"N.-C.D.N." Criticized To the Editor of the "Moarh-Cung Dany News"
Sin,—Your leading article of January 18, entitled "London Conference, cannot pass without comment, The general tone and the arguments used expose you to a charge of bigotry ana many will discern beneath the surface of sweet reason a sense of irritation, not at subjects to be discussed in London, but at the mere existence of a separate government} in Ireland at all.
I have had occasion to comment at the habit you have adopted in your articles on the subject of politics in ireland of attempting to single out Mr, de Valera for special attack. it would appear that your object is to create in the minds of your reade: the impression that the matters at issue were raised by de Valera and. presumably, would not exist were he not in power, This absurd thesis is for example clearly indicated:
"He hopes by making suitable concessions over tne question of economic Ceneh. Whitehall to agree to ihe Union of Ireland and thereby bring about the complete state of Eire, which when he persuaded the Dail to accept the name, he stated was nis object."
The object stated by Mr. de Valera is not his alone: it is an ideal shared by Irishmen of every party. There is not a single political party in Ireland outside of the ranks of the Unionists who could abandon this ideal and retain any hope of survival. Should, therefore, it transpire that the statement you make is correct, there is nothing at all to wonder at, nor is there any justification for pointing at de Valera as the villain of the piece.
I do not wish to labour the point, but ihe persistent tactics of vilification directed against one individual cannot fail to arouse considerable mi: giving, especially when the strange manoeuvres of Reuters agency are contemplated as forming part of the same scheme. I refer, of course, to the curious interpretation placed b; that enlightened agency on the Irish rendering of the head of the state. Reuter does not hesitate to inform the world at large that this is equivalent to "Duce" or "Fuhrer" a stupid insinuation which can be best answered by reference to the last election figures and the composition of the present Dail. If it is merely a question of a name, what does King and Emperor of India mean?
The general meaning of your article can be summed up as conves-ing that the "mother country" (could you. possibly find a rore inapt name?) should make no concessions on the principle subject of the conference lest her soul should be endangered. Had I not known that the "North China Daily News" is printed in Shanghai, I should have thought that I heard the voice of Tokyo talking.
Even on the subject of imperial defence, on which point there is probably greater prospect of agreement than on any other subject, you appear to think that truculence will undoubtedly settle the matter. German and French readers of your article might even be misled into the belief that your arguments justify the planting of German and French garrisons respectively in Copenhagen and Antwerp, But then, logic never was an Anglo-Saxon card was it?
"Great Britain cannot abandon Northern Ireland:" but of course, Dublin can do so. A Catholic and French minority can exist peaceably as part of a great British Dominion, but for some reason we cannot fathom easily such a solution in Ireland is "impossible.
I suggest to you and to your readers that the difficulty lies not so much in the alleged "opportunism of de Valera as in the narrow minded bigotry that characterizes articles such as that to which I have referred above. Enclosing my card, etc.
Larix Tsingtao, Jan, 22.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.