DE VALERA.

Hokitika Guardian, 17 September 1921, Page 4

DE VALERA.

AN TNTIMATE PORTRAIT. (My Shane Leslie, Editor of the “Dublin Review,” an old Redmnuditc and a Cousin of Mr Winston Churchill)* 1 have not seen Eamonn de Valera since his arrival in America in 1 DID, when his hands bore races ol the stokehold in which he had worked his passage across the Atlantic. The felon of Lincoln Gaol is now the guest of Downing Street. There are more lines on his face than on his hands to-day, for lie has ridden two storms.

After the tumultulous demonstrations which greeted his first arrival in America he had to face an invidious division in the Irish ranks, resulting in rival committees attending till* Presidential Conventions and dissipating the lever of Irish-American opinion.

However, l)e Valera returned with the overwhelming majority of Irish Americans at his hack to face the critical and hlnod-swopt storm of the last twelve-month. He lias ridden it into harbour and stands within sight of exchange and delivery of the goods. He stands where Parnell stood ihirty years ago. hike Parnell he lias gripped the lover of A up; In- American relations and, likewi‘o, a Constitutionalist. ai heart, he has awaited the hour w!u n he <*11111(1 jecall the forces ol injury and death. He has done so and shown that ho

(ould control the “gunmen.” though not absolutely. Until Ire had a sure plank under his feet lie could not command a cessation of firing with a certainty of success. Assurances, however, were received that even the redoubtable Michael Collins would stand hack, as doubtless the Invincihies would have done had Parnell ever been in a position to confront the Irish with so generous an invitation as the wisdom of the King, the clairvoyam-e of The Times, and the insistence of the English Churches have now combined to make effective. As for Do Valera, there is no reason why a New York Spaniard should not represent Ireland as well as a Disraeli represented England at lierlin. He is an idealist without being an enthusiast. He made himself a Gaelic scholar, though his heart is in mathematics. His calibre would place him among the first twelve wranglers in an ordinary year at Cambridge. He is a Catholic (his half-brother is a priest in America), hat lie is. far from being a clerical. To him t lie rights of Dish Piotestants are as impulant as those of Catholics. In this vital moment he has shown a div*inet iotisideration for the feelings ,f the English people in not bringing Collins. He has chosen men of thought M*d letters to accompany him. Though distinctly on the Cmistituiicnai side, lie has at times csmrtcd death. It is known that bis execution in IP Hi w sis Largely stayed by the pleas of the American Cardinals and Sir Cecil Spring-Rice, our then Ambassador at Washington, and such mercy as was shown has come very pleasantly homo, for if De Valera ionics as Ireland’s champion he is anxious to leave as England’s friend. 1 wisli him better luck than befell mv dear old friend John Redmond.