Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY, APRIL 15, 1941. DANGERS SEEN IN EIRE.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 April 1941, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY, APRIL 15, 1941. DANGERS SEEN IN EIRE.

BROADCASTING to the people of Eire, Mr de Valera has told

them, that “although they had proclaimed their neutrality in a way that no one could mistake, their danger increased with every day that the war continued,” and that: “Should they be called upon to defend their neutrality it would mean suffering and death for many.” These are self-evident, truths and it might be thought that even those Irishmen who are least inclined to make common cause ■with Britain in the war would be able to perceive that the neutrality of Eire is made possible only by British protection and would not stand for a moment if the decision of the matter rested with Nazi Germany. The measures Eire has taken for her own defence admittedly are hopelessly inadequate. It is not in doubt that the Nazis are deterred from making use of Eire as a base of attack on Britain almost solely by the existence of British armed strength.

Nothing is more certain than that Eire is dependent on Britain for her epntinued independent existence and it therefore follows that in refusing to Britain the use of naval and air bases, Eire is accentuating the dangers by which she is herself confronted—the dangers to which her Prime Minister, Mr de Valera, referred—as well as adding seriously to the difficulties Britain must overcome in combating Nazi air and submarine attacks on merchant shipping on the Atlantic approaches to the United Kingdom.

The British Government has taken ami no doubt will, continue Io take the view that there can be no question of a 1 tempting’ forcibly to obtain the use of air and naval bases in Eire. In the last war, Britain had control over and utilised bases in Ireland and from one of the best-known, of these bases, Queenstown, American destroyers operated from May, 1917, until the end of the war. In addition, a division of United States battleships was based on the British dockyard at. Bere Haven, in Bantry Bay, on the south-west coast, of Ireland. Under the agreement entered into with Southern Ireland in 1921, Britain retained the right to use certain naval and air bases' in Ireland, but in 1938 these rights were surrendered unconditionally. Opposing that surrender, the present British Prime Minister, Mr Winston Churchill, then declared that in a war in which Ireland was neutral.

it would be no use saying: “Then we will retake the ports.” We should have no right to do so. To violate Irish neutrality .. . might put us out of court in the opinion of the world, and vitiate the cause by which we might be involved in war.

In this matter, as in a number of others, Britain today has reason to regret the neglect of warnings uttered in good time by Mr Churchill.

A new turn is given to a. vexed and difficult question by a. cablegram from Washington, published yesterday, which stated that:—

The Administration is said to be considering the extension of lend-lease aid to Ireland, conditional on Eire giving Britain the use of a number of sites for bases.

This is unofficial news and what it is worth remains to be seen, but the attitude ascribed to the American Government evidently cannot be called unfair or unreasonable. On all grounds it nnist be hoped that there is some trtith in the suggestion that Eire is more inclined than she has been to grant the use of bases to Britain in return for being allowed to purchase foodstuffs and arms in the United States. All that Eire is being asked to do is to assist, instead of definitely weakening, the defensive efforts on which her own continued independent existence, as well as the protection of British shipping, depends.

The use of niivtil and air bases in Eire would lighten appreciably the handicap under which British forces are operating in repelling- attacks on shipping- in the Atlantic areas west of Ireland which German aircraft and submarines are now able to reach frotu'-bases in Norway and France. According- to an American authority, Captain F. L. Oliver:—

While it is true that bases in Ireland would enable British destroyers and other escort vessels to be off station in the'critical areas for a considerably less time than present base facilities permit, the real advantages Britain would obtain would lie in air bases, and bases from which motor torpedo boats could operate.

Statements made with full authority and responsibility by Mr Churchill and others have left no room for doubt as to the extent to which Britain would be assisted, in an all-important phase of the war, by the use of bases in Eire. Vital issues therefore depend on the intentions of the Government of Eire, still not indicated very clearly by Mr de Valera, and on the outcome of the negotiations which, as reports stand, have taken a now and interesting turn in the United States.