Mr. De Valera, the Sinn Fein leader, replied in a
speech at Tullamore on Monday to our article of last week on Conscription for Ireland. Our argument that firmness in enforcing the Draft would quickly yield as good results in Ireland as it yielded in the Northern States under Lincoln was, he said, the equivalent of " Don't hesitate to shoot." " We tell the Spectator that, thank God, we have men who know how to answer that back, and who can tell them that two can play at that game. . . . There was only one way to defeat Conscription. They had got to die but once, and it was better to die at home in Ireland than in Flanders by German guns or captured British ones." Mr. De Valera's threats will not affect the issue, nor will his rhetorical belligerency amount to anything when the Act is passed and enforced.
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