THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES THURSDAY, June 2, 1938 FRESH ELECTIONS IN EIRE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23516, 2 June 1938, Page 10

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES THURSDAY, June 2, 1938 FRESH ELECTIONS IN EIRE

Through the dissolution which has been granted, consequent on the defeat of the Goverment of Eire by one vote on a private motion in the Bail Eireann last week, the electors will be afforded their second opportunity within about twelve months of expressing their judgment on the constitution of their Parliament. The last general election did not go very well for Mr de Valera. The result of it was interpreted indeed as a distinct setback for his Government. His party, Fianna Fail, received only 45 per cent, of the votes, which meant a substantial decrease in the total vote in its favour, and the new Bail came into being with its 138 members thus distributed:—Fianna Fail 69, Fine Gael (the Cosgrave Party) 48, Labour 13, and Independents 8. In the previous Bail Mr de Valera’s party had had a clear majority of five over all other parties, but, constituting only half the Bail, it found itself after the last election in exactly the same position as it held after the general election of 1932, when it first took office with the support of the Labour Party, an uneasy alliance which forced Mr de Valera to go to the country again within a year. History seems to have repeated itself. Instead of improving his position at the polls last year Mr de Valera has had to,'carry on under an increased necessity of working amicably with the Labour Party and of compromising with the internal claims which it will have been the more emboldened to make by reason of its increased numerical strength. Apparently he hopes to retrieve his party’s position, though whether he has any substantial reason to count upon such a result has yet to be seen. He is expected to appeal to the electors for support chiefly on the score of the agreement recently concluded between Eire and Great Britain and upon the concessions secured for his country particularly in the matters of defence and finance. Concerning whatever efforts he may have made to introduce the partition issue as a question for negotiation with the British Government Mr de Valera will probably say little. His Government’s failure to settle the economic dispute with Great Britain was previously a strong ground of Opposition criticism. But it may be doubted whether the adjustment which has been effected will appreciably reconcile party differences. A year ago Mr Cosgrave claimed that the choice before the people of Southern Ireland was between reelecting Mr de Valera’s Government, with its policy of high prices, low wages, crushing taxation, and the ruin of the agricultural industry, and replacing it by a Government with a sound constructive policy for the rebuilding of national prosperity. He claimed that despite the large sums spent by the Government on public works, social legislation and pensions, the indefinite depression of the people’s standard of living and growing emigration were clear signs of a steady national economic decline. The Labour Party’s appeal for support has been made on the score of its desire to effect a speedy eradication of the evils of emigration and unemployment, and to relieve the “chronic misery ” among large sections of the people. The declaration of the leader of this parly after the elections of last year was that it would pursue a completely independent

policy. Labour has expressed its dissatisfaction, moreover, with certain articles in the new Constitution. Personal and political animosities, as one of the country’s unfortunate inheritances, will no doubt play their part, as usual, in the coming election campaign, and in all the circumstances the return of a strong Government for Eire does not appear very probable. There has been no suggestion of a definite change in a political situation which is unfavourable to the production of decisive results.