AMERICA AND EIRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 November 1941, Page 6

AMERICA AND EIRE

INTERVENTION SUGGESTED. In his book “Ireland —Atlantic Gateway,” Mr J. Phelan deals vigorously With the Irish problem —and in parti-' cular that of the Irish' 1 ports which owing to Eire’s neutrality cannot be used by the British Navy. He suggests that America should take the initiative: — If Britain goes down, he writes, America north and south will have to fight for twenty years—if they last so long. Ireland is more important to America than Malta or Gibraltar to Britain. Malta could go, with a shrug of the shoulders, and the war be won just the same. Gibraltar can be made unhealthy—it only means taking the long way round. But Ireland is America’s doorstep, far out-ranking Guam and the Phillippines and Monolulu. Every cobblestone on Buncrana quay, every fathom of water in Cobh Harbour, is worth a million dollars to the America of today and tomorrow. Why cannot the American Government be given “carte blanche” to “interfere,” in a problem everyone knows they can solve within a few weeks, and which British departmental methods have made a festering sore in the otherwise healthy body of the West? Why not?