AMERICA AND EIRE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24826, 28 January 1942, Page 4

AMERICA AND EIRE

The arrival in Northern Ireland of a large detachment of United States troops is a welcome token of the American determination to wage war against the Nazis without regard for “hemispheric” boundaries. The part that American arms must take in the world struggle of the democracies is dynamic. It cannot be confined, either in the Western or the Eastern war sphere, to defensive operations, and the recognition of that fact is placed beyond doubt by the landing of a United States expeditionary force on what may be technically described as European soil. Since July of last year American technicians and workers have been busy in Northern Ireland constructing naval and air bases. The United States Administration had, long before actual American embroilment in the war, made no secret of its desire that the Government of Eire should permit the extension of these activities to vital points in the south. Eire is terribly, and events may yet prove tragically, vulnerable to attack from the German bases in north-western France. Its main defences would, from Mr de Valera’s frequent fervent references to the determination of the people to resist any invader, appear to be spiritual rather than material. There was some suggestion, seven months ago, that armaments might be obtained from the United States, but President Roosevelt stated that action in this direction was conditional upon Eire guaranteeing to defend herself from German attack—and no such assurance was then obtainable. The arrest in Eire last week of a Nazi agent, who had been

working with members of the I.R.A. for eighteen months, emphasises significantly the menace, both to Southern Ireland and to the United Kingdom, of Mr de Valera’s unrealistic attitude towards the forces of destruction that are controlled by Herr Hitler. Mr de Valera sapiently observed recently that “ small nations in the path of great Powers are generally treated with scant consideration.” He admitted handsomely that Great Britain, “ despite the temptations and urgings of certain propagandists, has not succumbed to them and has not behaved unworthily.” It can be assumed that even to-day, when Southern Ireland is a serious liability in the Anglo-American war strategy, the peculiar preference of the Irish to live and, quite possibly, to die in independence, rather than to obtain certain protection from two Powers which wish them nothing but good, will be respected. Whether their prejudice is being broken down, the active co-opera-tion of the United States forces in the defence of Northern Ireland may soon show.