The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 1927. IRELAND’S DANGER

Southland Times, Issue 20206, 17 June 1927, Page 6

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 1927. IRELAND’S DANGER

For many people the result of the Irish elections will contain an element of surprise, but the Government’s setback was not wholly unexpected by those who have been watching the Irish situation closely, and it has to be remembered that the followers of De Valera held a number of seats in the previous Dail, though they did not claim them. If they are thoroughly insistent they will again refuse to take their seats, because if they enter the house they must take the oath, and this they have steadfastly declined to do. It is suggested that they may accept this distasteful requirement for the purpose of securing the elimination of the oath from the constitution, but what exactly they hope to gain from this is not quite clear. The old republican movement is dying hard. We say it is dying because the De Valera gains are due, in the main, not so much to affection for him and his as disgust with the Government. Certain innovations marched with the Irish Free State’s administrative progress and made for unpopularity. Among these was a firm insistence on the payment of taxes. When Ireland was ruled by the Irish Office, the dodging of taxes was a popular pastime and to avoid trouble the Imperial Government often did not press matters very strenuously. Everything savouring of a burden could be ascribed to the oppressive Sassenach, but nowadays this expedient is no longer available. The Irish Free State Government has developed a stricter administrative code and it insists on obedience to the law. No longer is the conflict with the law popular because it meant defying hated England and particularly in the country districts the Free State Government is regarded as something more oppressive and only slightly less objectionable than the British. Those who hold these views cannot be expected to accept proposals for a return to the old system, and the republicans, still arguing that Britain is the cause of these wrongs, offer much better things because they are not in power and do not have to undertake the unpopular task of bringing law into a country which, through internal disturbances, has learnt to have little respect for anything suggestive of compulsion. It is not unreasonable to say that if De Valera had been in charge during those years his popularity would have waned. Unfortunately the Government, though it includes many able men, has no striking figures to oppose De Valera— Griffiths and Collins are gone—and to-day the people who are dissatisfied with President Cosgrave’s administration for any cause at all turn to the blandishments of the republicans, who at best, it seems to us, offer the Irish people a resumption of the conflict which men like Griffiths and Collins closed with striking advantages to themselves. It will be a great pity if De Valera re-opens the old sores. Since the establishment of the Irish Free State, the situation in Ireland has improved enormously, in spite of terrible handicaps, and latterly the relations between North and South have bettered, but if De Valera makes republicanism a practical issue with the Old Country, the people of Northern Ireland will see ahead dangers to themselves, and with every justification they will prepare for the revival of the old antagonism in, if anything, a more virulent form. The Free State is in sad need of a leader who can catch the imagination of the people and lead them to prosperity and peace within the generous limits of the treaty. Ahead lies a re-united Ireland, if the two sections can live in peace a few years longer and learn to have confidence in each other; but the magnetism of De Valera, coupled with circumstances favourable to any opposition, threaten this. The situation is decidedly depressing.