THE IRISH PROBLEM.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 December 1921, Page 3

THE IRISH PROBLEM.

GABLE NEWS.

AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION. LONDON ,Dec. 22. In the Dail Eireann Sean O’Kelly, the Minister o£ Education in tho DaiL Eireann Cabinet, strongly opposed the ratification of the Treaty. He could not, he said, be false to the oath which he had taken to the Irish Republic.■ Mr Mulcahy (Chief of Staff of the Republican Army), in supporting. rat fication, .said: The hour of their defeat was not tho tune to qdarrcl about how it should have been avoided. I'i om the defeat, he claimed, there had emerged powers which after the Dail Eireann could be said to have ceased to exist, would enable the people to follow their national aspirations untrammelled and unfettered. MOYLAN READY FOR WAR, LONDON, Dec 22. In the Dail Eireann, Mr Moylan, m his speech, said: “If Mr Lloyd George wants a, war of extermination, let him declare it! I may not see the end, but by God, no Loyalist ift my brigade will see it either. Instead of'the Republic, Ireland has been offered an oath of allegiance, a GovernorGeneral, and a new army, enti elicited on her flanks, and also a treaty to consolidate British interests in Ireland. McNEILL’S views. LONDON, Dec. 22. In the Dail Eireann, Professor Fjoin McNeill left the chair in order to address the Assembly. He said that the majority of the speeches made against a ratification should have been made before the negotiations commenced, but not now. He affirmed that every nation in tho British Commonwealth would have a right to complete national sovereignty in its own domains. He suggested a new oath commencing i swear to be eternally associated,” etc. MAJORITY FOR ADJOURNMENT. LONDON. Dec. 23. There remained still forty members of the Dail Eireann on the list 'of those who have still to speak when Mr Collins moved that Dail Eireann adjourn till the new year. Countess Markiviez seconded the adjournment, which was then carried I>> 77 votes to 44. The voting is no indication ot the Btrength of the two parties. Mr Collins’s supporters generally voted against the adjournment, while many of his opponents followed Countess Markievez’s lead. After the vote, there was some dispute as to whether the members representing two constituencies should have two votes. This ended when Mr Michael Collins impulsively cried: “I refuse to take advantage of my position!” EFFECT OF DELAY. LONDON, Dec 23. The decision to adjourn has been received with considerable dissatisfaction by the general public, but is regarded really as a. reference of the matter the peoplo, though, in a way somewhat irregular and unsatisfactory. The London “Daily Chronicle’s’ Dublin correspondent says: “The adjournment will have one advantage in that deputies who aro returning home will lie bombarded with appeals not to vote against the Treaty. The present parties the Dail Eireann are now equally divided.”