mac Donald, Secretary of State for the Dominions. These have been informal —a fact not necessarily unpromising, although it lessens expectation of an early ending of the trouble —and it is reported that no negotiations are pending. Evidently, then, the conversations were non-committal and no immediate practical outcome can be reasonably anticipated. Whatever be the attitude of the people whose welfare is so largely in his hands, Mr. de Valera himself has not changed his mind. One sign of hope has appeared —in his recognition of King George as the Free State's King, a recognition significant in two respects: it is the first definite acknowledgment of the kind since the Act of Union, and it can be taken, even if with a reservation based on actions inconsistent with its apparent meaning, to indicate a stay of proceedings in the declaration of the Free State's republican independence. That it is only a temporary halting of Mr. de Valera's constitutional programme is suggested by the Irish comment that attributes the recognition to a temporary need for a working agreement with the British Government, this need being created by the present disturbed state of international affairs in Europe. A mistake would be made, therefore, in regarding the recognition as more than an expedient declaration that amid these conditions Mr. de Yalera still desires to take sides with the British Government in its efforts for general peace —at all events that, even for the sake of the Free State, he is reluctant to embarrass those efforts. Unprejudiced British observers can have no doubt that Mr. de Valera's putting of the welfare of the Free State in one scale and the good of Europe in the other is an error. Even were there no danger in the present European situation, it would be well for Ireland if his quarrel with the British Government came to a conclusion different from that upon which he has been determined. The Free State has suffered severe loss through his obstinate pursuit of his policy. "Withholding payment of the land annuities—due through the British Government to the lenders, almost wholly British, of capital required for the development of agi'iculture in the Free State—he has wrongfully estreated a sum smaller than has been reaped by that Government's imposition of a tariff instituted to protect those lenders from serious and unjust loss. In addition, the exchequer of the

Free State has had to defray the cost of bounties paid to save a portion of the British market, while Free State farmers have had to pay substantial taxes as an attendant consequence and to suffer with others an increase in the cost of

living. On economic grounds, his policy has not only failed to achieve his constitutional purpose; it has occasioned a serious actual loss. And this has happened in spite of his attempts to foster foreign trade at the expense of that with Great Britain. During the year ending last September, although the Free State was benefiting from tha rising tide of world recovery, there was a worse adverse balance of trade apart from that with Britain: exports to foreign countries were valued at only £1,360,000, whereas imports from them had a total value of £14,794,859. These figures reveal the folly, as one Irish writer declares, of trying to "revolve in two international orbits at the same time." It is to be noted, also, that the national expenditure of the Free State, although the deficit has been reduced, is still exceeding revenue. However, this burden of economic loss in which Mr. de Valera's pro-

gramme of Irish independence has involved the Free State is not the only obstacle to its success. He may renew his rhapsgdical justification of it by insisting, as he did at the beginning, on the glory of sacrifice in- a great cause, but ho cannot reasonably continue to associate that cause with the larger one, in his frank estimate, of a reunited Ireland. This ideal he has constantly lauded as essential; republican independence without it is, according to him, less than complete and indeed not worth seeking. But Viscount Craigavon's firm reiteration of the principle that " Ulster's boundary must remain intact " opposes a barrier that is not likely to be overcome. Mr. de Valera's policy of severance from the United Kingdom by a united Ireland is countered at every fresh enunciation with Northern Ireland's equally firm objection to have anything to do with it. There must be realisation by others, therefore, whatever be the fixed tendency of his own thinking, that hope of a happy issue from the quarrel he has so steadily pursued is impossible—unless he abandons it, The only consolation at the present time is his hesitation to go the full length of refusing to maintain formal fealty to the Throne.