IRISH AFFAIRS

Hokitika Guardian, 17 August 1927, Page 2

IRISH AFFAIRS

(Australian cfc N.Z. Cubic Association.)

LONDON. Aug. 10.

It is still doubtful whether Air Cosgrave’s Ministry will suffer defeat, or emerge successfully from the debate, at the opening of the Dail to-day, on Air Johnston’s motion of want ot confidence.

Everything depends on the accident of a few votes. Air Redmond’s policy remains unrevealed. There are those who think that the National Party will abstain from voting, in which event Mr Cosgrave, though triumphant in face of the Do \ alera attack, would nevertheless hold office by a slender thread. There remains the possibility that the Labourites and their allies will secure the Government’s defeat. In that case, Air Johnston’s administration will be similarly numerically weak, and at the mercy of parti-coloured groups now composing All* Cosgrove's Alinistrv. Even were Air Johnston an experienced statesman, which none claims for him, it would he impossible to carry on long, much less tackle the thorny question of the oath, in face of Lord Birkenhead's uncompromising prononcement that, as its draughtsman, it. must stand.

Air Johnston himself appreciates this point, and has issued a statement that Ireland needs a lion-contentious Government ; whereon the “Morning Post’ comments: If a non-contentions Government can be imagined in Ireland, in any circumstances, the Irish character must have been radically (banged since the Treaty. It adds: But the new Government cannot he non-eon-tentious. if it would, for Afr De Valera has now swallowed the oath. Even with til is dispensation it is merely in order to put Air Johnston in office. LONDON. Aug. 15.

A Dublin correspondent says that Air Johnston in a statement said:— “ Labour is not in the market either ns a buyer or as a seller. It is unwise to radically alter the law unless it is inwill. Party interest must give way to the country’s need that its Parliament should be fully representative. The Treaty must be honoured unless the people desire otherwise, but the people must not he denied an opportunity of expressing their will. We oppose the Public Safety Bill, which i.s had for the country’s peace and welfare. The Safety Bill’s powers ought not to lie placed in the hands ot possible Labour or Republican Alinisters. The temptation to use them might he irresistible. These bills should he repealed.