IRISH FREE STATE.

Waikato Times, Volume 114, Issue 19014, 3 August 1933, Page 11

IRISH FREE STATE.

POLITICAL OUTLOOK. CONSTITUTIONAL PARTY NEEDED. (From a Correspondent). DUBLIN, June 5. The rumour of an early election has died down, but it has left behind food for thought. In a recent debate on agricultural policy the Minister of Agriculture, defending the annuity retention and consequent tariff re*-' prisals, said the people who had experienced a taste of the new policy •showed by their votes at the last election that they were quite satisfied. But as one Senator remarked, a surfeit is very different from a taste, and it is quite possible that even to-day the country might give a totally different verdict. The President was much acclaimed for his strategy when he dissolved the Dail last January and found the Cosgrave Party unprepared. If a similar course were taken .to-morrow It is almost certain the same unreadiness would be found. Fianna Fail, with slender material resources, is enthusiastic and prepared. Cumann na nGaedheal, the party that stands for stability and the rights of property, is lifeless and unorganised. New Party Project. Just before the last eleotion tho Lord Mayor of Dublin announced his intention to establish a national party and addressed a circular to a number of prominent persons asking for their support. The crisis past, the project seems to have been dropped, and the whole Treaty party has lapsed into Its normal state of torpor. When the next election comes there will be the same feverish revival, round will go the hat with plaintive appeal, a programme will be hastily concooted, a scratch lot of organisers will 'be got together, and there will be confusion and waste. The election over and the money spent, the organisation will lie fallow and neglected till the next emergency. Everybody who has given the matter a moment’s" thought admits this utter lack of preparation, but nobody seems prepared to make a beginning to put things right. There is everywhere that feeling of inertia which follows from a lowering of morale — a psychological condition well known to soldiers and men of business. There are many contributory causes of this. Some of the former leaders are tired, others are disappointed. Some lack the stimulus of personal necessity. Others are too busy trying to earn a living to give the necessary time to politics. Those who are not professional politicians and possess means and leisure feel no call of duty. Farmers are too scattered and individualistic, commercial men are loth to make themselves too prominent lest they may estrange the nationalist element and jeopardise their business. The organising personnel is weak, money is scarce, and so from lack of cohesion things are just allowed to drift.

The Three Armies. While this political element has been growing weaker the irregular force known as the Army Comrades Association has been growing stronger. Apart from its immediate purpose, which was to secure free speech and counteract .the 1.R.A., the spirit of action and discipline which this force Inspired has attracted the more "virile elements of the Gosgrave Party. The status of this force has never been .clear. It has been professedly nonparty, yet its connection with Tiumann na nGaedheal has always been very close, and its trustees consist of prominent members of the Party. Latterly, this connection seems to have been loss disguised, so that today we may almost regard the two elements, much in the same way as Fianna Fail and the 1.R.A., as the political and militant sides respectively of the same party. It may seem to the more conventionally minded unusual to And each political party with its own irregular military section, and yet the situation has been brought about largely out of the desire for protection which rightly or wrongly'it was felt the Government was, in the last Tesort, unable effectively to provide. It may seem Gilbertian to >have three armies, two irregular and pne regular, and hot to know on which side the regular force •may be found in time of crisis. Lack of Leadership. To return, however, to the position of the Cosgrave Party. So long as we remain constitutional, it Is the political and not the military side that must be strengthened. The A.C.A. may supply from within the "ginger" and driving force, but on the hustings it can only be. an embarrassment. It may do useful work In giving inspiration and discipline to the young, but the party proper must provide the programme and all the political paraphernalia. What is lacking is a leader and a new outlook. The party wants a thinking section corresponding to the general staff in an Army, which can look ahead and plan undistracted by day to day events. Tho blundeds of Fianna Fail provide the opportunity to reorganise the party on new and realistic lines. But without vision this cannot be done, and the real danger is that with personal protection secured by the A.C.A. matters may be allowed to drift.

It might be the best course to dissolve and decently bury Cumann na nGaedheal. In the eyes of many, It is a spent force, and the very novelty of a new party with a more Intelligible name might evoke enthusiasm. With the deadwood removed it might then lie possible to absorb not only the Centre, or large farmers’, Party, but lo recognise honestly, without misgiving or apology, the minority business Treaty element, whose money has always been welcome but whose overt association has never been deemed desirable. It is only along these lines that cohesion, willing service and systematic finance can be expected. The various elements, political, business and protective, should put their heads together to work out a feasible scheme. In the Wrong Lobby. In the Hail last week the Salaries Cuts Bill was the chief interest. There were so many amendments tint I hey were taken in batches, with the result that in the confusion flicTicntrc Parly got into Ihe wrong lobby and so turned what, would have been a tie into a substantial majority for Ihe Government. A concession has been made in respect of the university cuts. Hero the opposition of the Hierarchy made itself fell, so that as one humorist (not in Ihe Dail) remarked, Ihe President, found himself between Ihe devil and Ihe Holy See. In the Senate an important amendment was passed to Hie Railway Bill,

the effect of which would be to allow shareholders to put forward their own proposals for capital reconstruction. 'lt appears, however, that if persisted in, this proposal may wreck the Bill, so that even the supporters of the amendment are now disposed to revise their handiwork. Politics is not only an lnexaot science, but as Dr. Ward, the young Parliamentary Secretary, told the veteran deputy Sir James Craig, it Is a profession which a man •must enter young If he hopes to /succeed.