DANGER IN DUBLIN

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 196, 12 April 1932, Page 4

DANGER IN DUBLIN

} Mr. Eamonn de Valera, the gentleman from across the .Atlantic into whose hands the vagaries of the democratic pohtical system have temporarily 'placed the executive Gcivernihent of the Irish Free State, appears to have been unable to support the success which fortune has .placed within Tnis reach. Endowed in some direetions with brilliant mental gifts, he suffers m a marked degree from that lack of baianee which is so often a fatal weakness in men of his type and which frequently finds expression in an exaggerated phobia of some kind, Mr de Valera's obsession has, unfortunately for the Free State and himself, taken thd form of an Anglophobia which has assumed such proportions as to obscure in its victim's mind every other issue. Ccmpletely intoxicated by what is at best the qualified success of his Fianna Fail or Republican1 Party at the recent elections, he is allowing his mania, and the dther extremists of his party, to drive him at headlong speed into an untenable position. ,Quite apart from the probable attitude of the people of Great Britain regarding the creation of a foreign and quite possibly hostile state at their back door as it were and of the knotty problem which such action would immediately raise in' relation to the lhtensely loyal Northern Irish counties, he has either fqiled to realise, or permitted himself to disregard the immense power o the Imperial sentiment of the great overseas Domimons. inis oversight has betrayed him into adopting a most ungracious artltude toward their friendl'y elforts to wam him . against tne xo y upon which he seems to be bent. A careful readmg ot the message sent to him hy New Zealand, the fiill text of which was published yesterday, and of the Australian message publisne last' week, profoundly impresses by rea'son of their Smcerrty,

their tact' and the clear evidence they contain of the vital importance attached by these Dominions to the maintenance oi the integrity of the Fmpire.' The complete and ,sovef'eign freedom under the British Crown enjoyed in-all essentials by each member of the British' Commonwealth is 'strongly emphasised, directly. or by implication, but the wi^rning is clear, for all who cam u«o read, that' action subversive to the principles on wmch that Commonwealth is founded will not be lightly regarded. So iai, IbW bfiiy re^iilt of the fnendly efforts of the Free State's sister Dominipns to wafn the mbhomaniac. in p.ublin has been h series of ungracio'us; slightly ; impef tinent notes, followed immediately by a brazen declaration that he is preparing for the Free State s complete independence "ranking her nationals individually as foreigners." within the British pommonwealth. Perhaps fortunately 'for the Free State "and her sisters and partners in the Commonwealth, the Fianna Fail's majority in the Fail Fireann is not sr. absolute one and the de Valera f action' s tenure of the Treasury henches'is dependent upon the ' support of the half-dozen members of the Labour Party. Upon this little ^roup a tremendous resporisibility will rest when the new Fail meets on Apr il 2Q. Quite apart from Whether or not Great Britain will employ physical or ecpnpmic fofce to bring the intransigents to a sense of the actualities, should they attempt to carry out their threats, such an attempt is certaixi to bring about civil war within the JjpMerl of therFree State itselfi In'deed, it is pow, unhappily, by no mearis certain that" sucli Strife can be avoided, since the rebellibus armed forCe which dignifies itself b'y the name Irish Repuh'lican'Army 'jias apparen'tly enjoyed complete freedom under the'de" Valera Tegime. Statesmanship of the'very highes't order 011 the part! of Mr. Cosgraye and his followers'and the Labour group will be required if a disastrous'cbhflifet is'to'be aVoided and extreme patience will have to be exefcised ,by the British and D omihipn: Gover riments combined with an unniistakable firmness in def ence of the principles which are the f ouhdations of the Goinniohwealth -an(j- which! ino one member, large or small, l must be permitted selfiShly or with impetuous shortsightedness