MR DE VALERA’S METHODS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22136, 14 December 1933, Page 8

MR DE VALERA’S METHODS

Not the least conspicuous of Mr de Valera’s achievements consists in the tension which, by his policy, he is contriving to excite in Southern Ireland, His success in stirring up sectional antagonisms, despite his professed desire for peace, is being abundantly demonstrated. Apprehensions that have been expressed lest he should end by leading the country into civil war will not be dissipated by the tactics which his Government is employing to suppress, if possible, the organisation known as the Blue Shirts. An attempt of this nature is npw apparently to be made in earnest, if we may judge from the police raids, ostensibly in a search for arms and treasonable documents, and from the threat of arrest that hangs over General O’Duffy and his lieutenants. The Government is endeavouring to justify its action by the contention that the aims of the Young Ireland Party are revolutionary. It will be interesting to hear of the evidence which it may endeavour to piece together in support of suph an assertion, —one that comes rather curiously from the source from which it emanates. The United Ireland Party came formally into being some three months ago with the fusion of General O’Duffy’s National Guard, known as the Blue Shirts, Mr Cosgrave’s party representative of the Opposition in the Bail, and the Farmers’ Party led by Mr M'Dcrmott. The conclusion that it is against the new party as a whole, in which the -Blue Shirts are merged, that Mr de Valera has issued his challenge is borne out by Mr Dillon’s statement that Mr Cosgrave, Mr M'Derraott, and he himself consider themselves to be as liable to arrest as anybody. In the circumstances a threatening atmosphere has inevitably been created. The United Ireland Party includes many thousands of Young Irelanders, as they are termed, who will not easily submit to be deprived of what they consider to be • their reasonable freedom of opinion and action. The party describes the banning of the Blue Shirts as a monstrous illegality and an act of political persecution, and, fairly enough,, emphasises the latitude which the Government has allowed to the Irish” Republican Army and to Communist activities in the Free State. Professor O’Sullivan, an ex-Minister and a member of the excutive of the United Ireland Party, has touched on a point of some pertinence when he suggests that the action of the Government is calculated—deliberately so, he implied—to goad young Irishmen into illegalities. It is ! difficult to believe that the Blue Shirts havs done anything that furnishes any good reason why they should be declared an illegal organisation. There has been no indication of their having acted in an unconstitutional manner, or of any design on their part to do so or to attempt to seize the reins of government. The National Guard which was a development from -the Army Comrades’ Association was instituted, according to General O’Duffy, to safeguard the national honour and the national culture in the widest sense, by efforts that would be maintained within the law. The position is summed up with some acumen by a writer on Irish affairs: “Mr de Valera’s policy in regard to England seems a denial of common sense. But his action in regard to General O’Duffy and his movement seems a denial of common justice, and the danger is there, not in the * economic war.’ ”

A MATTER OF JUSTICE The proposed amendment of the law under which persons without financial resources are enabled to have the benefit of legal assistance in meeting charges brought against them in a criminal court is clearly to be commended. Under the law as it stands, as may be news to most people, an accused person in indigent circumstances, who applies that defending counsel may be assigned to him, is under the necessity, when he makes his application, of disclosing the nature of the defence which he proposes to offer. Obviously that subjects him to a serious disadvantage. The Poor Prisoners’ Defence Bill, a Government measure which was introduced in the Tower House on Tuesday evening, will admit of his securing' the services of counsel without indicating the form of his answer to the charge that is preferred against him. In this respect it is calculated to strengthen the assurance that under the law the same justice will be accorded rich and poor alike. No man’s circumstances should be permitted in themselves to deprive him of a reasonable opportunity of vindicating himself in the event of his coming sufficiently under suspicion to be made the subject of a criminal charge. The Parliament of the Dominion can make no mistake in following the precedent of British law in such a matter. Once again it seems necessary to animadvert on the manner in which measures are brought down by the, Government in the last stages of the session. The Poor Prisoners’ Defence Bill offers a typical illustration of the introduction in such circumstances, without warning, of legislative proposals which, without being of first-rate importance, are yet of distinct interest. It has unfortunately to be added that even measures which are of first-rate importance are too frequently brought down in this way when the end of the session is at hand and when there can be no possibility of Parliament according them more than a perfunctory consideration.