Nothing could more clearly reveal the loyalty of Northern Ireland to the cause of the democracies than the declaration of Mr. 3. M. Andrews, Prime Minister of Ulster, that "all that America wants to do in Northern Yreland she is at liberty to do. Anything that Great Britain and the United States arrange has the full approval of the North Ireland Government." In Eire the Deputy Leader of the Opposition in a debate in the Dail on Thursday declared that he believed that the policy of neutrality was the policy of the majority of the people and the Government, vet he believed it was not a correct course of conduct for Eire. He contended that Parliament should ascertain precisely what operation Great Britain and the United States might require to ensure success against the Nazi attempt at world conquest, and as explicity afford to the United States and Great Britain ce-operation to the utmost of their resources, including, of course, the sending of Irish troops abroad.
"The Leader of the Opposition, Mr. William Cosgrave, disassociated himself from the views expressed by his deputy, while Mr. de Valera repeated one of his very familiar remarks to the effect that Eire would fight no matter by whom it was attacked. Mr. de Valera appears still to believe that if he can maintain the neutrality of Eire in this present conflict he would be able to secure the independence of Eire in the unlikely event of Hitler winning while in the more probable event of British success independence was already assured. He denies the suggestion that his stand is a cowardly one, because if Eire is attacked at all it will be by one of the big nations of the world. "We have to face that," he says, "and we are prepared to face it. We are determined to live our own life." That Eire most certainly will not, should Hitler succeed in "clamping his murderous hand down permanently over Europe. All the determination in the world would not then give the people of Eire an opportunity of living their own lives. They would live them according to the whims of a completely irrational tyrant.
What Mr, de Valera fails to understand is that if democracy is worth having it is worth fighting for, and that in this struggle those who are not actively engaged in furthering the democratic cause are in fact its enemies. There can in this case be no compromise, no neutrality: there never can be in a struggle between the forces of good and evil. Refusal of the Government of Eire to place l and air bases at the disposal of the for the better protection of British shipping in the Atlantic places the navy and the air force under a very definite handicap. That has been repeatedly pointed out. It has also been pointed out that Eire sinks or swims with the British Empire, and the passivity which Mr, de Valera advocates is certainly not calculated to assist the Empire to swim. It will not help it to sink, but active cooperation with the democracies would tend %o assure their victory, and shorten the struggle which promises to be much longer than was originally anticipated.
The contrast between the attitudes adopted by Northern Ireland and Eire is all the more striking in view of the constant insistence by Mr. de Valera upon unification of the whole of Ireland. The British position all along is that it is impossible to hand over to Eire government of Northern Ireland which is inspired by entirely different sentiments with regard to the British Empire than is the case with Eire. It would indeed be a betrayal of people who are loyal to all that the United Kingdom and the Empire stand for, and it would be the basest ingratitude to hand over Northern Ireland to the tender mercies of people who can see no further than the end of their noses when it comes to considering what are the best interests of the Irish people ana how they can best be served. The Chances are that the cause of Eire will be sadly damaged in the eyes of public opinion in the United States where it will be increasingly understood that Mr, de Valera will ce-operate with no one except upon his terms and his terms alone.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.