IRISH NEWS

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LI, Issue 8, 21 February 1924, Page 43

IRISH NEWS

THE PUBLIC SAFETY BILL.— SENATE.—THE UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM.—MORE PRISONERS RELEASED.— GOVERNMENT AND SUBSID iES.

As the Public Safety Act, which empowers the authorities to arrest and intern persons suspected of having committed specified forms of anti-social crime, expires in a few weeks (writes the Dublin correspondent of a Horae paper for December 22), a new Public Safety Bill has been submitted to the Dail. The Bill is modelled on the Act in force at present, and, if passed in its existing form, will remain law until February, 1925. Moving its second reading, which was agreed to by a large majority, the Minister for Home Affairs justified the new measure on the ground that several rural districts, notably Leitrim, Kerry, and East Galway, were still seriously disturbed. In those-remote localities, he said, civic courage had not yet grown strong, and juries had acquitted prisoners in face of full and substantial evidence of guilt. Exceptional legislation was, therefore, called —legislation which might infringe, to some extent, the general principles of constitutional government, but which, by rendering lawlessness more difficult, would serve to strengthen, in the ultimate, the democratic system in this country. As every thinking citizen recognises the validity of the arguments advanced by the Minister for Home Affairs, opposition to the Bill was largely formal. Labor members voted, it is true, against it, but their criticisms lacked emphasis and fire. They recognised, no doubt, that—had they been in power themselves— would have been compelled to submit a very similar measure to Dail Eireann. Among the general public' the-introduction of the Public Safety Bill caused no excitement. It is regarded as a necessary measure, and it is believed that it will pass rapidly through Parliament, - Lord Glenavy has been re-elected Chairman of the Senate. During the civil war he discharged the difficult duties of his office with impartiality and tact, and his re-election, which was supported by representatives of every party, has given general satisfaction. laird Glenavy, who in pre-war days was a strong opponent of self-government, has done much to reconcile the old minority to the Free State, and thus the high position to which the Senate has elected him shows that the Nationalist majority is wilting his energies to reconstructive work—for every citizen, into bury in oblivion the differences of others days; it shows that there is room in Ireland for every citizen who devotes deed, who obeys the Constitution and loyally accepts the new regime. Lord Glenavy’s re-election was followed immediately by the election of Mr. S. L. Brown as a member of the Senate. Mr. Brown, who fills the place vacated by the resignation of Sir Horace Plunkett, is a leading member of the Irish Bar. He is a Protestant, but has .never identified himself with party politics of any kind. Although Mr. Brown will make an - admirable Senator, the defeat of, at least, one of his opponents— Marquis McSwiney—has caused considerable regret in Dublin. The Marquis McSwiney has for years devoted his great talents to the service of the Irish nation, both at homo and on the Continent, and his election to the Senate would have created an excellent impression. The Senate will not be deprived for long, it is hoped, of the services of this distinguished Irishman and scholar,- who, through all the troubles of the last few years, retained -unchanging confidence in the future greatness of a liberated Ireland. - , President Cosgrave the other week, unfolded in Dail Eireann the Government’s scheme for relieving unemployment. It is proposed to expend about £2,000,000 on the reconstruction of roads and bridges, while an additional sum £250,000 will be granted as a subsidy for the building of houses for the working classes.. These relief schemes, it is estimated, will provide" work for 25,000 men—roughly, two-thirds • of the unemployed in the Free State. Apart from their immediate utility as a partial solution of the unemployment problem, they will prove extremely advantageous to the community, which still suffers severely from

the effects of the bridge-breaking activities of the Irregulars''. Unemployment, owing to a decided trade revival, is decreasing in the Free State. The new works should remove it, temporarily, at least, from the list of problems by which the Irish Government is faced. When the menace of unemployment ceases to confront unskilled workers in tho country, anti-social propaganda will become, it is thought, impossible. The vast majority of those who voted Republican at the last general election did so as a gesture of protest against economic hardships for which, foolishly enough, they held the Government responsible. Were these hardships ended, as they would be if work were provided for the rural unemployed, little more would be heard about Mr. de Valera’s panaceas, except from those propagandist agents who find agitation more exhilarating than the occupations to which they were accustomed in the days before they achieved what they continue to mistake for fame. Several hundred internees, including a number of anti-Treaty Deputies and the Mayor of Sligo, were released from custody in December. With the exceptions of Madame Markievicz and Miss O’Hanlon, there were then no female internees, and it was believed that these two ladies would be soon set free. Up to then the released Irregulars have created no disturbances. Impressed by the determination of the Government to suppress with energy all forms of crime, they have returned quietly to their ionics, from which most of them recognise, no doubt, that they were very ill-advised to move at the behest of Mr. de Valera’s “commandants” and “brigadiers.” Even the Republican politicians are quiet at the moment. They seem to have been stunned by the failure of the hunger-strike and the over-subscription of the National Loan. They may contemplate, of course, some new form of agitation after Christmas, but it is difficult to conceive on what lines a formidable campaign against the Free State could be run. Their abstention from Dail Eireann, whatever they may think themselves, renders them powerless as unconstitutional opposition, while their own repeated pledges forbid them from launching, officially, at least, another campaign of 'destruction and intimidation. Archbishop O’Donnell, writing some days before the Jesuit of the British election, said: “No one can forecast the turn of great events by which the country may- be united. Had we been under a single Irish Government the horrors of recent years would-never have taken place. Cordially united there would be scarcely a limit to what north and south might achieve.” The Orange party in the north-east had relied upon the letum of .the Conservatives to power in Britain. It sent a deputation to that country to support the Conservative candidates. The Conservative Party lost 100 seats. It cannot form a government. The Belfast Government was heavily subsidised by the Conservative Government of Britain. Moreover, that ConZZ 7 Go !; nm€nt i sho " ed no disposition to put into, foice the article in the Anglo-Irish treaty which mates provision for the appointment of a commission to determine land bUndary bet - veeil the h-east and the rest of IreTi if B I n l6 neXt British Government the subsidies to the Belfast - Government may be withdrawn. The boundary artmle m the Treaty may also be put. into operation without “r With the British’ subsidies withdrawn the Belfast Government would find itself in a bad wav A member: of the Belfast Parliament and an extreme supporter of the Government of the north-east area admitted that if the subsidies ceased and if the counties of A rone and Fermanagh were incorporated in the Free -State the Government in Belfast would collapse. By this turn of events Ireland may be re-united. , ■