Successors of Michael Collins

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XLIX, Issue 49, 14 December 1922, Page 15

Successors of Michael Collins

A CHARACTER SKETCH OF WILLIAM COSGRAVE. The loss to Ireland of Michael Collins, following upon the loss of Arthur Griffith, was an overwhelming calamity^ • These two men had won for Ireland her long-sought rights. .They had commended to their people,' and secured approval -for, the bargain they had made with the British Government. They had realised to the full the difficulties of the present and the hopes of the future (writes the Universe). The people's confidence was based mainly on belief in the character and capacity of these two men. Hardly anybody else counted. Their disappearance from the scene of their labors was the last thing that could enter any mind. , All forecasts of the future assumed their continuance, whether in office or out of it, as leading figures in Irish public life. The most stable elements" in Irish life, the most responsible of British statesmen, equally relied upon the guarantees for sane government and just administration afforded by their ability and cense of principle. Yet before their work had well begun, before they had submitted to Parliament the draft Free State Constitution under which they hoped to build up a new Ireland, within a few days of each other both were dead, and. the fate of the. future must be guided by other hands. General Collins had done much to check the operations of and limit the damage done to the country by the armed forces revolting against civil control. Under his command the National troops had expelled the Irregulars from all the towns they had seized and over which they had tyrranised. Organised and definite military resistance had been broken, and Parliament, long and necessarily postponed, was about to meet. But guerilla tactics were still being carried on, and though the ranks of the Irregulars were thinned by captures, and even more by the silent return of many of them to reason and the paths of peace, the new Government had not yet reached smooth water. > "The Young Patriot, Brave and Wise." . It is impossible to estimate what will be the effect of the death of General Collins. But it may well awaken stirrings of conscience in stubborn hearts and lead to peace. This possibility is evidently in the mind of his Eminence Cardinal Logue, who telegraphed from Carlingford to the Irish Government as follows: "I have been stunned by the sad news of the death of General Collins. This second blow to the hopes of Ireland should awaken the conscience even of those misguided men who show their love of country by drenching its soil with •blood, and leave behind them a trail of hideous ruin and destruction. The young patriot, brave and wise, was the chief hope of a peaceful, prosperous Ireland. I deeply sympathise with his colleagues and relatives." Our minds are naturally preoccupied with what will happen next. It is noteworthy that there is no sentiment of despair. There will be no collapse and no confusion among the men whose task it is to carry to completion the work that Griffith and Collins had so well begun. They have a heavy burden, but they have the courage to .face it, and they have solidly" behind them the support of the Irish people. . There will be no change of policy and, I believe, very little change of personalities. Existing Ministers will carry on. In the immense labor of taking over the whole machine of Irish government these new and untried men have displayed remarkable qualities. No revolution was ever accomplished with less) apparent friction, and the old machine is functioning smoothly and effectively under its new masters. All needed reforms will be carried out. with patience. There has been no sign of hurried change for the mere sake of change. Time will, no doubt, reveal new men and new methods, but even at present the men we have show all the marks of competence. "The Fitness of His Successor. Griffith and Collins had arrived at conclusions as to lines of policy, and had foreseen,,and guarded, against possible future difficulties. Their successors are their trusted colleagues, familiar with their conclusions and imbued with their principles. Mr. William Cosgrave, now at the head of the Government, is an eminently practical statesman'. He is cool, level-headed, courageous, tolerant,, and . reasonable. He has had an experience of public administration larger than fell to the lot of Arthur Griffith- He

was the chief figure and brains carrier of the Dublin Corporation, a body whose business is as large as that of some small sovereign States. He can handle big business and even create his own opportunities. He it was who built up the whole vast machine of popular local government. When, in pursuance of the Sinn Fein principle, nearly all the public bodies in" Ireland, municipalities, county and district councils, cast off the control of the British-Tappointed Local Government Board, Mr. Cosgrave, in accordance with the people's will, was at the head of the new administration, and exorcised more real power in directing the work of local bodies than had ever been possible to Sir Henry Robinson. Since the Treaty, Mr. Cosgrave has replaced Sir Henry Robinson; and his department, once declared illegal, has

now all legal powers. Mr. Cosgrave was a leading member of the Dail Cabinet. He turned the majority in favor of the Treaty, and his speeches in.the Dail in favor of the Treaty had a. powerful influence on opinion both inside and outside that fateful assembly. He revealed, moreover, a wide and lofty outlook, showing a noble conception of Ireland's future place in the world. He saw his country as a link 'in the chain of world peace, able while working out its own destiny to assist in the reconcilement of old feuds beyond its borders and cementing, hi its prosperity and contentment, a lasting pacific alliance between the old World and the New World beyond the Atlantic. He is a big man with big ideas, and if his health lasts (for unhappily he is of delicate build) he will replace the grave loss of' Mr. Arthur Griffith. His funeral oration over the grave of 'Griffith revealed his own character, and was specially notewothy as showing the character and temper of the new rulers of Ireland. All that they stand for is to be found in its few words. What : was most praised in the dead leader were his absolute honesty, his freedom from. dishonest reservations,, his determination to deal fairly with the British Government that had dealt fairly with him, and his selflessness that left him, a.poor man in the world's goods. At the end, though he had. attained the goal towards which he had struggled all his life, he died a sorrowful man, for, as Mr. v Cosgrave said: "For the last few months of his life he looked out upon a scene of moral desolation which, for the time being, blackened his country and stained "its name abroad —moral desolation, not only in the ordinary sense of the term in which one thinks of dishonesty, and disregard of individual rights, of reckless murder, and general insincerity, but also the moral desolation of a blindly dishonest outlook and attitude towards the national position, and the effect of the nation's Treaty of Peace. At the moment when our beloved friend was taken from Us, he ..\vtis working- for the accomplishment

of the moral regeneration of "the nation, to retrieve the nation's' honor, to establish that liberty which had been won, and which only a people banded together in unity and honesty could ever hope to hold." ' r ','. A New Language in Public Affairs. ;. . If anyone is inclined to be pessimistic about Ireland aud the grounds for pessimism are of the most obvious — will relieve the gloom of their forecasts to read the language I have* quoted. It represents the inner thought not only of Mr. Griffith, who is gone from us, but of t his colleagues who remain with us, and to whom the destiny of Ireland is . now committed. The note is one of Christianity. .Though Ireland has suffered in the recent trouble losses in material things to be counted in millions of pounds, it is not of these losses that Mr. Cosgrave first thought. He does not mention them, indeed, at all. The loss that impresses him, as it certainly impressed Mr. Griffith, is chiefly a moral loss. What pained them most was a blindly dishonest outlook. Ireland, which has now the power to set its feet in the path of material prosperity, is first exhorted to the accomplishment of the moral regeneration of the nation, to retrieve the nation's honor. Only a people banded together in unity and honesty can ever hope to hold the liberty it has won. It appears to me that this is quite a. new kind of language in public affairs. But there is no doubt about its Christian inspiration, and no reason to despair of the future of a Catholic nation which chooses for its leaders men whose conduct will be guided by such ' thoughts. General Mulcahy, who replaces General Collins as Com-mander-in-Chief, is a man who shares to the full these -principles. He enjoys all the confidence of the army, and has shared to the full in its record. He is a great source of strength to the Ministry, and though no man could re'place the many-sided and brilliant personality of Michael Collins, Richard Mulcahy is his worthy successor.