To the Editor of the "Nomru-CmiwA Dany News"
Sm,—The leaderéíte entitled "Election Speech" in your issue of June 29 deals with Mr. de Valéra's comments on Anglo-Irish relations and expresses opinions which are certainty po less astonishing than Mr. de a's speech is to have been. But Irishmen, however incapable of thought; are not likely to be deluded by the specious arguments you advance, 3 I have not seen the full text of Mr, de Valera's speech, but, from the brief text of the Trans-ocean reb-sage, gather that Me was expressing dissatisfaction with certain aspects of the last Anglo-Irish settlement, if settlement it may be called. In doing so, he was merely expressing the thoughts of a great many of his fellow countrymén—I fail to see anything astonishing in this.
Your reference, to the land annuities is not à happy one. Apart from the dubious; origin of these payments, many Irishmen strongly object to their, payment at all, and many others—thisguided of course—look upon them in approximately the same way as, shall we say, a Frenchman regards the debts due to America.
You go on to refer to Ulster, but have apparently omitted to study the map of that province, otherwise you might have noticed that of the nine counties of Ulster, three (Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal) form part of Free State while in certain others—Fermahagh and Armagh for example—you might find it a trifle difficult to substantiate your statement that a majority of the "Northerners" (a native of Donegal is presumably a "Southerner" in your eyes) are bitterly averse to union with the rest of the country. Since you apparently uphold the right of this imaginary "Ulster" to decide its own destinies, it is hard to understand why the people of counties at present under the control of Belfast and in which a Catholic majority, or near majority, exists should be denied the same privilege. I see nothing astonishing in such a proposal and it was, in my opinion, definitely to this aspect of the matter that Mr. de Valera was quite rightly referring.
Allusion to the "coercion which would have been used only too short a time ago" certainly. sounds a little wistful, -but such allusions are really not worthy of the lucidity of thought which sometimes distinguishes your columns. I do not know whether the reference was intended to be a reminder of the past or a hint for the future, but in either case coercion in Ireland always has been and always will be met by unqualified resistance. In the meantime such remarks go a long way to justifying Mr. de Valera's belief that English denials of any desire to "dominate" Ireland should be accepted with reserve.
"My object is not, however, to indulge in stériJe argument but(to suggest to you that it is not in the best taste to convey to your readers that Mr. de Valera is ihe arch-villain of the piece: efforts of this kind are hopelessly misdirected and can only result in disgust'and exasperation.
When Mr. de Valera states, as he has repeatedly stated, that peace between England and Ireland can be based only on a real equality and mutual confidence, he is not "swaying the hearts of his Irish listeners to the exclusion of their brains" but siruply expressing the thoughts of a great many of his · countrymen—always provided that, your per= mission, Irishmen are able to think, ishmen do not enjoy a monopoly of the truth; nor is the voice of the British press necessarily the voice of God, even when it i? indulging in the pastime' of attempting to draw distinctions between a people and its government.
LATIN.
Tsingtao; July 1.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.