IRISH AFFAIRS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3526, 11 October 1921, Page 14

IRISH AFFAIRS.

PEACE NEGOTIATIONS. LONDON, October 4. The Ulster Parliament has adjourned to December 13, the Speaker having power to call a special meeting if untoward events arise. Sir James Craig said : “Thus far I have received no invitation to a conference in London, but I am willing to participate if asked to do so, as a refusal would be open to grave misrepresentation in Great Britain.” OUTRAGE IN BELFAST. LONDON, October 4. Nine armed and masked men entered the house of John Bell, in Belfast, and accused him of being a special constable. They savagely beat him. Bell was sent to hospital. ENGLISH OFFICER KILLED. LONDON, October 3. A tragic affair occurred at the Galway Town Rail at a dance which was given in aid of Republican prisoners’ dependents. The fracas started outside. Shots broke the windows, and the dancers threw themselves upon the floor to escape flying bullets, one of which struck and killed Lieutenant Souchon, of the Seventh Lancers, who was motoring past the hail. Another bullet seriously wounded a constable. The cause of the trouble is not certain. One version is that the Crown forces attempted to enter the hall without payment. Another account is that the Republican police tried to search the Crown forces in the vicinity of the building. SOUTHERN UNIONISTS DISTURBED. LONDON, October 5. Southern Unionists are disturbed because they will not be represented at the Irish Conference, fearing their cause will go by default. They say it is not true that Mr De Valera represents the whole of Soothers Ireland. FAIL EIRE ANN’S DEMANDS. PARIS, October 8. Mr O’Caliaigh, ex-Speakev of the Dad Kireann, and now Sinn Fein’s Envoy, interviewed, said that the Dai! Eireann unanimously desired the success of the negotiations, but it would not accept peace at any price. In 1916 the dominion status would probably have been accepted. Now it appeared an insidious peril. Ireland could not he compared with the dominions and could not allow her internal unity to be broken up. The Dail Eireann was willing to extend the fullest autonomy to Ulster under national soverxu'nty. but would not tolerate a British gafr.son in Ulster, which would always be on a war footing. Ire land was ready tix offer Great Britain guarantees of a sympathetic neutrality and would not oppose a defensive pact against foreign aggression, .but would not consent to become a Crow/, vassal under any guise, nor would she iveept military occupation on any pretext. If the conference failed it would not be Sinn Fein's fault, lie doubted whether Great Britain dare follow up failure with reprisals on the eve of an

election upon the issues of Ireland arid unemployment. OPENING FIXED FOR TUESDAY. LONDON, October 7. The Sinn Fein delegates will arrive in London on Saturday evening The conference will open on Tuesday. Mr Austen has been added to the British delegation. The other delegates are:—Mr Lloyd George, Lord Birkenhead, Sir L. Worthington Evans, Sir Hamar Greenwood, anc! Mr Winston Churchill. COMPENSATION FOR INJURIES. LONDON, October 8. John M'Cabe, an ex-service man, was awarded £4OOO compensation for injuries inflicted by members of the I.R.A. M'Cabe told the court that he was first decoyed by the I.R.A. and chained and imprisoned. He was thrice shot, and then labelled “Spy” and left for dead. He afterwards crawled to safety. The Quarter Sessions awarded Lord Bandon £61,905 for the burning of Ber nard Castle and £45,691 for the destruction of the furniture. Lady Bandon re ceiving another £14,072. Lord Bandon was awarded £I4OO compensation for personal injuries received through his kid napping. RELEASE OF POLITICAL INTERNEES ADVOCATED. LONDON, October 8. Lord Defies, writing in the Dublin press, advocate the release of political internees with a view to removing an obstacle to peace. CROWN SOLICITOR KIDNAPPED. LONDON, October 6. Mr Travers Wolfe, Crown Solicitor, Wext Riding of Cork, was kidnapped by three men, who seized him in Skibbereen Hotel, and motored him to an unknown destination. October 8. Air Travers Wolfe, Crown Solicitor, West Riding of Cork, who was kidnapped by three men in a Skibbereen Hotel, and motored to an unknown destination, has been released. —-A. and N.Z. Cable. WOi IS ])E VALERA? By “One Who Knows Him,” in the Daily Express. Air de Valera in an ill-fitting lounge suit and a high collar is an anachronism. He is out of his century. Clothe him in friar’s robe and girdle, imagine him as an apostle charged with a, special message, and then he would look the part he considers himself best, fitted to fulfil. The groat danger, in fact, about ihe present. Irish negotiations is just this —that they are being conducted on the Irish side by this man whose mentality is that of a previous century. The Sinn Fein President’s ancestry is steeped in ecclesiasticism. He is a product of the narrowest section of the Christian Brothers. He faithfully reproduces his training. Although by nature his is a simple, cheerful, even affectionate disposition, he is filled to the brim with philosophy of a medieval character, lie can lecture for days cn

mathematics; he will talk on schools of philosophy for hours. His knowledge, however, seems always without breadth. r I he first impression made on the observer by this tall, gaunt figure, with the deeply lined face, is that the man is totally unobservant of the ordinary affairs of this world. He seems to live in a mystical existence of his own imagining. A closer acquaintance confirms this impression. Air de Valera’s philosophy disdains humanitarianism in the ordinary acceptance of tho term. To liim, kindly and sympathetic as he is, lives count little by the side of a cause. An idea to him is more than any victory. (Inly a romance could have made this philosopher, trained among books, unused to the ordinary society of men, the leader of revolt. It came about thus: AJr de Valera was one of the first academic adherents of Sinn Fein. He was one of the very few who trained themselves to learn and speak Irish. He became one of the intellectuals among what was, at the be ginning, an academic society. Next the Irish rebellion of 1916 found this schdbl master in charge of a detachment of rebels. He showed unexpected dexterity in handling them. He was captured by the British troops, but escaped death. Then when Sinn Fein began to reorganise itself this professor of mathematics, previously of no particular account, suddenly found himself, on account of his intellectual qualities, inducted into the leadership. His subsequent history is common property, but those who know him realise how his lack of training has led to his mistakes. His ineptitude for managing men, his lack of forbearance in dealing with human nature have alienated many. His maladroit handling of the situation in America, when he drove a wedge into two important Irish conventions and caused offence by his insistence on being addressed as “Air President,” cost him still more supporters. Only because he has grown into a legend among the ignorant peasantry, and because no other intellectual figurehead has been forthcoming. has he been allowed to keep his place at all. For two years past he has been liable to be set aside at a moment’s notice—apart, from suffering a worse fate —had the inner ring of Sinn Fein so willed it.

At tho moment lack of training and autointoxication have overcome him. Adulation has cost him his sense of values. He is swayed by his own eloquence and has lost grip of facts. He is little more than a puppet in the hands of one of the most skilled sets of Irish-American politicians who have ever existed. A r et this is the man who is now undertaking one of the most difficult settlements that politicians have ever had to face.