DAY BY DAY.

Waikato Times, Volume 100, Issue 16710, 28 January 1926, Page 4

DAY BY DAY.

"Whether they like it or not, North

and South have to live

New Spirit together, with every- ,.; in thing to lose by fricIreland. tion and mistrust, and everything to gain by a discussion of their common interests in a spirit, as the preamble puts it, of 'neighbourly comradeship,'" says the Sunday Times in referring to the Irish agreement. "Once get that spirit to work in Irish affairs and nothing else matters. Ulster and Southern Ireland are united, not perhaps as closely as Lancashire is joined to England, but still by a thousand ties of economic intercourse. That there should be a tariff wall between them and a boundary bristling with troops and guns is one of the absurdities of politics. If Canada and the United States can gel along without a single fort or any of the instruments of war from one end of a three-thousand-mile frontier to the other, the Irish in Ireland may yet reach a similar level of good sense and good will. Of course, the obvious comment of the professional carper is that John Bull will have to pay—as usual —that the Free State is relieved of any financial liability for any portion of the National Debt of Great Britain, which it formally undertook by the Treaty," says the Star. But that wiil .cast no immediate increased burden upon this country, and the prospects of the Free State paying anything were never very bright. The technical disability which this country suffers is overshadowed by the advantage of getting rid of the boundary peril and by an agreement which both Mr Cosgrave and Sir .lames Craig said would result in more friendly relations between all classes and creeds throughout Ireland. This is a gift to the 'distressful country' which was well worlli giving, and though the English are not accustomed to much gratitude for their gifts to Ireland, their satisfaction will not be diminished on that account."