DE VALERA TO BLAME

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XXIII, 6 February 1923, Page 5

DE VALERA TO BLAME

FOR IRISH CIVIL WAR. QUIBBLE OVER A TREATY. Press Assn. —By TeL—Copyright. London, February 5 Mr O’Higgins, the Free State Home Minister, when iinterviewed, threw light on Mr De Valera’s part in the Anglo-Irish peace negotiations. Mr O’Higgins said that De Valera had approved and strenuously pressed for a compromise, including the oath to the King. Mr Collins for several days refused to go to London as a peace plenipotentiary but eventually yielded to De Valera’s persuasion at a secret session of the Dail Eireann, at which De Valera emphasised the terrible effect of refusing the compromise and implored Mr Collins to accept it. For the infinitesimal difference between the treaty and Mr De Valera’s proposed treaty Ireland had been plunged into the horrors of civil war and Mr Collins had been murdered. Mr De Valera, speaking to a Daily Mail correspondent declared:— The Irish Government must be determined by people not dictated from outside. We are in arms now, resisting exactly what the nation resisted from 1919 to 1921. The only difference is that England was then maintaining claims directly; now she is maintaining them through Irishmen. This is the continuance of the former fight against foreign aggression. Mr Lloyd George and his colleagues bullied the delegates into signing the Treaty. Remove outside threats of coercion, and we oould have peace within a day, but if England continues to refuse, she cannot rid herself of responsibility. Mr Lloyd Ceorge played the part of a tyrant, if a Free State ever functions, it will be over the bodies of the Republicans. England will have cause to regret her mistake. The new Ireland will remember her wrongs in the hour of England's difficulty. “A brother who killed a brother sooner than have a sister surrender, will remember who caused him to brand himself with the rwk of 1 Mr de Valera declared that had he been in the position of the Free Staters, he would have drawn the line at war in order to compel acquiescence, and w'b'UliJ Hat have put to death men like Bruga, Boland, Childers, Mellowes and O’Connor. He would have told Britain that he had made a mad mistake, and could not do what he had thought could be done. The Republican Government was functioning; it was collecting revenue, and organising an army. The Free State was doomed; it was alive only in the cities and towns. Replying to a question as to what would happen if the Republicans triumphed, Mr de Valera stated that he hoped the Government of the Republic would be wise enough not to be tempted into the path Free Staters had followed. Replying to the de Valera interview, Mr O’Higgins says: “We have reached a stage when the grimmest decisions will have to be taken if organised sabotage continues. Mr de Valera, like his compatriot Don Quixote, is tilting at windmills. People are acting with him in a criminal conspiracy against the life of the Irish nation, and they cannot complain if the latter, in self-defence, deals with them summarily and ruthlessly.— A. and N.Z. Cable. Armed men on Saturday night visited Colonel Charles Guinness’s beautiful historic mansion, Clermont Park. They allowed the household fifteen minutes to collect a few small valuables, and placed the Colonel, his wife and servants under armed guanTs. Tt.ey sprinkled the house with petrol from the basement to the roof, and it was quickly consumed. The damage was assessed at £lO,OOO. Colonel Guinness is a prominent Unionist. The “Times” Dublin correspondent states that armed men, shortly after dark, raided a restaurant in Henry Street, tie property of Senator WyeeSower, and ordered out the customers. They sprinkled petrol, and set the premises on fire and escaped. The fire was extinguished. Military activity is increasing in Ireland. Thirty important arrests have been made and large quantities of material and documents discovered. Two cross-channel cables have been cut. Howtl-, the summer residence Of Senator O’Sullivan, Killarney, was burned down. A numlier of postmen were held up and- robbed of letters, and a train set on fire and wrecked in Killala, county Mayo, where the railway station waa destroyed.—“ Times ”